Allegra

At that time, they had to call the police to take a police report so that there was a case number to go along with the rape kit.

I gave my statement to the police first and then went through with the rape kit.

It was a female cop from my recollection who seemed deeply disinterested in everything I had to say, very flat affect, did not want to be there.

But I was kind of too sad to care or read into that too much.

She did let me know that if I wanted to open up a criminal investigation, once I opened that box, I couldn't close the lid.

which kind of scared me and deterred me from that option, to be honest, because my family lived in a different state.

I didn't feel like I had the support and I didn't want the police digging through every aspect of my life.

And I thought that past assault with the photographer, I was worried about being believed and I was worried about that hurting my credibility because that assault was very hard to prove.

She gave me her card and then she left.

Then the same nurse came in after the police officer left.

We had to go through a questionnaire about what happened.

And you have that documentation.

It's just like a series of questions.

One that stood out to me is, did your perpetrator bathe you, wash you, clean you with anything?

Because I answered yes to the strangulation question.

We then had to go into a separate questionnaire about strangulation and document all of that.

So then after the questionnaires were done, that's when the physical exam comes, which is the hardest part, in my opinion.

It is a bit dehumanizing because your body is a crime scene and the evidence has to be taken off of your body.

And that doesn't feel good and there's no way to sugarcoat it.

They swab everything.