In early March, a town hall was held at the state capitol to allow survivors of sexual assault and advocates to share their stories and ask questions.

One of the women who spoke that day was Miranda Spencer.

You can never imagine living in the shoes of a survivor whose waiting an endless amount of time for the results of something so invasive to go through in the first place.

Right now, more than 1,400 victims of sexual assault in Colorado are waiting to get results from the DNA they've submitted.

It's taken the state more than 500 days to turn around and process the evidence.

We are not meeting your expectations but we are committed to fixing this and were going to explain to you today how were going to fix this.

The backlog has delayed their investigations and caused a ripple effect in the criminal justice system.

Very few legislators knew about the issue until it came up during an oversight hearing this January.

This is huge.

The Colorado Bureau of Investigation should have really been coming to us as lawmakers several years ago and pointing out this problem.

But I don't recall anyone ever mentioning a conversation like that.

Im Bente Birkeland, a public affairs reporter for Colorado Public Radio.

I've been covering politics and policy for the past 15 years, but I've rarely witnessed a topic so painful burst onto the public scene and quickly take center stage.

I called my detective every single month to check on my rape kit.

This cant be the burden put on victims for justice.

Hi Miranda, good to see you.

Hi, nice to see you.

Come in.

As much as youre able to, can you describe what happened to you in November 2023?

I was going through a divorce and so I had never used a dating app before.

I signed up for Bumble because that's one that I thought was a safe one to use for women.

And so I went on five dates total with five different men, and the last date was with a man who persistently asked me out.

So I let a friend know, “Hey, I'm going to go out,” and the exact words that I used were, “on this pity date.

You can come over afterwards so we can hang out.” I went on the date and I only remember probably the first 20 to 30 minutes.

And I woke up the next morning with my friend just kind of hovering over me, staring at me.

He's asking me, “Are you okay?” And then he went on to tell me what he walked into in my home which was the person that assaulted me was in my bedroom.

I was unclothed, pretty incapacitated, I had vomit all over me.

And the next day, I was very embarrassed and ashamed, and I couldn't understand why I would have a stranger in my home.

After the attack, Miranda went to the hospital and found out she had drugs in her system.

So you can see here the diagnosis of fentanyl poisoning, assault.

She also got a full body medical exam for sexual assault victims called a SANE kit.

A nurse took photos and collected DNA evidence off of her body.

The DNA was sent to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.

And 16 months later, Miranda is still waiting for those results.

Explain why having the results of this test is important to you.

I was drugged and so there's a lot of things I don't remember, and theres a lot of answers that I don't have.

And, I mean, waiting you know, almost a year and a half to have to, like, fully understand what the worst thing that's happened to you, like, all of the details of it, its not fair to put that on somebody.

But they weren't communicating that —?

My detective never told me once that there was any kind of delay ever.

It feels like criminals have so many more protections than victims do.

I don't understand it.

Do you believe you'll get justice?

I have learned throughout this whole process to not have any expectations.

I have no expectations.

What's been the most difficult part of this whole thing?

Learning to, like, live with this new version of me, because I have, like, fundamentally changed since this happened to me.

And like for my daughter, you know, she's so young and it's just unfair to her that for a whole year and a half of her very short life, I have been consumed by this, like, awful thing that happened to me.

Do you want extra?

Thank you.

Heres your coffee, too.

Oh my goodness.

The agency most responsible for the state's sexual assault kit backlog that's affecting more than 1,400 people is the Colorado Bureau of Investigation, known as CBI.

Every month, CBI gets between 80 to 96 sexual assault kits.

It takes about 4 to 6 weeks to process each kit.

However, due to staff limitations and high caseloads, the state says sexual assault kits should be turned around within 180 days or six months.

But over the past decade, the Colorado Bureau of Investigation didn't always meet that turnaround time, and in 2022, made efforts to do better.

We had a plan in place.

We were hiring scientists, and as you may know, it takes a DNA scientist about two years to complete their training from the time that they walk into one of our laboratories.

So we had pre-planned ahead.

But then, in 2023, the plan derailed.

