After Her Own Rape Kit Languished, She Took Action

Advocate Natasha Alexenko has died at age 51
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Nov 14, 2024 6:47 AM CST
After Her Own Rape Case Languished, She Took Action
This Feb. 8, 2017, file photo, sexual assault evidence collection kits are shown during committee meeting at the Utah State Capitol, in Salt Lake City.   (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

Natasha Alexenko survived one night of horror and a decade of inaction—two experiences that turned her into "a powerful advocate for ending the national backlog of rape-kit testing," reports the New York Times in her obituary. Alexenko died Oct. 31 at age 51 from complications of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and multiple sclerosis, her husband tells the paper. The Times recounts how, as a 20-year-old studying filmmaking at the New York Institute of Technology, she was robbed, sodomized, and raped by an armed man in her apartment stairwell. That was Aug. 6, 1993; the kit was not tested for nearly a decade—a fact that bewildered her.

Indeed, the Times shares these lines from Alexenko's 2018 book, A Survivor's Journey: From Victim to Advocate: "While the medical examiner poked, prodded, combed, snipped, and scrutinized my genitalia for clues to my abductor, I assumed my rape kit would be tested immediately. Why else would I endure such a painful, invasive, and embarrassing exam?" A "John Doe indictment" was ultimately created using the DNA, and in 2008, Victor Rondon was convicted and sentenced to 44 to 107 years in prison. Three years later, Alexenko started Natasha's Justice Project, which sought to draw attention to the rape-kit backlog problem.

Mark Murray tells Newsday he helped Alexenko with the legal requirements to get the organization off the ground. "At the time she was a lone voice in the woods, but more and more organizations came to the same conclusion. I think that was due to her diligence and advocacy," he said. Her work took her before Congress and helped see a number of laws passed, including ones in California and Virginia, to eliminate the backlog. (More obituary stories.)

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