VANCOUVER Wash. (KPTV) - In a moment Washington state officials say has been a long time coming, the state’s crime lab in Vancouver is declaring its sexual assault kit testing backlog “essentially eliminated.” Over the past decade, the lab has tested more than 30,000 kits.

One survivor said the moment is meaningful, and that getting kits tested and cases prosecuted makes the entire community safer.

“That person can’t hurt anyone else and it gives you a little power back,” said Eryn Hastay.

A survivor of sexual assault, Hastay said she now finds some relief in knowing the man who assaulted her is behind bars. However, it took 290 days to get her sexual assault kit tested, and two-and-a-half years for the case to be prosecuted.

“He lived less than two miles away from me the entire time,” Hastay said. “I couldn’t go out to the grocery store without being paranoid that I was going to run into him, getting gas…he was so close.”

For years, Hastay wasn’t alone. In 2015, the state began taking inventory of every untested rape kit. Combined with kits that came in during the process, Washington was left with a 30,000-kit backlog.

“This is a horrible life to live and no one should have to live like that,” said Monica Alexander, executive director of the state’s Criminal Justice Training Commission, of survivors left without answers. “We, that can do something about it, should do something about it.”

She said what motivated her is remembering the kits are more than just numbers.

“Each of those kits is a survivor whose voice was never heard, who didn’t have a path to justice, and left a lot of predators in the community to re-offend,” said District 33 Representative Tina Orwall.

Orwall and Alexander joined forces on the Criminal Justice Training Commission to advocate for state funding for crime labs and law enforcement who didn’t have the resources or staffing to test kits at the rate they were received.

In 2019, House Bill 1166 required rape kits to be tested within 45 days as of May 2022. Today, the Washington State Patrol’s Vancouver Crime Lab reports 95% of kits are tested and DNA entered into a database in 45 days.

“It’s a really important milestone for us, as a state, to support these survivors,” said Crime Lab director Gene Lawrence. “I know my team is committed to continuing their efforts so that we don’t get to that point of that level of backlog ever again.”

Vancouver’s lab was specifically designed to efficiently test the majority of the state’s sexual assault kits, which often contain complicated samples such as clothing, bedding, or touch DNA. Lawrence is proud of his staff in Vancouver who are testing hundreds of kits every week, bringing answers to more survivors like Hastay.

“We have a system in place where this is never going to happen again. Those kits will never sit on a shelf. The survivor will have a voice. They can check the status of the kits and the process,” Orwall said. “I’m really proud. I’m really proud that we made things right for survivors.”

“Some don’t know who raped them, and they’re out walking the streets,” Hastay said. “That person could be a serial rapist and could keep doing this, thinking they’re free as a bird.”

That’s why Hastay said it’s critical to believe victims, and for survivors to report their abuse.

“Now I get how victims are treated, like we’re the criminals. What did we do to have this happen? I’m not the criminal here, I didn’t do anything. He didn’t listen to me say no.”

“I know it’s very…it’s embarrassing,” Hastay said. “You don’t want to talk about something so invasive. But it needs to be reported because those people need to be held accountable and out of the community…If I can say something, if someone as quiet as me can come forward, be put on trial, have all this stuff done, then they can, too.”

Orwall and Alexander said much work still has to be done, with only about 1% of rapes resulting in felony charges. They’re currently bringing trauma-informed training to law enforcement officers and prosecutors to raise that percentage in Washington from the start of an investigation.

“It is our responsibility to know they are in a traumatized state, and we need to approach it differently,” Alexander said.