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How did you feel about the fact that your kit had been sitting on the shelf for so many years? >> they have just let them stack up and stack up and stack up, and that's just unacceptable. >> reporter: you heard right. carol wasn't the only one. years earlier, dallas police sergeant patrick welsh discovered a huge backlog of rape kits, and started a sexual assault cold case program. how critical would you say the rape kits are in helping you solve these cases? >> they're vital to our investigations, no question about that. >> reporter: sergeant welsh turned to the team here at the southwestern ...

Never been processed. how did you feel about the fact that your kit had been sitting on the shelf for so many years? >> they have just let them stack up and stack up and stack up, and that's just unacceptable. >> reporter: you heard right. carol wasn't the only one. years earlier, dallas police sergeant patrick welsh discovered a huge backlog of rape kits, and started a sexual assault cold case program. how critical would you say the rape kits are in helping you solve these cases? >> they're vital to our investigations, no question about that. >> reporter: sergeant welsh turned to the team her...

Up, stack up, and stack up. that's just unacceptable. >> reporter: you heard right. carol wasn't the only one. years earlier, dallas police sergeant patrick welsh discovered a huge backlog of rape kits and started a sexual assault cold case program. how critical would you say the rape kits are in helping you solve these cases? >> they're vital to our investigations, no question about that. >> reporter: sergeant welsh turned to the team here at the southwestern institute of forensic science. he asked them to test every single untested swab sitting in their freezer. there were thousands of them ...

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 what's 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, carol's rapist still hadn't been identified. but a routine call in 2008 to check in on the case revealed something shocking. carol's attacker was still on the loose because police had not exhausted every lead. he was still out there...

Year and the threats that are being posed to the united states from all over the world, where does this stack up in the priority? and how do we strategize appropriately? >> well, in terms of of boots on the ground, jenna, it's number one. remember, this is where the war on terror started. the taliban is still an active force, they still have enclaves in waziristan and pakistan. right next door is iran who doesn't seek to do us any favors. so if there's any one place where the united states can get the maximum effect from the minimum footprint in today's environment, it's afghanistan. jenna: it...