According to national statistics, 1 in 6 women have faced rape in their lifetime. Another troubling fact: 98 percent of their attackers will never spend one day in jail or prison.
Meanwhile, evidence sits in police labs and storage rooms across the country gathering dust.
Overwhelmed crime labs, lack of funds, and a reluctance to believe rape victims have all contributed to this nationwide problem that's left thousands of untested rape kits in its wake.
In 2011, the state of Ohio had almost 10,000 untested kits. In response to the situation, Ohio Attorney General Mike Dewine pledged to test all the kits, a decision that generated action.
"We owed it to these rape victims to test these [kits]," Attorney General Mike DeWine said.
By May, close to 80 percent of the untested kits had been analyzed. The results showed more than 2,700 DNA matches resulting in 300 arrests and 79 convictions.
On average, each person matched has been linked to 10 crimes and almost 30 percent are serial rapists.
Dwayne Wilson is one of the predators discovered in the testing. Serving time for another charge, he was just 23 days away from freedom when a DNA test linked him to a sexual crime spree nearly two decades ago.
Twenty years earlier, Wilson had viciously raped multiple women, including minors, often while holding a knife to his victim's throat.
Prosecutor Mary Weston says finally testing the rape kits connected Wilson to the assaults.
"It is the only reason that we caught Dwayne Wilson for these crimes," Weston said.
Lisa Bridget's attacker, Andrew Gedson, lived freely for years.
"After I was raped, I was broken," Bridget said. "That man broke me. And it took years and years and years for God to fix me."
Two decades later, results from of her long-neglected kit led to Gedson's conviction.
Today, there's renewed hope that more victims will see justice done.
Last year, Congress approved $41 million to help process the thousands of neglected rape kits across the country.
Each kit holds the potential to bring long-awaited closure for victims like Lisa and many others.
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