In the 1980's a series of frightening sexual assault cases terrorized Miami and Broward, as dozens of women, living along, were attacked by someone who would wear a pillowcase over their face or place it over the victim's face.
Robert Koehler, 62, was in custody in Miami, for a sexual assault case. A BSO detective became aware of the allegations and remembered the old Miami cases and tested Koelher's DNA against what was recovered from victims and got six hits. Koelher has been charged in six additional cases in Broward.
The investigation reveals that Koehler has been arrested multiple times since his terror spree in the 1980s for breaking into women's apartments up and down Florida's east coast. But it was not until recently that he has been identified in the Pillow Case rapists cases.
The current detectives credit the organization of the original files, including five hundred boxes of evidence, as allowing them to obtain the material necessary to conduct the tests linking Koehler to the Pillow Case rapist cases.
While we frequently praise defense attorneys for their work, we do remark that as citizens of Miami, we want good, effective law enforcement, and this was an example of that.