The lawyer for a woman alleging she was sexually assaulted by Chicago Blackhawks forward Patrick Kane said Wednesday that an empty evidence bag was improperly left in the doorway of the woman's mother's home.

Thomas Eoannou said the bag at one point contained the rape kit used when the woman reported that she had been assaulted.

"Something seriously has gone amiss," Eoannou said.

Eoannou said the mother made the discovery when she came home from work for lunch on Tuesday afternoon. She found the bag folded up between a storm door and her front door, he said.

"It could have been there a day and a half," he said, because the woman used the back door when she left for work that morning.

He said the bag is authentic, labeled with personal identifying information for the woman, details on where the rape kit was used and the initials of the nurses who administered the kit.

"I have never seen an evidence bag outside of a police lab, a prosecutor's office or a courtroom, let alone find one in a doorway of a rape victim's mother's home," he said.

Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita did not immediately return a message seeking comment from The Associated Press.

The Hamburg (New York) Police Department, which has been conducting the investigation, released a statement later Wednesday on its Facebook page, saying that its handling of the evidence has been "unassailable."

"In regard to the information conveyed today by Mr. Thomas Eoannou, the Hamburg Police Department will cooperate with any authorized investigation regarding the handling of evidence and the procedure of such," the statement said. "That said, The Hamburg Police Department has documentation that unequivocally demonstrates that its handling of the evidence and the integrity of its chain of custody of evidence in this case is unassailable. As is policy with active investigations, there will be no further comment regarding this situation."

Eoannou said he wants the FBI or state police to probe how the bag left the custody of investigators. It's not clear how the bag got to the mother's home or what effect it could have on the investigation, he said.

"We're hoping to find out how this happened and who had the incentive to modify or tamper with the evidence," he said. Eoannou said he hoped the person who delivered the bag would come forward.

Police have been investigating since the alleged Aug. 2 incident at Kane's offseason home in suburban Buffalo. Kane has not been charged.

Kane's attorney, Paul Cambria, declined comment earlier in the day when asked about Eoannou's decision to hold a news conference.

Kane did not travel to Detroit with the rest of his team for Wednesday's Blackhawks game against the Red Wings, a person familiar with the situation told The Associated Press. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because Kane's travel plans were not publicly announced.

NHL deputy commissioner Bill Daly also released a statement Wednesday, saying "I don't think today's developments really have any direct impact on Kane's status from the League's standpoint."

The prosecutor overseeing the sexual assault investigation of Chicago Blackhawks star Patrick Kane says the accuser's mother lied about finding an evidence bag in her doorway.

Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita said during a news conference Friday that the mother was given the bag at a hospital when her daughter was examined but that it never contained a rape kit.

Sedita said the mother was given the bag when the examining nurse learned that the accuser changed her top before going to the hospital. He said the mother was to put the top in the bag and turn it into authorities but never did.

Thomas Eoannou, the woman's former attorney, abruptly quit the case Thursday night, saying he didn't believe the story about how the bag was found.

Kane has been accused of sexually assaulting a woman in her 20s at his waterfront mansion outside Buffalo on Aug. 2. He has not been charged.

"The question in my mind is not when this case will go to a grand jury, it's if this will go to a grand jury," Sedita said.