Kudos to South Florida’s determined Cold Case detectives still finding victims of the 1980s ‘Pillowcase Rapist’ | Editorial

Accused rapist Robert Koehler’s sinister crime spree is slowly being unearthed. It reveals what a horror police say he was to young, single women living alone in South Florida in the 1980s. The victim count stands at 44.

Since his arrest in 2020, Koehler, now 62, has been sitting in the Miami-Dade County Jail as cold case detectives have tried to connect him to more rapes. On Tuesday, Broward Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Sgt. Kami Floyd, who has examined evidence from hundreds of old rapes looking for similarities since Koehler’s arrest, said six new arrest warrants have been filed against him.

Too bad it took so long and engulfed so many women before this alleged domestic terrorist was captured, and kudos to cold case detectives in Broward County for linking Koehler to decades-old unsolved cases and continuing to search for more of his victims.

In describing the physical and psychological damage Koehler allegedly did to her decades ago, one of his victims from 1984 said, heartbreakingly, “He didn’t kill me — but he did kill me,” she told the Sun Sentinel.

Only two years ago, in the haze of the pandemic, thanks to old, stored DNA, the Broward County handyman and electrician was identified and accused of being the “Pillowcase Rapist.” Decades before, the crimes made headlines, and a task force was created to hunt down the rapist, with no luck.

Recently, Koehler’s DNA matched an old victim, police said. And there could be more victims out there, Floyd said.

The Pillowcase Rapist was a monster that all women living alone feared. He cased his victims through his jobs. He picked young professional women living in high-end apartments or townhouses. He broke into their homes in the middle of the night or early in the morning, wielding a sharp object and threatening to hurt them.

He’d put a pillowcase over the terrified women’s heads, then he would sexually batter them. Before leaving their homes, he’d rifle through the house, looking for something to use to bind their hands and feet. His victims stretched from South Miami to Deerfield Beach.

Unbelievably, Koehler pleaded guilty to a sexual battery in Palm Beach in 1990, but police did not link him to the other rapes.

With the old DNA match, authorities raided Koehler’s Palm Bay home in 2020 and carted away safes they believe held mementos Koehler took from victims. He was then extradited to Miami-Dade to face an old sexual-battery charge.

At the time of his arrest, authorities said they believed his DNA linked him to about two dozen cases. “He hasn’t gotten away with it,” Floyd said at a news conference. “He’s in handcuffs [and locked away], and we are hoping to keep him there.”

Unfortunately, many of his victims may still be locked in the hell that the Pillowcase Rapist placed them in.

This story was originally published June 7, 2022 at 6:14 PM.