The man who police identified by DNA as the Pillowcase Rapist sexually assaulted a woman — after restraining her with a telephone cord and gagging her with a wad of fabric — at her southwest Miami-Dade town home four decades ago, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Robert Koehler, 66, is accused of terrorizing and sexually assaulting the 25-year-old woman in 1984. His trial began Tuesday in Miami-Dade Circuit Court; he has been convicted in another rape case from 1983 and through DNA, is facing charges in a string of sexual assaults across South Florida from the 1980s.
Koehler was known only as the “Pillowcase Rapist” because he typically shielded his face with a pillowcase or shirt. The Pillowcase Rapist was one of the most notorious serial rapists in Florida history.
The hunt for the Pillowcase Rapist was cold until a DNA hit in 2020, following the arrest of Koehler’s son. His son’s domestic battery arrest led police to Koehler, a registered sex offender who had settled in Palm Bay in Central Florida.
Go to Herald.com for the full report.
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