Natasha Simone Alexenko, fierce fighter who turned her rape into a mission to help other assault survivors, dies at 51

Natasha Simone Alexenko was many things: a loving friend, a fierce advocate, and a courageous fighter. One thing she was not, however, was a victim, her friends and family said.

In 1993, she was robbed and sexually assaulted in Manhattan on her apartment building roof. After her rape kit sat untested in a New York City police department for 10 years, Alexenko made it her mission to help sexual assault survivors find justice and end rape kit backlogging.

"She wanted to make a difference. She wanted to make her journey and what she went through mean something more than being a survivor by helping others," said Alexenko's friend and former co-worker Melissa Parrott, of Sayville.

Alexenko died on Oct. 31 at the age of 51, after battling Lou Gehrig's disease, also known as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and multiple sclerosis for the past three years. As an organ donor, she was able to save the lives of three people and also donated her brain and spine to the National Institutes of Health and Columbia University.

Natasha Simone Alexenko was born in 1973 in West Islip and raised in St. Catharines, Ontario. She returned to the United States in 1993 to study film at the New York Institute of Technology, returning to Canada after the attack, and later coming back to New York in 2005 before settling in Bay Shore.

"After you are sexually assaulted, your body is a crime scene. Knowing this, Natasha went straight to the ER and got a rape kit test done," said Parrott, who said Alexenko later learned her rape kit had sat untested for 10 years. 

The DNA match was made because of an effort that began in 2000 by the Manhattan District Attorney's Office to analyze old rape kits, said Erin M. Duggan, then-chief spokeswoman for the D.A.'s office, Newsday reported in 2011.  

Her attacker, Victor Rondon, already had DNA in the system and it was connected to Alexenko's rape in 2007. The finding of the DNA match as new evidence allowed police to arrest Rondon, who was indicted in one of the nation's first cases based on DNA evidence.

In 2008, according to a Newsday story, Rondon, then 45, was convicted of rape, sodomy and other charges. He becomes eligible for parole in 2057, Newsday reported.

In 2011, Alexenko, who had served as executive director of the Long Island Maritime Museum, quit that job and founded Natasha's Justice Project (NJP), a national nonprofit organization out of West Sayville that was dedicated to eliminating the rape kit backlog across America. She enlisted the help of museum volunteer Mark Murray.

"I was an attorney at the time and I helped with the legal requirements to get the organization started as well as helped to design strategies for the organization to best serve survivors," said Murray, of Eastport. "At the time she was a lone voice in the woods, but more and more organizations came to the same conclusion. I think that was due to her diligence and advocacy."

Thanks to several grants, including partnerships with the Joyful Heart Foundation, Alexenko traveled all over the world to raise awareness for sexual assault survivors and rape kit backlogging.

"Natasha was part of a group we called Rape Kit Action Project (RKAP) that was formed to push states to inventory their backlogs. We kept working together and did all kinds of advocacy," said Ilse Knecht, a Brooklyn resident and the policy and advocacy director for the Joyful Heart Foundation, who met Alexenko in 2013. "She was a tenacious warrior for survivors and touched so many lives. I promised Natasha I would carry on with the mission in her honor."  

In 2012, Alexenko met her husband, Scott Sessa, in a Babylon bar.

"She was the most beautiful woman ever. We danced for a long time and late at night when her friend was pulling her away, she yelled her phone number to me," said Sessa, who called Alexenko the next day. "We were inseparable from that moment on and were married on Aug. 14, 2021, in a backyard wedding with our immediate family."

"She was fierce, smart, and the most caring person I knew," said Sessa.

Her story was featured in national and international publications and she was the focus of the HBO documentary "Sex Crimes Unit." In 2018, Alexenko published a memoir titled, "A Survivor's Journey: From Victim to Advocate," which gave hope to those who felt forgotten by the justice system.

"She turned her tragedy into a movement for change, ensuring that other survivors would not have to wait a decade or more for justice," said Parrott.

In addition to her husband, Alexenko is survived by her mother, Nevart Mnatzaganian-Alexenko, of Bay Shore, sister Kathryn Ansley, of Queens, and nephew Alexander Ansley Hoy, of Queens. Funeral services were held on Nov. 4 at Chapey & Sons Funeral Home in West Islip, followed by a private cremation.