Notorious Florida ‘Pillowcase Rapist’ suspected of dozens of assaults is convicted in 1984 attack

MIAMI (TCN) -- A man suspected in a series of rapes in South Florida in the 1980s was convicted Nov. 3 in one of the attacks.

The Associated Press reports Robert Eugene Koehler, 66, known as the “Pillowcase Rapist,” was found guilty by a Miami-Dade County jury of sexual battery, kidnapping, and burglary in a 1984 case.

The victim was a 22-year-old woman who testified that the attacker broke into her home, held a knife to her neck, “threatened to kill her, and covered her face with fabric,” according to WPLG.

At the time of the attack, authorities created a task force to investigate, but there were no leads until 2020, when Koehler’s son was arrested for an unrelated crime and then DNA-tested, WPLG reports. Koehler was taken into custody on Jan. 22, 2020, and held without bond.

Prosecutors then connected Koehler’s DNA to at least 25 attacks but said there may have been at least 40 victims overall, the AP reports.

After Koehler’s 2020 arrest, investigators found possible souvenirs from his break-ins, as well as what Miami-Dade prosecutor Laura Adams described as a “dungeon,” according to the Miami Herald. 

Koehler had already been sentenced to 17 years in prison in 2023 for a similar attack on a 25-year-old woman in 1983.

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