In a remarkable turn of events, an anonymous donor known only as ‘Batman’ gifted $52,500 to a GoFundMe campaign aimed at tackling Colorado’s significant backlog of sexual assault kits. This generous contribution came just weeks after the donor learned about the fundraiser from a feature in the Denver Post.
Kelsey Harbert, a co-organizer of the GoFundMe and a sexual assault survivor herself, expressed her astonishment at the donation. “We got contacted by a mystery person online, and he was like, ‘As long as I can be anonymous, I’d like to donate,’” she stated.
The issue of untested sexual assault kits has been a pressing concern for survivors in Colorado. Harbert was first made aware of the backlog last summer by a friend—a fellow survivor—who had been waiting over 400 days for the results of her rape kit. This prompted Harbert and her friend to raise the alarm at a Joint Budget Committee meeting where they conveyed the urgency of addressing the lengthy wait times. Survivors are not just left in limbo emotionally and mentally; delayed results can significantly prolong prosecution, as attorneys often depend on this crucial evidence to build their cases.
A report by the Common Sense Institute emphasized the gravity of the situation, indicating that resolving the backlog could lead to as many as 200 convictions. “These people have been waiting, some of them, over a year, for answers,” Harbert pointed out. “Some of them are children with families who are also waiting for those answers. This is completely insane and inhumane.”
Recent revelations from the Colorado Bureau of Investigation (CBI) highlighted that the average turnaround time for a sexual assault kit stands at over 500 days. The CBI attributed the backlog to staff shortages in 2022, a situation aggravated by the Missy Woods scandal that emerged in late 2023. Processing one rape kit typically costs around $2,000.
Initially, Harbert sought to combat the backlog by working with the CBI through legislative means. However, when these efforts to secure full funding and enhance oversight for the bureau did not yield results, she and another survivor, Angelique Perrin, decided to seek assistance directly from the public.
On March 24, they launched their GoFundMe campaign titled “Tell Governor Polis to Clear Colorado’s Rape Kit Backlog!” “We were doing it more so to just make a point at the time,” Harbert reflected. Although they faced pressure from some legislators to shut down the campaign, it unexpectedly gained momentum.
By the end of June, the fundraiser had accumulated over $10,000. Harbert subsequently wired $6,000 of those funds directly to the CBI for processing the backlog—an action that garnered media attention and ultimately caught the eye of the anonymous philanthropist.
The donor’s initial communication did not specify the amount he wished to contribute, but the unexpected check for $52,500 arrived on July 10, leaving Harbert in disbelief. “I thought the decimal was in the wrong place,” she recalled.
Instead of giving the funds to the CBI—which could manage to clear roughly 26 kits with that amount—Harbert has decided to redirect the donation to the Denver Crime Lab, which has around 100 kits from the CBI, including some of the oldest kits dating back to March 2024. The Denver Crime Lab can process these kits for about $1,000 each, meaning that Batman’s donation could potentially clear around 52 kits.
Determined to see the mission through, Harbert plans to keep the GoFundMe campaign alive until all rape kits in the backlog are fully funded. “The whole thing was born out of a frustration with the system, and the politics, and protecting this system that has been in place for decades that has let survivors down in our state every single time,” she concluded.
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