tangled scrub brush along a long island seaside highway. possibly at the hands of a serial killer. >> why are you speaking publicly and on camera and not in silhouette about this? >> i can't be silent anymore. >> reporter: swim also is an activist with s.w.a.p., sex workers outreach project. it believes that decriminalizing prostitution will make it safer. >> this is why predators target us and try to abuse us because they know we can't trust the police for help. >> reporter: police officials say they treat crimes against prostitutes like they would for any other victim. but the mother of victim melissa barthelemy says valuable time was lost getting new york city police to start looking for her daughter once they learned she was a prostitute. she had to hire an attorney to get things moving. >> something needs to be done about that. >> people need to know that these people that we're talking about, you know, sex workers, are wives and husbands, they're