FL - "Pillowcase Rapist", 44 Victims, 1981-86, Miami to Deerfield Beach *Arrest in 2020* *guilty*

New Posts

Legally Bland

Legally Bland

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 17, 2015
Messages
8,776
Reaction score
43,254
23638716-7908201-image-a-25_1579532783814.jpg


Authorities have arrested a man they believe is the notorious “Pillowcase Rapist,” who was blamed for attacking over 40 women in South Florida during the early 1980s.

Law-enforcement sources identified the suspect as 60-year-old Robert Eugene Koehler, a registered sex offender from Palm Bay. He was arrested on Saturday and is being held at a jail in Brevard County to await transfer to Miami-Dade.

The Pillowcase Rapist terrorized women from South Miami to Deerfield Beach between May 1981 and February 1986. Using a pillowcase, towel or shirt to hide his identity, the rapist broke into town homes and apartments and attacked at least 44 women.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article239423768.html
 
Last edited:
It is not known exactly what led to his arrest but a number of cold cases have been solved in recent years thanks to a breakthrough in DNA testing and genealogical data stored on ancestry websites.

[...]

He had been thought to have been a white male with a size 10 1/2 shoe. Using a series of blood and semen tests, officials early on were able to identify the rapist as having type O blood with subgroupings common only to 1 percent of the population.

But police failed to get any further with the investigation and it was shelved in 1987.

He had been thought to have been a white male with a size 10 1/2 shoe. Using a series of blood and semen tests, officials early on were able to identify the rapist as having type O blood with subgroupings common only to 1 percent of the population.

But police failed to get any further with the investigation and it was shelved in 1987.

One woman did see his face, it was reported at the time of his attack. She convinced him she couldn't see his face without her glasses and studied him during the rape, a knife at her throat.

From the description given by the 36-year-old victim, a police artist created a drawing that was circulated throughout Coconut Grove, South Miami and Hollywood.

Koehler already has a sexual battery conviction from 1991 in Palm Beach County

Police at the time also commissioned sculptor Tony Lopez to fashion a detailed clay bust of one of the most hunted men in south Florida history.

23645494-7908201-image-a-7_1579543074412.jpg


Sex offender, 60, is named as the 'Pillowcase Rapist' who raped more than 40 women in the 1980s | Daily Mail Online
 
Last edited:
Robert Koehler: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know | Heavy.com

“According to a 1990 article in the Palm Beach Daily News, Robert Eugene Koehler was 31 years old when he was accused of raping a Palm Beach woman in her apartment on Chilean Avenue.

He was working as a cable installer at the time. The victim called 911 at 3:30 a.m. to report the rape. Police searched the area and stopped a car driven by Koehler for making an illegal left turn. They let him go after ticketing him because they didn’t have a description yet of the rapist.

However, after investigating further, they later brought him in for questioning, the article states”... “The woman’s story was radically different – and it fits the pillowcase rapist’s MO. She said she returned to her apartment after a dinner party and, sometime after 1:30 a.m., was “awakened by a stranger in her bedroom.” She said the man warned her to be still, and then “placed a pillow over her head and raped her. He got up and left without her ever seeing his face.”

Oh my word, they had him stopped
 
I wonder how many of his victims had cable installed by him? He would know the layout of their apartments because he would have been installing cable or phone lines. That must be why almost every victim lived in an apartment or condo.
 
Medstudies said:
Thanks for posting this, I just saw this on the daily mail.

makes me wonder what he had been up to since 1986. I find it hard to believe he just turned into a straight arrow upstanding citizen.
Click to expand...

well he's a registered sex offender so he obviously wasn't on the straight and narrow

Koehler already has a sexual battery conviction from 1991 in Palm Beach County

Sex offender, 60, is named as the 'Pillowcase Rapist' who raped more than 40 women in the 1980s | Daily Mail Online

also, there's this:

His criminal history showed a smattering of arrests over the decades — including one for aggravated assault in Miami in 1980. The outcome of the case was unclear on Monday.

Most recently, Koehler was arrested in September in Melbourne after his girlfriend called 911 to report he was trying to “force himself into the residence via the rear window,” according to a police report. Koehler and the woman have a toddler son together. He destroyed some potted plants in front of her home and sent her threatening text messages, police said.

