Mariska Hargitay, known for her role as Olivia Benson on Law & Order: SVU, joined forces with prosecutor Kym Worthy of Michigan’s Wayne County to address a staggering backlog of over 11,000 untested rape kits. “She made it her mission to get all of them tested,” NBC News journalist Andrea Canning explained on Today while promoting her new Dateline True Crime Weekly podcast. But testing requires money, and that’s where Hargitay was able to help. “She helped them raise the money to get this done, and it’s having a ripple effect across the country. It’s making changes everywhere — for police departments, for prosecutors’ offices,” Canning said. “So hats off to Kym Worthy…. She deserves the biggest pat on the back for this. Thousands of cases were solved. They found 22 serial rapists among these kits.” (EW)
