INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Sexual assault survivors on Tuesday told Indiana lawmakers five years is not enough time for them to heal and process their trauma.

Under Indiana law, prosecutors cannot bring charges against suspects in cases of rape or sexual assault if more than five years have elapsed since the crime happened unless a deadly weapon, such as a firearm, was involved.

Survivors of child sexual abuse have until they turn 31 to bring charges.

Sen. Scott Alexander, a Republican from Muncie, says he filed legislation to get rid of the time limit after meeting with survivors including Carissa Siekmann, who was sexually assaulted during her senior year in high school and whose younger sister is also a sexual assault survivor.

Siekmann told lawmakers every survivor grieves and heals differently and needs a chance to process what they went through. She says allowing survivors time is no different in concept from ensuring a defendant is mentally competent to stand trial.

“To expect a child at 13 years old to navigate the justice system is just cruel,” she said.

Siekmann wasn’t the only survivor to speak to lawmakers.

Her mother, Denise Combellick, told lawmakers she was sexually assaulted when she was in third grade.

Blake Riley said he was sexually abused as a child by his older sibling and he suppressed the memory for 15 years.

Both said it took them far longer than five years to heal.

“If multiple large men take turns assaulting you with beer bottles and sodomize you, there is a statute of limitations to bring justice,” Combellick said. “The intent is the same (as with a deadly weapon). It’s to terrorize you and the level of violence is the same. It’s to cause fear. It’s to make you not human.”

Alexander’s bill would eliminate the statute of limitations for virtually all sex crimes, meaning prosecutors could charge someone years or decades after a crime happened. The Indiana Prosecuting Attorneys Council’s Courtney Curtis said, on average, 18 to 21 years pass before a sexual assault survivor first reveals their experiences to anyone, much less a prosecutor. Moreover, she said, sex crimes rarely have any witnesses other than the perpetrator and the victim, so prosecuting them means pitting one person’s word against another’s no matter how much or how little time has elapsed. For those reasons, she said it’s unlikely the bill would lead to a major increase in the number of sexual assault prosecutions.

Several members of the Senate Corrections and Criminal Law Committee, including chair Sen. Aaron Freeman, a Republican from Indianapolis, indicated they strongly support the bill but said they worried the bill might be viewed as an ex post facto law, which could be used to prosecute crimes before it took effect.

The Indiana Constitution prohibits the General Assembly from passing ex post facto laws, as the U.S. Constitution does with Congress.

Freeman said he’s working on a clarifying amendment to the bill.

Joel Wienecke of the Indiana Public Defenders Council said memories change or even fade over time, so removing the statute of limitations could be detrimental to efforts to prosecute sexual assaults.

Freeman said he hopes to bring forward amendments and pass the bill out of committee next week.

The Senate has until the end of the day Feb. 1 to move legislation out of committee.