Prosecutor: DNA match leads to Florida ‘pillowcase rapist’
MIAMI — Prosecutors announced Thursday that a sophisticated DNA match has led to the cold case arrest of a Florida man believed to be the “pillowcase rapist” who terrorized greater Miami with a series of assaults on women in the 1980s.
Robert Koehler, 60, was arrested over the weekend and was being held without bond Thursday in a Miami jail. He faces charges in one assault though authorities said as many as 25 victims could be involved.
The “pillowcase rapist” was so named because he used a pillowcase or other fabric to cover the faces of his terrified victims, usually after he had broken into an apartment or town home, according to investigators. The assaults, often carried out at knifepoint, took place between 1981 and 1986 and had put South Florida on edge.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said at a news conference Thursday afternoon that the arrest will “hopefully bring some justice and some measure of peace” to the victims.