Survivors share stories, struggle with CBI investigation delays

The survivors of sexual aggression shared stories in the state chapter at a town hall, on Monday, who rotated around the delayed DNA fee to be resulting in cases of sexual aggression. Currently, it takes a year and a half or longer for the Colorado Investigation Bureau to process samples in cases of sexual assault.

“You feel more and more powerless every week, you feel less and less than a man,” said Miranda Spencer, who waited two years for the results of her sexual assault kit.

“When my estimated processing time came and left, I spent weeks to start straw trying to make someone listen to me,” she said.

The City Hall was hosted by Colorado coalition against sexual aggression. Nina Petrovik described the process of going to the hospital after the 2020 sexual assault to obtain a complete medical examination and made the medical staff collect DNA evidence.

“This was probably one of the lonest experiences I have ever had in my life,” she said, adding that the nurses had to inspect everything. “He felt so humiliating for me, without having anyone to call.”

Petrovik’s results lasted nine months to process than the 90 -day state guide.

Two parliamentarians, a man and a woman, leaned forward listening to a woman confess. The woman holds papers and speaks in a microphone. — Senator Mike Weissman, Dervada, and Rep. Jenny Willford, D-Northglenn, listens to the testimony of the survivor during a mayor on the delay of the sexual aggression kit on the state chapter of March 3, 2025.

“We do not meet our expectations and we do not meet ours,” said the survivors and parliamentarians, the director of the Colorado Investigation Bureau. Schaefer, who was according to two years, announced the retirement just hours after the town hall. He said he always intends to retire to his 30 -year anniversary with the organization and did not ask to leave.

“In fact, I received nothing but support from my colleagues with the public security department,” he said in a written statement announcing his departure. He said his office is employed to remedy the delay.

CBI officials told the parliamentarians and survivors that they will have all the 1,407 current cases processed by the end of the calendar year. The goal that will go forward is that new cases are processed in 90 days.

“That 90 days is not a final point, this is the target,” said the deputy director of the CBI, Lance Allen. “And when we get there, we will continue to work to descend.”

The controller appeared in a very public way in January 2025, during a common hearing of the judicial commissions of the Chamber and the Senate. CBI officials have confessed that the long waiting time has been doubled in the last year, partly because of the former CBI forensic scientist, Yvonne “Missy” Woods, would have manipulated more than a thousand DNA test results. Woods is experiencing over 100 criminal charges.

Three formally dressed people are in a hearing room. The man in the center is Chris Schaefer. He is dressed in a suit, speaking in the microphone. — The director of the Investigation Bureau of Colorado, Chris Schaefer, who withdraws in May, answers questions during a delay of the sexual aggression kit. “For victims and survivors of sexual aggression, your 500-day delay experience for DNA testing is unacceptable,” he said during opening observations.

Director Schaefer told the parliamentarians that the Woods situation took half of the CBI DNA scientists in the commission while reviewing its cases, leaving new cases to accumulate. The hearing shocked parliamentarians on both sides.

Democratic Senator Mike Weissman in Aurora works on legislation and policies to provide more money to outsource kits and to require more transparency and responsibility. CBI already offers monthly progress reports to parliamentarians and has launched a public status on their site.

“The people who knew about this are survivors affected at the individual level who will check” where is my case? “, Weissman told CPR News. “And they are told, wait, wait, wait, wait. In four and 500 days, in some cases. What happened here is that at least now there is awareness how bad this problem is. “

He said he was open to almost anything to speed up the process for victims.

“We use terminology such as kits and transformation here and discussions at the policy level,” said Weissman. “But the reality is that, behind each of them is a human being who suffered something terrible and we want to help justice to be done as a result of this.”

Democratic representative Jenny Willford also kept the problem in the foreground and raised the impact that the delayed DNA results hold on the victims. Willford said she was sexually assaulted by a Lyft driver in Thornton a year ago and is still waiting for the CBI DNA analysis.