Catherine Becket could’nt forgotten that evening three years ago in her Parkville apartment, while she had been sexually assaulted.

She watched with outrage while Brock Turner, a student of Stanford University served three months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, but she resolved to confront her own memories. She called Baltimore County police to reopen her sexual assault case.

But she learned that this would be difficult. Police never processed evidence in her case. The department had destroyed it even though there is no statute of limitations for most sexual offenses in Maryland. Records showed that police didn't talk to her reported assailant and marked her case as "unfounded" within hours of talking with her. They dismissed her allegations to be false or baseless. And she learned that her case had not been considered as rape but a second-degree sex offense.

She wrote in a journal after talking to a detective, "I'm losing my mind. I feel worse than I have in years" .

The circumstances in Becket's case noted a number of shortcomings and inconsistencies in which police departments across Maryland handle rape cases, according to an investigation done by Baltimore Sun . Evidences are destroyed in hundreds of cases, complaints are declined at a high rate, police policies and procedures are varied widely between jurisdictions.

Becket said that she wanted to go public with her case to draw attention to problems so that the victims wold be able to forsake all hesitations to come forward.

Lisae Jordan, executive director of the Maryland Coalition Against Sexual Assault said, "Coming out as a rape survivor reminds other survivors that they are not alone and puts a face on a crime that is all too often shrouded in secrecy” .

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By Preakriti Neogi