ORLANDO, Fla. – An incredibly brave and resilient sexual assault, robbery and armed kidnapping survivor is now working alongside the UCF detective who ultimately solved her case, despite mistakes, to ensure other officers never make those same mistakes.
Rachel Sines said the now-convicted attacker took everything from her that night in 2007.
“It was 16 years ago. I think it was the eve of Valentine’s Day and I had come home to interrupt, I believe, somebody burglarizing my apartment,” Sines said. “I initially tried to get away but was unsuccessful. And after sexually assaulting me, he took me to an ATM, withdrew everything I had and then took off with my car, basically.”
Hear Rachel Sines share more of her story:
Sines was eventually able to escape and call for help.
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Sines said those few hours—raped in her own Metrowest apartment, driven around Orlando in her own car, all with a gun to her head—changed her life.
“Not just my money, my car, my phone, my purse, but any kind of dignity that I had (he took),” Sines said. “And he got away for about 36 hours before he was found.”
Sitting next to Sines as she spoke to News 6 was the detective who helped her move on with her life—Rick Salcedo of the University of Central Florida Police Department.
“I was working for the Orlando Police Special Victims unit at the time,” Salcedo said.
Salcedo built the case that sent the rapist to prison for life. But at first, Salcedo admitted he doubted Sines’ story when she claimed she was forced to shower after the attack even though the shower was dry.
“And so I asked Detective Lopez (who was also investigating the case), and said, ‘Eddie, are you sure about this? Because this tub in the shower, the walls are completely dry,’” Salcedo said. “So Detective Lopez asked Rachel, because she didn’t mention the fact that he made her wipe the shower down with a towel.”
Sines said she simply forgot.
“And you know, it was all kind of very blurry, especially right afterward, you know, in relaying that information,” Sines said. “I didn’t know that that would be something of importance.”
Salcedo is now an instructor at the UCF Police Department, specifically hired more than a decade ago for his extensive sex crimes investigative expertise. He’s also an instructor at several police academies across Central Florida.
Salcedo teaches an advanced 40-hour course in sex crimes investigations, sharing Sines’ story and his mistake with other detectives and first responders.
“So from my mistake, I now want to make sure that everybody knows that, you know, we learn from our mistakes,” Salcedo said. “And I share that experience. I share that with everybody in class.”
In the past, first responders, detectives and recruits fresh out of the academy had little to no training when investigating a sexual assault.
“They had zero training,” Salcedo said. “How to treat or how to interview a sexual assault victim. They would interview them the same way they would interview a burglary victim or a robbery victim, the same exact way. You know, ‘Just facts, ma’am.’”
And at the end of every one of Salcedo’s courses, Sines makes an appearance.
“Knowledge is power,” Sines said. “And if my perspective helps them and helps a future victim, yeah, it’s really important to me.”
Together, Sines and Salcedo are educating everyone, everywhere they can—at law enforcement conferences, colleges and even as recognized “Champions of Change” at End Violence Against Women International. They are teaching that every sex crime investigation should start with believing the victim.
“Because it’s how a victim is treated directly afterward that has an immense impact on their success as a survivor and their healing,” Sines said.
Sines is no longer a victim. She is an educator, a mother and a survivor.
“I benefit a lot from being able to tell my story in a therapeutic way,” Sines said. “It helps me to process it. I think that there’s been people that saw me speak in like the first year and then see me later and were like, ‘You’re a completely different person. The way you tell your story is with so much more strength and voice than, you know, I saw you five, 10 years ago.’ I attribute a lot to the opportunity to tell my story, to be able to be given the opportunity to feel like I’m bringing positivity out of it, you know, that I’m making something good out of it, that there’s possibly maybe just one person, one future victim that might have a better chance.”
Salcedo said it is now mandated that every single officer in the State of Florida must take an online trauma-informed training class by 2024. Additionally, Salcedo developed his own 8-hour sexual assault investigative training course at UCF Police Department that every single officer must take.
Next year, EVAWI is holding its annual conference in San Diego and Sines and Salcedo are expected to be guest speakers and present their case at the conference to an international audience.
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