Sex Crimes: A Look at Survivors

As we continue our look at sex offenders, we hear from those who've survived the trauma and psychological damage of being victimized.

According to a study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-- in 2011, more than one and three women in the United States has experienced rape, physical violence and or stalking by an intimate partner in their lifetime.

Eyewitness news reporter Jennifer Lee had a chance to sit down with two area women who survived two different types of sex abuse.

Kimberly Klock says she's been sexually abused throughout her childhood.

Now she is fifty-years-old and is speaking out to help others.

But, Kimberly is not alone.

Another sex crimes survivor - who we'll call "Cee-Cee," as she doesn't want her identity revealed, says she simply overlooked one rule her parents taught her as a child: don't talk to strangers.

Today she speaks at area colleges and is getting by one day at a time.

Six-years-old, that's how far back Kimberly Klock can remember when she would get quote "back rubs" from one of her loved ones.

"when he was babysitting-- when my parents would go out, he was in charge of us. I grew up thinking this is what family members do because it started at such a young age," explains Kimberly.

But as the years went on, Kimberly says it was more than just family members. She says there were a total of four abusers in her childhood.

She was 14 years old - and she finally spoke up and told her brother about the abuse.

"My parents did nothing. I was to confront the abuser by myself. It was more like don't talk about it. It's bad to talk about it. So I thought it was all my fault and that i was the bad one," says Kimberly.

Three years later, the second time Kimberly tried to seek help; she says it was unsuccessful, yet again.

"I mean the first time it's all your fault. The second time no one believes you. So you just stop talking, "says Kimberly.

Fast forward 23 years, Kimberly got married, started a family, but also finally broke her silence.

"I just kept it in. Nobody knew my past. I didn't want anybody to know that I was broken. Not until one of my loved ones got hurt. It brought back all the feelings and all the pain. And then I exploded. It all came out," explains Kimberly.

As the years passed by, one of Kimberly's offenders died  and she says she's just trying to move on.

Cee-Cee was 19- years-old when she was brutally raped in a gas station parking lot at three in the morning.

It was a cold night she recalls, bundled up in her winter clothes.

She says she was going to a house party when a high school friend tried to make a move on her. She refused his advances and then was punched him in the face.

That's when she was kicked out of the car, stranded in a parking lot in Utica - with a dead cellphone, crying and no one in sight to help, except for a man by the name of David Lipiec.

She says a car pulled up and he called out her name.

"And I was like yea? And I mean he must have heard the girl in the front seat screaming my name as they were driving away. This didn't process in my head at the time. He said I know your mom I work with her. Do you need a ride? In that situation I just wanted to go home," explains Cee-Cee.

But, she says she didn't think about one simple rule she learned back in kindergarten:  to not talk to strangers. Cee-Cee says she got in the car with a person she believed was a family friend...

"We were just making small talk and finally when i told him to take a left at the end of route 690. He took a right. I said what are you doing?  You're going the wrong way. He just didn't say anything to me. I tried to roll the window down and I'm screaming, but he's pulling the window up on his side," says Cee-Cee.

At one point Cee-Cee says she tried to escape.

She got out of the car and "he got out of the car and all I heard was the noise of tape being pulled apart that you would wrap a package with. And next thing you know is he tackles me from behind and it's being wrapped around me," says Cee-Cee.

Cee-Cee says it was like a scene out of a horror movie, and she was the hopeless girl who was about to lose her life.

But, somehow Cee-Cee gained control and was on top of him, choking him.

He started to plea with her and told her he would take her back to where she wanted to go.

She says she got back in the car and gave him directions to a familiar area, at a gas station.

"When he pulled in I said thank you and I tried to get out of the car. He said you aren't going anywhere yet-- and he said not until you give me what I want. I tried pleaded with him I told him about my family and I even made up a lie saying I was pregnant," explains Cee-Cee.

She was raped in that parking lot, screaming for help, but no one heard her that night.

Cee-Cee says she pulled up her pants and tried to get out of the car, but he wasn't having it.

He told her she was coming home with him.

She started to plead with him again and tried to think of ways to get out of the car.

"I said I need to get cigarettes. And he said I have cigarettes. I said nope I'm picky I only smoke Newport's I will not smoke your kind. He said fine. Go inside speak to nobody and come back right out," says Cee-Cee.

Cee-Cee got out of the car, ran inside, and locked the doors, where the cashier called the police.

January 31^st 2009 was the night she says her world was turned upside down.

Although her offender was caught and is in prison for now, she says she will never be the same girl she was before, the happy-go-lucky kind of girl she says.

But, both Cee-Cee and Kimberly now say they try not to let their traumatic experience rule their lives.

Rather they like to tell their stories to bring awareness to others.

"I want people to hear my story and be like oh my god this could have been my daughter my niece my grandchild. It can happen right here," says Cee-Cee.

Both Kimberly and Cee-Cee have reached out to the YWCA in Utica and Herkimer.

They both say they want people to know they are not victims of sexual abuse, rather survivors of it.