Florida Man's DNA Matched 'Pillowcase Rapist' Of 1980s: SAO

MIAMI, FL — Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said Thursday that DNA taken from a 60-year-old Florida man was a match for many of the so-called "Pillowcase Rapist" cases that have gone unsolved since the 1980s.

"We feel confident that there are a number of sufficient cases that we can prosecute and we want to reassure that this offender will never, ever be free again," Fernandez told reporters at a late afternoon press conference.

Robert Eugene Koehler stood before Miami-Dade County judge Mindy S. Glazer earlier Thursday after being arrested on a warrant accusing him of two counts of armed sexual battery in connection with a Dec. 28, 1983 case involving a 25-year-old female victim at the time. Koehler was denied bail in that case as Fernandez Rundle said more charges are likely based on court-ordered DNA testing this week.

"Analysts worked literally all through last night to be able to make a confirmed, 100 percent that Koehler is the source of that male DNA that was found in so many of those pillowcase rapist cases," Fernandez Rundle said Thursday.

Miami-Dade Police Director Alfredo Ramirez said investigators never gave up trying to find the so-called "Pillowcase Rapist" over the years.

"The whole department and community was mobilized," he said. "A lot of sweat and tears were put into those cases and this guy was eluding it."

The "Pillowcase Rapist" is suspected of assaulting more than 40 women during the 1980s. "He assaulted them from South Miami all the way up to Deerfield Beach," Fernandez Rundle said. "The rapist was known for covering his face and the faces of his victims as he attacked them with towels, shirts and pillowcases."

Koehler, of Palm Bay, Florida, was already a registered sex offender stemming from a 1991 sexual battery case in Palm Beach County. DNA obtained during his son's arrest in an unrelated case linked Koehler to a number of the Miami-Dade cases.

In the 1983 case, Koehler is accused of stabbing the woman in the stomach with a sharp object, possibly an ice pick, before raping her twice.

"The defendant forced the victim to walk into the bedroom where he pushed her over the foot of the bed, face down, keeping her feet on the floor," court documents said.

Court documents said Brevard County police followed Koehler and obtained his DNA before taking him into custody.

"On Thursday, Jan. 16, 2020, a surveillance was conducted of the defendant's residence," according to court documents. "The defendant was followed to a public area where DNA swabs were obtained from objects he had touched."

Court documents said Koehler lived in Miami-Dade County during the early 1980s when the "Pillowcase Rapist" attacks took place.

The documents said Koehler was identified by the victim in the 1983 case after the woman was shown a photograph of him taken in 1998, the earliest photo police were able to obtain at the time.