Rape Victim Vows: 'We're Not Going Away'

Feb. 12, 2009 — -- It is a harrowing story.

"I was raped when I was 12 years old," said a Texas woman who asked that her name not be used. "The man broke into our house, and beat me and raped me at knifepoint while my parents slept in the room next to mine."

So ended her childhood, and 25 years later, she still wrestles with the trauma of that horrific night.

Police investigated but the case went cold, until 2001 when her attacker was finally identified, thanks to DNA evidence. But he couldn't be prosecuted because the statute of limitations had expired.

Though it's too late to apply to this crime, victims' advocates want the 14 states that still have a statute of limitations for rape to change their laws.

"I remember looking out into the hallway and seeing somebody walking up the stairs and I remember he said to me, 'Take off your shirt.' And I fell to the floor," the Texas woman said. "Out of fear, it's like my body just stopped working. I remember that I fell back onto the stuffed animals and I was clutching my stuffed animals."

She described her attacker to police as a black man with a gap in his front teeth. She also told police he tied her up, robbed her house and stole the family car. The sound of it stalling in the driveway woke her parents.

At the hospital the 12-year-old was so traumatized, she had to be sedated before physical evidence could be collected. Police investigated, but in a time before DNA testing, the case went cold.

"And all these years, it's like, wonder, wonder, wonder. Is he in prison? Is he alive? Is he dead?" the victim said. "And really, truly after about 25 years, you begin to feel like you don't matter. Like you have been forgotten about."

But the 1983 case was not forgotten. While investigating another crime in 2001, a cold case detective discovered that the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences had been saving rape kits since 1981 -- preserved evidence could be examined with modern-day technology.

"No matter how old it is, they deserve everything that we got to give to solve their cases," said Sgt. Patrick Welsh, the head of the Dallas Police Department's sexual assault cold case program.

Using DNA, Welsh's team said they identified her alleged rapist as Dewayne Douglas Willis. Now 47, he's been in and out of prison for a string of burglaries.

"It's healing, you know, they have healed a hole in a little girl's heart. They have told her that she matters, and for that, I'm forever grateful," the Texas victim said.