A Florida man, Robert Eugene Koehler, known as the “Pillowcase Rapist,” has been found guilty of kidnapping, sexual battery, and burglary with a deadly weapon in relation to a sexual assault that occurred in the early 1980s.
The jury reached the verdict after hours of deliberation. Koehler, 63, faces a potential life sentence when he is sentenced on March 17.
The victim, who was 25 at the time of the assault, testified that she had to convince Koehler to leave her home and screamed for help during the attack.
Koehler claimed that police officers kidnapped him and used his DNA to frame him, however, additional DNA samples taken from Koehler matched him to 24 other sexual assaults that authorities suspect were committed by the “Pillowcase Rapist” between 1981 and 1986.
The “Pillowcase Rapist,” also known as Robert Eugene Koehler, is a man who was convicted of multiple sexual assaults that occurred in Miami-Dade County, Florida.
He was known for covering his victims’ faces with a pillowcase or other similar object during the attacks. He was finally arrested and charged in January 2020, after DNA evidence linked him to a 1983 sexual assault.
Koehler has been convicted on multiple charges including kidnapping, sexual battery, and burglary with a deadly weapon, and he could face life in prison.
The “key break” in the case came in 2019 when Koehler’s son was arrested in an unrelated domestic violence case, which required him to submit a DNA sample to a criminal database, this DNA provided a close familial match to samples collected in the 1980s, leading investigators to believe that the then-unknown offender was Koehler.
The trial’s first day had been planned for decades. Police had never made any arrests or even identified possible suspects until the 2020 arrest of the relative during a raid that led them to Koehler’s Palm Bay home, where they also discovered a hidden “dungeon.”
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