RUMFORD – In a proactive attempt to gain closure, 25 unsolved sexual assault cases dating back to 2000 are being reopened by Rumford’s police Criminal Investigative Division.

Work on the crimes that victimized women and children will start on April 1, coinciding with the nationwide Sexual Assault Awareness Month.

Several cases involve sexual abuse against children; others concern date-rape or acquaintance rapes.

“Victims of sexual assault sometimes suffer years of emotional struggles as a result of the assault,” acting Chief Mark Cayer said Thursday. “For this reason, we feel it is important to allocate the necessary resources to attempt to bring some closure to these cases. If we’re fortunate to solve just one case out of these, then it would be a success, but, obviously, our goal is to be better than that.”

Once reviewed and resolved, additional cold-case, sex-crime files from 2000 and back are expected to be reopened, according to Cayer and Paul Casey, the region’s new domestic violence/sexual assault investigator Paul Casey.

Detective Casey is directing investigations into the cases, which haven’t been solved due to various reasons such as a lack of evidence, inability to locate a suspect, or a victim moved out of the area or refused to pursue further action, or other reasons.

Cayer, Casey and Detective Sgt. Daniel Garbarini will each be assigned two unsolved cases at a time in addition to their regular caseload. Each will review the files, then bring the information to weekly group-discussion meetings to generate new directions to pursue.

Each case will be worked until the team decides that everything possible has been done, Cayer said.

“The victims will truly have a say. Regarding some of the child ones, they were very young at the time, so, it will be nice now to go back and interview them. But some victims will not want any further investigation,” Cayer said.

Declining to specify case details, both men said some cold-case files would be solved quickly with just a phone call or two, but others will take much longer. Extensive investigations were done on some cases, but others abruptly stopped for one reason or another.

Every sexual assault case presents unique challenges to investigators, but the passage of time magnifies the difficulty.

“We struggle in CID, because there are so many new cases coming in. In about a six-month period, we’ve already had 10 sex crimes-related cases ranging from gross sexual assaults to sexual abuse of minors.

“On average, each of us has a dozen cases going at a time, so it will be a very full plate to add 25 cases to our overall caseload, but we’ve just decided we need to make that a priority at this point,” Cayer said.

They will also attempt to ensure that each victim is aware of services provided by the Rape Education and Crisis Hotline and, if necessary, Rumford police will provide a meeting place for any victim who would like to meet with an advocate.

“It is important to note that each case will be handled in a way that the victim will be empowered with the decision to move forward with the investigation or not,” Cayer said.