Ultimately, Brevard prosecutors did not file formal charges against Koehler and the case was dropped.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article239423768.html
 
Last edited:
Medstudies said:
Robert Koehler: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know | Heavy.com

“According to a 1990 article in the Palm Beach Daily News, Robert Eugene Koehler was 31 years old when he was accused of raping a Palm Beach woman in her apartment on Chilean Avenue.

He was working as a cable installer at the time. The victim called 911 at 3:30 a.m. to report the rape. Police searched the area and stopped a car driven by Koehler for making an illegal left turn. They let him go after ticketing him because they didn’t have a description yet of the rapist.

However, after investigating further, they later brought him in for questioning, the article states”... “The woman’s story was radically different – and it fits the pillowcase rapist’s MO. She said she returned to her apartment after a dinner party and, sometime after 1:30 a.m., was “awakened by a stranger in her bedroom.” She said the man warned her to be still, and then “placed a pillow over her head and raped her. He got up and left without her ever seeing his face.”

Oh my word, they had him stopped
Click to expand...
And he was married to a police officers daughter??? Yikes!

“That article says Koehler was “working in his family’s Palm Beach deli” when police started looking for him and told authorities “I got a father-in-law who is a police officer.””
 
PayrollNerd said:
I wonder how many of his victims had cable installed by him? He would know the layout of their apartments because he would have been installing cable or phone lines. That must be why almost every victim lived in an apartment or condo.
Click to expand...
Good point, I was wondering how he knew his victims lived alone. That could explain it.
 
PayrollNerd said:
I wonder how many of his victims had cable installed by him? He would know the layout of their apartments because he would have been installing cable or phone lines. That must be why almost every victim lived in an apartment or condo.
Click to expand...
Right? Dang this is so scary... (just had internet service in the house. )
 
LadyL said:
well he's a registered sex offender so he obviously wasn't on the straight and narrow

Koehler already has a sexual battery conviction from 1991 in Palm Beach County

Sex offender, 60, is named as the 'Pillowcase Rapist' who raped more than 40 women in the 1980s | Daily Mail Online

also, there's this:

His criminal history showed a smattering of arrests over the decades — including one for aggravated assault in Miami in 1980. The outcome of the case was unclear on Monday.

Most recently, Koehler was arrested in September in Melbourne after his girlfriend called 911 to report he was trying to “force himself into the residence via the rear window,” according to a police report. Koehler and the woman have a toddler son together. He destroyed some potted plants in front of her home and sent her threatening text messages, police said.

Ultimately, Brevard prosecutors did not file formal charges against Koehler and the case was dropped.

https://www.miamiherald.com/news/local/crime/article239423768.html
Click to expand...
Ha!, Definitely not living the life of a model citizen.

I just can’t. I just can’t figure out how some people manage to have charges dropped, how they continue to skirt the system.
 
'We live next to the devil': Palm Bay man accused of being notorious 'Pillowcase Rapist'
...“shed more light on what Koehler was like as a neighbor, pointing out cameras to us.

“There’s one in that tree that’s right in his front yard. That is set to watch all of this side, of this side of the street,” E.W. said.

“I’ve awakened in the morning and he was over working on the pool pump, unsolicited. We had to ask him, put it back together and please leave,” AW said. “He would show up here in the mornings, knocking on the door, trying to get in the house, wanted to show me generators I think, for hurricanes, things like that, always trying to into the house, so finally I said, you're not getting into this house, go away. He was just always on the hustle and one of the, not physically scary, but there was something in him...”
 
Medstudies said:
'We live next to the devil': Palm Bay man accused of being notorious 'Pillowcase Rapist'
...“shed more light on what Koehler was like as a neighbor, pointing out cameras to us.

“There’s one in that tree that’s right in his front yard. That is set to watch all of this side, of this side of the street,” E.W. said.

“I’ve awakened in the morning and he was over working on the pool pump, unsolicited. We had to ask him, put it back together and please leave,” AW said. “He would show up here in the mornings, knocking on the door, trying to get in the house, wanted to show me generators I think, for hurricanes, things like that, always trying to into the house, so finally I said, you're not getting into this house, go away. He was just always on the hustle and one of the, not physically scary, but there was something in him...”
Click to expand...

that's so incredibly creepy
no boundaries!
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

DNASolves

Who is Escambia County John Doe (1989)?

Members online

... and 94 more.
Total: 3,426 (members: 95, guests: 3,331)

Online statistics

Members online
95
Guests online
3,331
Total visitors
3,426
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
592,496
Messages
17,969,866
Members
228,789
Latest member
Soccergirl500
Back
Top