If you are in danger right now, call your local emergency number. Escrow is not an emergency service.
Is it too late to report in Seattle?
Probably not.
What we have read for Seattle says a report is accepted long after the day it happened. The full wording is below, with the source. Years late is still a report.
Checked against official sources on 31 August 2026.
the deadline in Seattle, quoted in full
Under Washington law, RCW 9A.04.080, rape in the first or second degree of an adult has to be prosecuted within 20 years. Rape in the third degree has to be prosecuted within 10 years. The clock can instead run from 4 years after DNA or photographic evidence conclusively identifies the suspect, whichever is later. If you were under 16 at the time, there is no time limit at all.
We quote this rather than shorten it. A shortened deadline is a wrong deadline, and this is the sentence a lawyer would want to read.
2 different clocks
The exam window runs in hours. The deadline runs in years.
the exam window in Seattle
Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner exams are available at Seattle-area hospitals including Harborview Medical Center and UW Medical Center. Evidence is best collected within 120 hours, which is 5 days, of the assault. You can still be seen after that for medical care.
This is the clock that runs out fast. You can be examined without deciding whether to go to the police.
the limitation period
This is the deadline for the case itself — how long the law gives before a prosecution can no longer be brought. It is usually many years for rape, and often longer or unlimited when the survivor was a child.
Missing the exam window does not mean the limitation period has passed. They are separate clocks.
where to report in Seattle
Call 911 if you are in danger, or go to any Seattle Police Department precinct to file a report. You do not have to report to the police first to get care. You can go straight to a hospital with trained Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners for a free forensic exam. Staff can help you think about reporting. The Seattle Police Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Unit is on 206-684-5575.
if the deadline has passed
A closed case is not the same as no record.
If the period above has run out where you are, a prosecution may no longer be possible. That is the plain truth and we will not dress it up. 3 things are still open to you.
a timestamped report
What you write here is dated and kept. Years later, a record that existed before anyone asked for it carries weight a memory does not.
a sealed report that can match
Seal it against an identifier — a profile link, a phone, a workplace. Nobody sees it until someone else names the same person. Their case may still be inside the deadline.
a pin on the map
Publish it and the next person searching Seattle can see it. He stays an alias unless a court, the police or the press have already published his name.
Many countries also treat the clock differently when the survivor was a child, when the offence is ongoing, or when new evidence appears. A support organisation in this list can tell you whether that applies to you.
who can tell you today
People in Seattle who do this every day.
These are independent of Escrow. They know how the deadline is read in practice where you are, and they can also just talk.
KCSARC 24-Hour Resource Line
Seattle Police Sexual Assault and Child Abuse Unit
sources
The deadline above came from one of these.
- Getting Medical Care After a Sexual Assault
Seattle Police Department · checked 31 August 2026
- RCW 9A.04.080 Limitation of actions
Washington State Legislature · checked 31 August 2026
- Contact Us
King County Sexual Assault Resource Center (KCSARC) · checked 31 August 2026
other places
The deadline somewhere else.
If you were somewhere else in the United States, read the deadline for the United States. It covers the towns we have not written up yet.
- Is it too late in Atlanta?
- Is it too late in Boston?
- Is it too late in Chicago?
- Is it too late in Denver?
- Is it too late in Houston?
- Is it too late in Los Angeles?
- Is it too late in Miami?
- Is it too late in New York City?
- Is it too late in Australia?
- Is it too late in Bangladesh?
- Is it too late in Brazil?
- Is it too late in Canada?
- Is it too late in Colombia?
- Is it too late in Egypt?
- Is it too late in India?
- Is it too late in Indonesia?
This is information, not legal advice.
Nobody here is your lawyer. The deadline above is quoted from a source we read, and the date we read it is beside it. Laws change, and an office may read a deadline differently from the statute. For your own case, ask a lawyer or a support organisation in Seattle.
If something here is out of date, write to hello@escrow.nanocorp.app and we will check it and say when we did.
when you are ready
There is no deadline for writing it down here. A report on Escrow can be made years afterwards, and nothing happens until you say so.
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