We got involved in what I like to describe as the “perfect storm.” We had numerous DNA scientists go out on some protected leave.

Then we had the Missy Woods incident hit.

A former DNA scientist — is now facing criminal charges for alleged criminal misconduct after she was accused of manipulating data in more than 1,000 cases.

Because of that, we had to shut down basically 50% of our DNA sciences for the better part of a year to go through and research you know, the over 10,000 cases that our former scientist had worked.

That was — that was our number one priority.

We started seeing, at that time is when these numbers started coming up.

And, extremely important is it took our scientists that were already in training, and it basically put a pause on their training.

As CBI was dealing with the staffing shortages and the very public fallout of the Missy Woods incident, the turnaround time skyrocketed.

But the people we spoke with say they were never informed that these incidents would cause the sexual assault backlog to balloon.

It was shocking to me.

I actually didn't believe the email when I first got it.

530 days.

I mean, think about how long that is especially to a victim, a survivor of a sex assault whose been traumatized and whose waiting for justice to be done.

We heard from CBI in past years but they definitely did not indicate that it was for a massive backlog and they should have really been prioritizing what they asked the legislature for.

To understand how DNA evidence impacts a sexual assault investigation, we traveled to the Western Slope town of Rifle and met with the head of investigations for Garfield County.

Come on inside.

So this is our Rifle annex.

There are days that it seems like we have nothing but sex assaults coming in.

This is our evidence lockers.

Let me make sure nothing's in any of these.

And then well — Whats that last one?

So this last one — so this is our refrigerated evidence locker.

When we get that those SANE kits from the medical staff, when they've completed it with our victims, we bring them here and they get locked in, like this one has something in it.

In these sexual assault cases where a lot of times it is very difficult to prove the case, how important is that DNA evidence?

It can be critical.

It can confirm a lot of what they have told us has happened.

If we have a suspect who says, “No, it wasn't me at all,” and we are lucky enough to obtain biological evidence, we can say, “It was you,” or, “You're right, it wasn't you.” From the law enforcement standpoint, we want that evidence.

We want to be able to find the suspect.

We want to be able to arrest a suspect.

We want to put a suspect in prison for it.

What's the biggest challenge for that for you on the investigative side?

It gets frustrating for my detectives and my investigators to just repeatedly say, “We're still waiting.

We're still waiting.

I'm sorry.

We're still waiting.” Craine says these delays also negatively impact the broader community.

If we have a known suspect or who we believe to be the suspect, obviously when we're working a case, we try to keep that confidential.

We don't release that information but people talk.

There's witnesses and victims and victims friends and support groups.

It makes the community fearful, like, why haven't you gone and arrested that person yet?

They clearly raped somebody, or they sexually assaulted somebody.

Why haven't you guys done something about that yet?

The perpetrator is still out there.

Back at the Capitol, lawmakers are working to address the sexual assault kit backlog.

They recently voted to give the Colorado Bureau of Investigation an additional $3 million to tackle it.

It ensures that they have the money to be able to contract with a third party to get these cases out and get victims and survivors answers.

Does it absolve CBI of any accountability?

Absolutely not.

State House Representative Jenny Willford has been outspoken on the need to eliminate the sexual assault kit backlog.

Representative Willford.

Thank you very much, Mr. Speaker pro tempore.

The bill requires the Colorado Bureau of Investigation to spend money appropriated on backlogged DNA evidence and sexual assault kits.

It also allows CBI to contract with external labs to perform the testing.

The bill requires CBI to create a dashboard to update the public on the backlog.

I expected the bill to pass and was really happy to see that it was a unanimous vote.

Representative Willford is a unique advocate on this issue.

She herself is a recent survivor and is one of the more than 1,400 people waiting for the state to process her evidence.

Alright Bente.

I've been covering her work at the Capitol for the past two years, but this was the first time I met her at her home.

So as a state lawmaker, you are in a unique position right now as someone whose survived a sexual assault.

What has it been like to speak out publicly about this?

It's been really emotional.

It's been really emotional.

