Now the Erie PD are saying they have everything still, including the original packaging.
Sent from my Texas Instrument Calculator
Try this on for size as a hypothetical:
When the rape kit is sealed, it's put in a sealed bag, for chain of custody and whatnot. It's opened for testing, and after testing they probably put it in a new bag.
It baffles me as to why the old bag wouldn't have been put in the new one in some form to maintainn chain of custody, but assuming the bad was thrown out (intent to be destroyed not withstanding) and intercepted by whoever, it could explain it "getting into the wild" without actually compromising anything.
Again, 38.7 metric shit-tonnes of possible ways and whys of how it could have gone down; the only common thread is to chum the water.