That’s because investigators are sending evidence in batches to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement’s labs, which, as it is, are swamped with hundreds of backlogged cases.

“We have sent evidence to two labs, Tampa and Miami, to try to hurry things up,” said North Port Police Capt. Robert Estrada. “Some of the results have come back, but we still have a few batches of evidence to send out. It could take several months before we have it all processed.”

Workers at the Tampa lab said they can handle 220 to 250 cases a month. The lab receives a similar number of requests each month, but it has a backlog of 880 cases, said FDLE spokeswoman Kristen Perezluha.

In 6-year-old Coralrose Fullwood’s case, analysts have been assigned to that murder investigation and nothing else because it’s a high priority, said Tampa FDLE regional operation center spokeswoman Trena Reddick.

That said, sending all evidence at once could overwhelm those analysts, Reddick said, adding that the most important evidence in the Coralrose case is being processed first. For example, a piece of evidence with a large DNA sample takes precedence over one that may not yield anything.

If there were no backlog, more analysts could be designated to work on high priority cases, processing evidence more quickly, according to Fort Myers FDLE spokesman Larry Long.

Once enough evidence is collected in the Bryan Dos Santos Gomes abduction case, it will also be designated as high priority and evidence will be rushed. However, authorities are not yet that far along with the case, Long said.

In the Coralrose case, some of the evidence also is being processed by the U.S. Secret Service, Estrada said, while the rest was sent to the FDLE regional operation center in Tampa.

Coralrose’s father, Dale Fullwood, was arrested on Oct. 11 when authorities found pornographic images of children on his computer. Estrada said Secret Service is processing the computer evidence.

Dale Fullwood was released from the Sarasota County Jail on Thursday after his bail was once again reduced. Originally set at $50,000, it was reduced to $10,000 and eventually down to $2,000.

Estrada said authorities still have several batches of evidence from the Coralrose case to send out to FDLE. Each batch could take several weeks to process before being returned to the North Port Police Department.

“As it comes through the door, it is being processed,” Reddick said. “Everything else is put aside, but it does take time to go through the evidence.”

Coralrose’s body was found in a wooded area a few blocks from her home on Sept. 17. An autopsy revealed she was beaten to death.

Following her death, Coralrose’s siblings were removed from their home by the Department of Children and Families, who granted temporary shelter to their maternal grandparents in south Fort Myers.

The family had lived in Cape Coral until two months before Coralrose’s murder.

Two weeks ago, separate attorneys were appointed to Coralrose’s parents for their dependency case.

Estrada said authorities are sending items such as Coralrose’s blankets and clothing found around her body to the labs and have continued to interview people about the girl’s death.

The FDLE processes everything from DNA to drug chemistry for law enforcement agencies statewide for free. The department is also charged with entering the DNA of convicted criminals into a database and searching for crime matches.

Official protocol does not specify that evidence should be turned over in small batches, but it is an understood policy, according to Fort Myers’ FDLE lab director Mike Rafferty.

He said police departments know that sending large amounts of evidence could overwhelm analysts and leave evidence sitting in the lab for long periods of time.

Rafferty said authorities are in the process of re-writing FDLE protocol statewide to cut down on backlogs by reducing the number and types of cases that will be processed.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement provides services to prevent, investigate and solve crimes. Statewide, the organization employs nearly 2,000 members who work at the department’s seven regional operations centers, 15 field offices and seven crime laboratories.

The Fort Myers lab processes latent and drug chemistry evidence for 10 counties from Sarasota to Monroe. Rafferty said the chemistry lab in Fort Myers has a backlog of 1,717 cases. Six chemists work in the Fort Myers lab. The funding for the lab comes from the state, as well as from grants and other funding sources.

“We get 650 cases a month. It boils down to the math, and the math isn’t adding up,” Rafferty said. “We can do about 450 a month.”

Although most cases take about one to two days to process, Rafferty said the backlog means most departments are waiting 70 to 90 days for drug evidence to be returned.

Law enforcement agencies that want faster turnaround time have two options.

In high profile crimes, they can ask for expedited processing, or they can pay a private lab.

The Lee County Sheriff’s Office sent DNA evidence to an Ohio lab after the Dec. 27 slaying of Steven and Michelle Andrews in their Gateway home.

“We want this over as soon as possible,” Sheriff Mike Scott said at the time.

It still took several months to process the evidence.

Authorities said they sometimes contemplate hiring outside labs if it appears evidence will be processed quicker and there is public fear about repeated crimes.

Fort Myers Police Sgt. Mike Carr said officials contemplated hiring a private lab after a string a rapes last year, but the agency found it cost prohibitive.

“It had a $4,800 price tag,” he said, noting that it would have been a waste of money because the DNA sample did not match the department’s suspect.

Despite lengthy wait times, Carr said the services provided by the FDLE labs are invaluable.

“It’s just the nature of the beast,” he said.