My investigation “Destroyed” uncovered that police nationwide trashed rape kits – most never tested for DNA – in at least 400 sex crime cases before the statutes of limitations expired or when there was no time limit to prosecute. The destruction followed flawed and incomplete investigations and, in some cases, violated the law.

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Advocates for sexual assault survivors have long reported stories of hospitals turning away victims who are then forced to make hours-long trips in rural areas for treatment – if they make the trips at all. As a result, survivors and their efforts to seek criminal prosecution suffer.

While the physical and emotional toll of rape is enormous, so, too, are the financial costs. I spoke with survivors who, because of their attacks, lost days from work, or found themselves unable to work again. Some described how their rape led them to drop out of college, setting them back years in pursuing their education and delaying their entry into the workforce. Others had to relocate after being assaulted in their homes.

Victoria Sanford and other interviewers of war crime victims absorb what psychiatrists call secondary trauma. A better word, perhaps, is found in the Mayan culture. "Susto" is what the women Sanford was interviewing called it when they noticed her struggling. She had "fright sickness.”

This investigation began with a tip from a South Florida source that a Broward County school teacher who had been convicted of sexually molesting a seventh-grade student had convinced a judge to let him avoid going to prison. The sex offender then moved not far from his victim’s home. I uncovered that the judge erred in granting this arrangement – there had been no legal precedent for it -- and the Broward Sheriff’s Office, charged with monitoring the sex offender’s whereabouts, appeared to have no record of where he was at times.