Number of 'unfounded' rape cases surprises Mo. police

The Southeast Missourian spent 10 months investigating rape cases that police determined had never happened or were "unfounded." The National Sexual Violence Resource Center found that 3 to 8 percent of rape reports turn out to be unfounded. Missouri is on the high end at 8 percent. "Police departments in larger Missouri cities like Springfield and St. Louis reflected much lower numbers of unfounded rape cases than Cape Girardeau," the Southeast Missourian found. In Cape Girardeau, 51 percent of the 53 reported rape cases from 2006-2008 were unfounded.

Fifty-three women have reported rapes in the last three years to Cape Girardeau police.

Police investigators determined that just over half of those rapes were "unfounded" or that they never occurred. That number is six times higher than what is reported across the state, according to the highway patrol.

Rape is one of the most difficult crimes to investigate. The evidence often boils down to one person's word against another's, making rapes difficult to prove in court.

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Newspaper under fire for story based on police report

Although newspapers have a "fair report privilege" ensuring their liable for printing potentially false information they obtained from police reports, a Houston lawyer says an Arkansas newspaper did not proceed responsibly in this case, the AP reported. The article in question centers around a woman who reported that she had been raped at Ryan Whiteside's house. Whiteside had been connected with the high-profile murder case of an Arkansas beauty queen in 2005. The Arkansas Supreme Court will hear his case against The Courier newspaper, which ran a front-page story on the rape accusation, which was later dismissed.

The slaying of an Arkansas beauty queen still dominated talk around Russellville when an 18-year-old woman told police she had been raped at the home of one of the men who discovered the murder victim's body.

The woman said she didn't remember everything that happened at Ryan Whiteside's house, but was sure she awoke next to Kevin Jones, who later was acquitted in Nona Dirksmeyer's death.

Arkansas State Police troopers investigated and dismissed the woman's allegations — a fact not disclosed until after the local newspaper ran a Page One story detailing the accusations against two men already involved in the high-profile murder case.

More here.