MIAMI — Advanced DNA technology helped detectives link the instances of six ladies to a man accused of being the “pillowcase rapist” for a string of rapes again within the Eighties.
Robert Koehler is at present jailed in neighboring Miami-Dade County, the place he faces expenses for assaulting a girl within the early ’80s as properly, Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony mentioned in a Tuesday morning news convention.
Authorities consider Koehler, 62, could have dedicated 40 to 45 rapes, terrifying victims by breaking into their houses at evening, the sheriff mentioned. The assailant used a pillowcase or different material to cowl his face — or the face of his victims — earlier than assaulting them, tying them up and stealing objects from their houses.
The assaults by the pillowcase rapist attracted in depth media consideration in South Florida and the creation of a process pressure to examine the intercourse crimes, sheriff’s officers mentioned.
But the path finally turned chilly and the instances ended up within the chilly case unit. However, sheriff’s officers mentioned the meticulous record-keeping on the unique instances offered detectives the flexibility to check the proof many years later.
They dug by way of 500 packing containers of proof and hundreds of sexual assault instances to link the instances to Koehler, mentioned Sgt. Kami Floyd.
Floyd started wanting by way of the information in 2019 and located the case of a girl who was assaulted in her Pompano Beach condominium in June 1984. That led her to a number of different related crimes in Broward County.
“It was a hunch,” Floyd mentioned linking the primary case she discovered to Koehler. “It was a hunch based specifically on this case, that he used a pillowcase to cover his face, and at no point was she able to identify who he was because she didn’t know what he looked like.”
Around the identical time, in 2020, prosecutors in Miami-Dade County introduced Koehler’s arrest and mentioned he was thought to be the “pillowcase rapist” whose knifepoint attacks put women across South Florida on edge beginning in 1981.
Floyd got a search warrant for Koehler’s DNA and testing done by the sheriff’s office crime lab found it matched the evidence in the cases she was investigating, she said.
Detectives worked with prosecutors to bring six sexual assault charges against Koehler.
“When I found my first case, it actually saddened me to have to reach out to that victim and have her relive what had happened so many years ago,” Floyd mentioned.
It was heartbreaking in lots of instances, she added, as a result of some ladies had not even instructed their households what had occurred to them. She mentioned a number of the victims instructed her they would wish to speak it over with their households earlier than discussing it together with her.
“But once they did determine to come again and had been courageous sufficient to talk about it with me, I used to be very happy with them,” she said.
Their stories were all similar. They lived alone. They were assaulted at night, and the attacker apparently knew their habits, including in some cases the layout of their apartments.
Now, those victims are very relieved to know the man who attacked them may be brought to justice, she said.
“Several of them have commented that they hope more women will come forward,” Floyd mentioned.
Floyd defined there are such a lot of sexual assault instances within the chilly case information, many from a time earlier than data had been computerized, making it tough to match them.
“For those that have not come ahead but, it will carry you some closure,” she mentioned.