BROWARD COUNTY, Fla. — The Broward Sheriff's Office announced Tuesday that they have identified and charged a 62-year-old man in connection with the notorious "Pillowcase Rapist" case from the 1980s.
Robert Koehler was arrested in 2020 while living in Brevard County as a registered sex offender.
Between 1981 and 1986, authorities said Koehler broke into homes and would often cover each victim's face with a pillowcase.
Authorities believe he attacked at least 44 women from Deerfield Beach to South Miami.
Investigators in Broward County said the path to Koehler's arrest began in 2019 when Cold Case Unit Sgt. Kami Floyd began digging through thousands of sexual assault cases from the 1980s.
Floyd found a 1984 case from Pompano Beach where a woman was brutally raped at knifepoint by a man who broke into her apartment. This case then led cold case investigators to several other criminal cases in Broward County.
Around the same time, prosecutors in Miami-Dade announced the arrest of Koehler for a sex crime in that county.
Following that arrest, Floyd got a search warrant for Koehler's DNA. Testing by the Broward Sheriff's Office Crime Lab found that his DNA matched the evidence in the cases.
Detectives worked with Broward State Attorney’s Office to bring charges against Koehler in a total of six sexual assault cases.
Koehler is currently in custody in Miami-Dade County.
It is expected that once the Miami case is adjudicated, Koehler will be brought to Broward to face the charges against him.
There are six arrest warrants for Koehler in Broward County on the cases the sheriff's office has investigated.
On at least eight occasions in 1984 and 1985, detectives believe Koehler snuck into homes in Broward County late at night or the early-morning hours through unlocked doors and attacked his victims while they slept or prepared for bed.
Investigators said he sometimes covered the heads of his victims or his own head, sometimes with pillowcases, and threatened to kill them or their family members before raping and robbing them.
Despite intensive work by detectives at the time of the attacks, no arrests were made in the 1980s.
Technological advances in DNA testing and the work of cold case detectives finally led to the identification of Koehler as a suspect in the cases.
Detectives believe there may be more victims of the cases who have yet to share their stories.
Anyone with information is asked to contact BSO's Cold Case Unit Sgt. Brian Tutler at 954-321-4200.
If you wish to remain anonymous, please contact Broward Crime Stoppers at 954-493-TIPS (8477), online at browardcrimestoppers.org, or dial **TIPS (8477) from any cellphone in the United States.
