By Lori Sturgill
In the early 1970s, Chicago was grappling with a staggering truth: more than 16,000 women were raped each year, yet only a fraction of these assaults were ever reported—and even fewer led to justice. Survivors were often met with skepticism, shame, and a broken system that failed to collect or preserve the evidence that could prove their trauma.
But one woman dared to ask: What if we could prove it?
Her name was Martha “Marty” Goddard. And although most people have never heard of her, she’s the reason modern forensic evidence for sexual assault exists.
Martha 'Marty' Goddard
Goddard wasn’t a scientist, a lawyer, or a police officer — she was an advocate. While working on a crisis hotline for runaway teens in Chicago, she repeatedly heard stories of sexual abuse that had gone unreported and unpunished. As she listened, a disturbing truth emerged: victims were being failed by every part of the system, especially when it came to collecting evidence.
In an era when even saying the word rape was taboo, Goddard began asking radical questions: What if sexual assault could be investigated like any other crime? What if a survivor’s voice could be backed up with hard science?
She started interviewing survivors, nurses, doctors, attorneys, and law enforcement —anyone who could help her design a standardized way to collect forensic evidence in the aftermath of rape.
Goddard brought her idea to Louis Vitullo, a forensic expert at the Chicago police crime lab. According to her colleagues, he initially dismissed her. But eventually, he helped transform her vision into a usable tool. It became known as the “Vitullo Evidence Collection Kit.”
An early example of a kit for collecting evidence of sexual assault. (Courtesy of National Museum of American History)
Chicago police officer Louis Vitullo, who made the first prototype of a rape kit and for years was given credit with coming up with the idea.
Goddard chose not to argue over credit. She focused on what mattered: getting it into the hands of those who needed it.
She founded the Citizens Committee for Victim Assistance and began advocating for the use of these kits. To fund the project, she turned to an unlikely ally: the Playboy Foundation, which provided financial support to help distribute the kits to hospitals across Illinois.
By 1978, her kits were in 25 hospitals as part of a pilot program. A year later, nearly 3,000 kits were being sent to crime labs nationwide.
Marty Goddard died in 2015, having lived much of her later life in obscurity. She struggled with alcoholism and never received widespread recognition for her idea. But that is changing. Author Pagan Kennedy has written about Goddard's work in "The Secret History of the Rape Kit." Magazines and podcasts also have called attention to Goddard.
Her vision — that sexual assault should be taken seriously, documented properly, and prosecuted with care — was a radical act of advocacy that reshaped how we pursue justice today.
One of the original rape kits based on Goddard’s early design now resides in the Smithsonian Institution, a powerful reminder of how one woman’s determination changed forensic history. Her name may not be well-known, but her impact echoes in every survivor’s fight for justice.
Antionnette Janson, assistant director of the Texas A&M University Center of Excellence in Forensic Nursing, prepares a sexual assault evidence collection kit. (Photo courtesy of Defense Visual Information Distribution Service.)
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Lori Sturgill is a communications manager at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.