‘Law & Order: SVU’ Star Mariska Hargitay Aids Prosecutor With Rape Backlog Investigation

Actress Mariska Hargitay looks on before an NFL football game between the Cleveland Browns and New York Jets Sunday, Dec. 22, 2013, in East Rutherford, N.J. AP Photo/Bill Kostroun

On-screen “Law & Order” detective, Mariska Hargitay, has taken her acting skills to the next level by helping solve cases in real life too.

Best known for her role as the beloved Olivia Benson on the long-running drama “Law & Order: Special Victims Unit,” Hargitay played a key part in assisting over 11 thousand sexual assault cases in Michigan.

During an appearance on the “Today” show, journalist Andrea Canning said the sequence of events will be touched on during an Aug. 15 episode of the “Dateline: True Crime Weekly” podcast.

The podcast follows the biggest crime stories of the week, bringing the latest information on trials and investigations around the country.

Canning explained that the 60-year-old actress aided prosecutor Kym Worthy in Wayne County, Michigan, after discovering thousands of untested rape kits sitting on a shelf in a police evidence room.

Worthy took it upon herself to get those kits tested but due to the large scale of evidence, the county required funding to make it happen. That’s when Hargitay stepped in to help get the funding.

“She helped them raise the money to get this done, and it’s having a ripple effect across the country. It’s making changes everywhere—for police departments, for prosecutors’ offices,” said Canning.

As a result, thousands of cases were solved and 22 serial rapists were discovered in the process.

“So hats off to Kym Worthy,” Canning added. “She deserves the biggest pat on the back for this.”

This isn’t the first time Hargitay’s two worlds collided. Earlier this year, the actress was approached by a little girl who believed her to be a real police officer while filming season 25 of “Law & Order: SVU.”

The young girl sought her help after having been separated from her mother, with Hargitay halting production to reunite them.

Speaking with Entertainment Tonight at the time about the experience, Hargitay believed she and the young girl were meant to connect when they did.

“This little angel girl was in need and we connected and I could see that. So I did what any mother on this planet would do,” she said. ”I got to hug her mom and her, and it was beautiful.”

For over two decades, Hargitay has been a vocal advocate for victims of sexual and domestic assault and remained active in her mission to ending the rape kit backlog.

In 2004, she founded the Joyful Heart Foundation, which strives to “transform society’s response to sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse, support survivors’ healing, and end this violence forever.”

Hargitay—a sexual assault survivor herself—was honored at Power of Women event back in May for her work as a sexual assault survivors advocate.

Opening up about her own experience in an essay she wrote for People magazine, Hargitay said she was raped in her thirties and revealed the rapist was “a friend.”

From that point on, her hope for change altered to a “renewed determination” to end this violence for good and to help and inspire others in the process.