DALLAS - While authorities said they have solved the case in the rape of a child in 1983, justice will not be served.

Through DNA tests, police said they discovered Dewayne Douglas Willis, a man presently sitting in a Texas prison for burglary, was the man responsible for the crime. However, in three weeks, Willis will walk out a free man with no parole or restrictions due to the statute of limitations.

Although too old to take to trial, the rape is still very fresh in the mind of the victim. On that fateful night, the victim was only 12 years old. A man came into her home, walked up the stairs and into her bedroom and held a knife to her neck while he raped her.

"He was very angry," said the victim. "He was just an angry person. You could smell the anger on him."

Her parents were asleep and never heard a thing.

"I was sure I was going to die," she said.

For 25 years, the victim said she has always wondered who raped her.

"I remember his face, and to me he was just a monster," she said.

She never had a name to that face until a few weeks ago, which was when she got a call from the Dallas Police Department saying they found the man that raped her over two decades ago.

"I know the name of the man who raped me," she said. "Having said that, that's all I can do. That's all I'll ever get from it, his name."

Willis has been in and out of prison since the mid '80s. On October 18, he will walk out of prison having completed his time for the burglary.

"[He] walks free with nothing," the victim said. "He doesn't have to register as a sex offender. He doesn't have to do anything."

She isn't the only one upset at the situation.

"It's very frustrating for myself and this department that we can't make people pay for what they have done to these victims," said Sgt. Pat Welsh, with the Dallas Police Department.

Since the lab that tests for Dallas County has saved DNA evidence for years, DPD has solved 47 similar cases. The evidence has been used to exonerate 19 men who didn't commit the rapes they're accused of. However, the DNA cannot be used to find justice for the victims.

"I feel forgotten about," the victim said. "I feel like there is a 12-year-old girl who is being told it doesn't matter that she was raped."

Dallas police said they won't forget the victims. They have already looked at 1,700 old cases from the mid '80s and will continue to look at hundreds of others.

"No matter how old their cases, those victims deserve this because they never forget," Welsh said.

Now, DPD, along with Dallas District Attorney Craig Watkins, are pushing for new state laws that would make rape suspects who cannot be prosecuted at least register as a sex offender or have it noted in their criminal history that DNA has linked them to a rape.

"This is all new, going into uncharted territory," Watkins said. "I think here in Dallas and Texas we can be on the forefront of making a real difference in how we progress in the criminal justice system."

For the victim, she said while she hates the idea of her possible rapist being free, she won't let it destroy the life she has built and refuses to live in fear.

"I want him to see that he didn't take away all my strength," she said.

Watkins said that he has talked to lawmakers already about getting a bill in the next legislative session. Victims' rights groups say they'll be pushing for change as well.

E-mail rlopez@wfaa.com