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Florida’s ‘Pillowcase Rapist’ Found Guilty Of 1983 Sexual Assault, Suspected In Dozens More
Despite bizarre claims that he was framed by a group of dirty cops, Robert Eugene Koehler was found guilty of raping a 25-year-old woman at her Miami-Dade County apartment.
A Florida man believed to be the “Pillowcase Rapist” was convicted of sexually assaulting a woman 40 years ago.
Robert Eugene Koehler, 63, was found guilty by a Miami-Dade County jury for a violent attack against a then-25-year-old woman at her home in 1983, according to NBC Miami affiliate WTVJ. While Koehler has so far been convicted for the sexual battery, kidnapping, and burglary of this one victim, he is suspected of attacking dozens of women during the early 1980s around Broward and Miami-Dade counties.
Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said Wednesday’s conviction “closes the book on a terror that gripped the women of South Florida for far, far too long,” according to CBS Miami affiliate WFOR-TV.
“With a DNA trail linking Koehler to at least 25 sexual batteries in Miami-Dade alone, the work of two generations of police officers and forensic scientists seems to have come to a just and final end,” Rundle stated. “This community owes a debt of gratitude to the courage of our victim who had to look this man in the eye years after her own sexual assault and still had the strength to testify against him.”
The victim — whose identity remained concealed throughout the trial — testified her rapist broke into her ground-floor apartment near the Miami International airport in December of 1983, according to WTVJ. She claimed her assailant attacked her just as she exited the shower.
The stranger then covered her head with a blanket and raped her on a bed, which matched a pattern of an elusive attacker dubbed “The Pillowcase Rapist,” who operated between 1981 and 1986 and routinely covered his victims' faces with blankets and pillowcases before raping them at knife-point.
Many of the alleged victims lived alone and were attacked just as they were getting ready for bed, as was the case for the 1983 rape for which Koehler was just convicted.
"I screamed,” the victim testified. “He hit me in the face, broke my lip.”
Despite numerous efforts — including the creation of a specialized task force — the Pillowcase Rapist’s identity remained unknown.
Koehler was linked to the attacks in 2020 after DNA from the 1983 rape matched to Koehler’s son, whose DNA was entered into a database following an unrelated domestic violence charge, per ABC Miami affiliate WPLG.
Koehler was previously convicted of a Palm Beach sexual battery charge in 1991, and though he was placed on a sex offender registry, his DNA was not submitted to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, as is now mandatory.
DNA also helped Broward County officials charge Koehler in June for the attacks on an additional six women, according to WTVJ.
"Anyone who preys as a sexual predator on our community, in my opinion, is part of the worst of society,” Broward County Sheriff Gregory Tony said at the time.
Tony previously claimed Koehler could be responsible for as many as 45 unsolved sexual assaults.
During the trial, Koehler took the stand in his own defense, making unsubstantiated claims that a group of dirty cops kidnapped and tortured him before planting Koehler’s DNA on the victim, according to WFOR-TV.
Koehler testified the cops embedded a tracking device in his arm and murdered a couple before his eyes, according to WTVJ. He also accused the cops of drugging him and administering electric shocks, forcing him to shoot and kill a little girl bound to a chair.
The defendant said his captors used a device to extract his bodily fluids, which were later used to frame him. Koehler said police did this to obtain funds for their police budgets.
At Wednesday’s closing arguments, county prosecutor Laura Adams dismissed Koehler’s claims, maintaining the DNA conclusively proved he committed the crime, according to Fox Miami affiliate WSVN.
Jurors heard the odds of someone other than Koehler being the perpetrator, based on the DNA evidence, were 16.55 octillion to one.
“What is he left with? Some kind of crazy conspiracy theory, absolutely, unbelievably horrifying,” said Adams. “What kind of mind could create monstrosities that he subjected everyone in this courtroom to listening to?”
Koehler’s defense attorney, Damaris Del Valle, didn’t deny that the 1983 rape occurred but claimed the state hadn’t proved its case.
The jury disagreed, arriving at a guilty verdict after three hours of deliberations, according to the Miami Herald. Koehler — who arrived at the courthouse in a wheelchair — appeared emotionless when the verdict was read aloud.
State Attorney Rundle stated on her office's Facebook page that the conviction came 33 years after the creation of the Pillowcase Rapist task force.
“Crime victims should gain strength from the knowledge that unsolved cases are never forgotten,” Rundle stated. “Not by our dedicated law enforcement partners, and not by my committed prosecutors.”
Koehler is scheduled to be sentenced on March 17. His attorney could not be reached for comment.
