ATLANTA -- The Georgia Bureau of Investigation confirms the number of untested rape kits in Georgia has grown to nearly 3,500.
A new state law requires all rape kits to be sent to the state's crime lab by the end of the month.
The kits contain forensic evidence from rape, sexual battery and other crimes --- evidence that has never been sent to crime labs for testing.
In July 2015 as part of a joint Tegna-USA Today investigation, 11Alive reported how the GBI had a backlog of about 270 untested kits. Months later, in September of 2015, the GBI was awarded nearly $2 million to eliminate the backlog of untested rape kits.
That investigation helped persuade state leaders to get the hundreds of backlogged rape kits tested. On the final day of the 2016 legislative session in March, a rape kit bill headed back to the Senate chamber for a vote, after the House moved the legislation to a different bill already passed in the Senate.
It passed with bipartisan support, and now the GBI said they've received 3,500 rape kits from local law enforcement agencies.
Rep. Scott Holcomb (D.) acknowledged that the system was broken and said the new law was a necessity. Now, victims of these crimes will get the thorough and complete investigations he said are long-due.
"The law is very much working, and for the critics of the law, it's clear that they were wrong," he told 11Alive's Kaitlyn Ross.
Last month, the GBI said that the first shipment of untested kits had been sent out for testing.
The GBI confirms it currently has received 2,400 of the kits -- and expects more than 1,000 more by the August 31 deadline.
But despite the new laws in place, Holcomb said it's likely the number of untested kits far exceeds 3,500.
"The number is much greater than that. Those are the ones we have been able to identify because of this push to move them off of the shelves," he said. "The most shocking part has been the numbers. It is astounding how much it happens."
Some of the kits the GBI is testing are from years ago, and as matches start to come back, Holcomb said they have to figure out how to best support the survivors.
"One of the toughest things we're trying to figure out is how to inform someone who may have been raped years ago, and had given up hope on the criminal justice system," he said.
Holcomb expects with the GBI's federal grant to cover the cost of testing the kits, every single one of them will be run.
"If we can help bring justice to some of these victims, then we've really done a good thing," he said.
Holcomb said it will take months to test all of the kits, but they already have matches in the system and prosecutors are getting ready to move forward with cases.