It's been heavy and decided that I had to say something because there were probably other people that were experiencing what I did.

And being a state lawmaker means that when I speak up, when I bring something up on the floor, people have to listen.

You've heard from people in Colorado and across the country after you've shared your story publicly.

Is there anything that stands out?

Ive been really surprised by people that I know that have had stories and have shared them, colleagues in other legislatures across the country that have shared pretty similar experiences to mine, and I never saw that coming.

Ive been really surprised by just the volume of stories.

I feel like what I've been through and what I've reported is the tip of the iceberg.

We asked Representative Willford if she'd be comfortable sharing her story with us.

She said on a Saturday night in February 2024, she went out with some friends, something she rarely does as a state lawmaker and mom of two young children.

We had a couple of drinks and everything changed after that.

On the way back, I was picked up by a Lyft and it was late.

You always hear you're supposed to check and make sure that the car matches the car that picks you up, and the person matches the person's picture.

And the car matched the car, and the person looked kind of like the picture, and so I was like, great.

And I got in the car and we're, we're driving and he started making comments, telling me how pretty I was, asking me if I was married, asking me if I wanted to make out.

I texted my husband, I texted my next door neighbor and was like, “This guy is saying crazy things.

I dont know what to do.

Like, are you awake?” It was 2:00 in the morning.

And every single time I just said, “I'm not interested, thank you.” And when we pulled up in front of the house he got out of the car and got into the back seat with me.

And I was stunned, like, what is happening?

And he tried to kiss me and I was just like, “No, I don't want this.

I told you, I'm married.” And I started to get out of the car, and he ran around the car, and he pushed me back down into the car.

And I was like, this is really scary.

And he was trying to kiss me and he put his hand up my dress and assaulted me.

Its just totally shaken every thing that I thought I knew about safety.

I thought I was doing all of the right things.

I thought I was making safe choices and — Yeah, it just sounds horrific.

Do you know the status of your DNA evidence case right now?

I do not.

And people have asked me why I didn't ask for the DNA to be expedited.

And I deeply believe it's because I shouldn't be given special treatment as a lawmaker.

I should, I should wait just like everybody else is.

Everybody else's case is just as important.

Talk about where you're at on your belief in potentially getting justice in your case.

The thing that's really hard for me is that even as a lawmaker, I don't know what to expect.

And I can imagine other people who don't have access to the resources and the people that I do feeling frustrated with our process and not having answers.

Yeah, I mean part of me does — I've really wondered if you didn't have the position you do what discussion we'd be having about this.

I dont know that we would.

I mean my hope is that because my colleagues have to look at me, they have to hear my story and they have to vote on it knowing that we still have to work together means that they're going to pay attention.

But I shouldn't have to use my position.

I shouldn't have to share my pain to force change.

Representative Willford is suing Lyft and working on a bill to improve rider safety.

Meanwhile, CBI has started publicly posting its backlog and has pledged to process those cases by 2026.

To do this, it will be outsourcing some kits to other labs and by 2027 CBI says they will have 31 staff fully onboarded, roughly double what they say they've had in recent years.

Our goal is to reduce the turnaround time from 500 plus days to 90 days from submission to detective.

Even though there's a concrete plan in place right now, there's questions about its sustainability long-term.

So the factors that need to be considered when talking about backlog is the capacity that we have to do the work, so that's how many scientists we have, how many cases they can process each month, and then how many were receiving in.

So if all things stay the same except submissions go up, a backlog can grow.

If someone resigns or leaves, then that decreases our capacity so even if the submissions stay the same, then a backlog grows.

What is the name of this book?

Did you figure it out?

No.

Eva and the Laugh Spell.

I hope that more survivors can come together because I do think there's power in numbers.

As a child, its a horrible experience.

Theres a lot of shame in there.

Im here today as a survivor and also primarily to read testimony on behalf of a survivor.

I think the more people that come forward, the more people that advocate for this is what's going to be the thing that stops it and prevents it from happening as much as it does.

I want you to know that youre not alone.

There are a lot of us that are struggling every day.

I hope that women just protect each other like, we have to stick together.