CHICAGO (WLS) — A sexual assault victim says nearly two years later, her attacker is still walking the streets.

Her case has been delayed and she blames delays in lab tests and the way some evidence was handled.

ABC7 Chicago is now on the air 24/7. Click here to watch

Now, she’s coming forward because she’s frustrated with the system.

Kelly Yancy still struggles with the memories of her sexual assault. Her attacker, she said, asking for a ride in her car after meeting him at a party.

“I tried to scratch around, get as much DNA as I could,” Yancy said. “I was kept in the vehicle for five and a half hours, freezing outside. “Immediately after I was sexually assaulted, I drove to 71st and the Cottage Grove Police Department.”

Now, nearly two years later, Yancy said, her case is far from solved.

“I’m hurt. I felt like, I feel like it,” Yancy said through emotion. “It’s hard. I feel like I’ve been forgotten.”

Yancy points the finger at the Illinois State Police crime lab and Chicago police. She says CPD mistook DNA evidence left behind by her attacker, such as fingerprints, a bottle of alcohol and vomit.

She says about nine months after the attack, the detective told her the evidence had not been submitted to the state crime lab.

“She told me verbally that she was filed pursuant to another case,” Yancy said.

But months later, in an email, the detective said: “The request to test the evidence from your vehicle was submitted on April 1, 2024.”

That was almost a year and a half after the attack.

Yancy said he is now waiting for those results to be processed by the state lab.

CPD responded to the ABC7 I team, saying, “The Chicago Police Department is committed to thoroughly investigating criminal sexual assault cases, as well as supporting victims living with the trauma and consequences of these assaults. Detectives are in contact with the victim in this specific case, which remains an active and ongoing investigation.”

“I felt like I was neglected,” Yancy said.

Yancy believes the car evidence should have been submitted to state labs immediately with her sexual assault evidence from the hospital.

“Things on my body, to choking, to scratches, to bruises,” Yancy said.

However, her sexual assault kit tested, without the car evidence, came back inconclusive. Adding to the frustration, Yancy said, testing of the sexual assault kit has been delayed by nine months at the state lab.

The ISP said it could not talk about specific cases, but that as of May 2022, processing the sexual assault kit meets state law requirements under six months, or 180 days.

When asked what he says to critics who think 180 days isn’t good enough, ISP Forensics Deputy Director Robin J. Woolery said, “I agree. I definitely agree, this is just the bare minimum. This is the bare minimum. And we have to go down. at a time of return It will be more acceptable to our victims.”

The ISP says that so far in 2024, 15% of sex offense kits have been processed in less than 30 days, 27% in less than 90 days and all have been processed in less than 180 days.

The ISP said it is up to date with the latest technology, such as rapid DNA, which they showed the I-Team in 2020. But the biggest challenge, they said, is staffing.

“A big part of it is finding qualified applicants and then getting them through. And then, to work in the crime lab, there’s a lot of steps, requirements, background checks,” Woolery said.

Carolina Sanchez of the survivor advocacy group Resilience said some states now process results in 30, 60 or 90 days, and said Illinois needs to do more than 180 days.

“So many of these cases don’t go anywhere, they’re kind of waiting for the results to come in from the evidence collection kit,” Sanchez said. “Especially when you have survivors who are out there and they continue to live in fear, ‘Is the criminal going to come after me?’

When asked where he was left, Yancy said, “Hopelessly.”