Page 31 - Rape Kit News Today

Complex when a man grabbed her and forced her back into her car. he then pulled the car around beside a dumpster and spent the next three and a half hours raping her. >> if i screamed or cried, he threatened me that he would kill me. >> reporter: when it was over, carol drove herself to the hospital, where doctors took swabs from her skin, hairs and fibers from her clothes. all part of whats called a rape kit. it was humiliating but carol endured it because she thought the material collected wou...

>> weve solved well over 80 cases from the early 80s and early 90s. >> reporter: from the rape kits. >> from the rape kits. >> reporter: carols case was one of them. just four months, four months after carols kit was located and analyzed, the man who raped her was identified. but adding insult to injury, joseph houston couldnt be charged in carols case because the statute of limitations had run out. it turns out after carols rape, he kidnapped another woman and exposed himself to a child. carol ...

Appropriate excuses. some people say that its budgetary, others says the science hasnt caught up. i have to tell you as someone who has tried rape cases without this vital evidence, its inexcusable this kind of thing still happens in our country today. it is so very difficult for women who have been sexually assaulted to put themselves through the process of getting a rape kit examination done. its very, very intrusive. its very difficult for them to go forward and after they go forward and get ...

Life. she was only 24. did you think you were going to die that night? >> i did think i was going to die that night. i believed he was going to kill me. >> reporter: it was around 1:30 in the morning. carol was returning home from a night out with friends. she was just feet from her door here in this dallas apartment complex when a man grabbed her and forced her back into her car. he then pulled the car around beside a dumpster and spent the next three and a half hours raping her. >> if i scream...

Dating back to 1970. not a single one had ever been processed. the sergeant says decades ago, law enforcement just didnt have the tools to solve these cases. dna technology wasnt available to them until the 1990s. >> weve solved well over 80 cases from the early 80s and early 90s. >> reporter: from the rape kits. >> from the rape kits. >> reporter: carols case was one of them. just four months, four months after carols kit was located and analyzed, the man who raped her was identified. but addin...

He asked them to test every single untested swab sitting in their freezer. there were thousands of them dating back to 1970. not a single one had ever been processed. the sergeant says decades ago law enforcement just didnt have the tools to solve these cases. dna technology wasnt available to them until the 1990s. >> we solved well over 80 cases from the early 80s and 90s. >> reporter: from the rape kits. >> from the rape kits. >> reporter: and carols case was one of them. just four months, fou...

Threatened me that he would kill me. >> reporter: when it was over, carol drove herself to the hospital, where doctors took swabs from her skin, hairs and fibers from her clothes. all part of whats called a rape kit. it was humiliating but carol endured it because she thought the material collected would help police catch her attacker. more than two decades later, carols rapist still hadnt been identified. but a routine call in 2008 to check in on the case revealed something shocking. carols att...

What happened to me i was a jet mechanics on f-15s. i was one of three females in my squadron. i was walked to my room using the buddy system like the military, you know, tells us to do. my rapist who i worked with broke in through my bathroom, raped me and while i was getting a rape kit the female next door reported it which opened the investigation. right out of coming out of the hospital i was taken to an investigator for eight hours and the investigation continued for a year. well jag recomm...

>> what i saw was a very scared, terrorized girl. thats what i saw. someone that had immediately put up her defenses because heres a situation that maybe she had a little bit of control over. >> it was just a nightmare. the hospital got angry because shauna wouldnt let them do a rape kit at first. she would have if they would have let me in the room or my mom in the room. for christ sake the girl didnt realize she was safe. she thought she was still with these people. i kept telling them, if you...

In kansas, eddie lowery and his lawyers are trying to locate forensic evidence that could prove his innocence. but 20 years have passed since the crime, and the police department says the evidence has been thrown away. county officials have searched through drawers, files, boxes to no avail. then barry clark, one of lowerys lawyers, asks the riley county clerk to search one more time. >> and being the great lady she is, she said, sure. and she scrounged around the courthouse. >> a few days later...