Mariska Hargitay’s crime-solving efforts have gone off-screen. In NBC’s “Law & Order: SVU,” the actor plays Olivia Benson, a detective investigating sex-related crimes in Manhattan. But in recent years, she’s also played a critical role in helping to eliminate the national rape kit backlog, a Thursday episode of the “Dateline: True Crime Weekly” podcast reveals.
The podcast tells the story of Detroit prosecutor Kym Worthy, who in 2009 discovered over 11,000 untested rape kits collecting dust in a police evidence room. Each kit represented a sexual assault reported to the Detroit Police Department between 1984 and 2009, podcast host Andrea Canning said. Worthy, who was horrified by the police’s dismissal of what was “basically a crime scene,” made it her “mission” to get the kits tested.
But with each test priced anywhere from $1,200 to $1,500, “we’re looking at millions and millions of dollars,” Worthy said. She began a campaign to raise the money to get the kits tested — but it wasn’t enough. That’s when Hargitay stepped in.
The Emmy Award-winning actor, who for years had supported survivors of sexual assault through her nonprofit Joyful Heart Foundation , testified with Worthy before Congress in 2017 on national rape kit reform. “After we were finished testifying, I kind of grabbed her and asked her to come to Detroit to help us,” Worthy said on the podcast. “She said she would, and she did.
” “We had a breakfast where we invited.