CNN
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Aided by advances in DNA expertise, authorities in Florida say they’ve recognized and charged the so-called Pillowcase Rapist accused of sexually assaulting a number of girls within the Nineteen Eighties.
Robert Koehler, 62, is charged in six sexual assault instances that investigators say had been carried out with “diabolical precision,” in keeping with a Broward County Sheriff’s Workplace (BSO) information launch.
“BSO Chilly Case Unit detectives labored with Broward State Lawyer’s Workplace prosecutors to carry expenses in opposition to Koehler in a complete of six sexual assault instances,” BSO mentioned, although it didn’t element the precise expenses he faces.
“On a minimum of eight events in 1984 and 1985, detectives imagine Koehler snuck into houses in Broward County late at night time or within the wee hours of the morning by unlocked doorways and attacked his victims whereas they slept or ready for mattress,” the discharge mentioned.
The suspect allegedly coated his victims heads or his personal, generally with pillowcases, and made threats to kill the ladies or their households earlier than assaulting and robbing them, the discharge mentioned.
Koehler is already in custody in neighboring Miami-Dade County on separate armed sexual battery expenses associated to a 1983 rape, to which he has pleaded not responsible. He was arrested on these expenses in January 2020, CNN beforehand reported. As soon as the Miami-Dade case is adjudicated, Koehler might be dropped at Broward County to face the extra expenses, BSO mentioned.
CNN has reached out to Koehler’s public defender within the Miami-Dade case for remark.
Shortly after his 2020 arrest, the Miami-Dade State Lawyer’s Workplace introduced DNA evaluation used to cost him within the 1983 assault additionally matched DNA samples collected in a number of different assaults believed to have been dedicated by the Pillowcase Rapist.
For many years, assaults believed to have been tied to the Pillowcase Rapist went chilly as investigators hit lifeless ends with no important leads, Chilly Case Unit Sergeant Kami Floyd mentioned in a video launched by BSO.
In 2019, Floyd started sifting by hundreds of sexual assault instances from the Nineteen Eighties and narrowed down a handful of suspected Pillowcase Rapist instances.
“On the time (of the assaults), all we had was blood typing,” Floyd mentioned within the video. “With this new expertise that we’ve, we had been capable of retest the specimens and get a full DNA profile of our suspect.”
After Koehler was arrested in Miami-Dade County, Broward County investigators obtained a brand new DNA swab from him that matched the unique specimens from a number of of the suspected Pillowcase Rapist instances, Floyd mentioned.
“From the DNA that we had been capable of pull from our proof, with one hundred pc certainty Robert Koehler’s DNA matches the DNA from each one in all our victims,” Floyd mentioned. “Each single one in all these girls, I can’t think about what they went by within the preliminary occasion. However having to relive it this a few years later, I’m amazed at their capability to recall, their capability to talk freely about it and so detailed.”
DNA evaluation additionally led investigators to Koehler within the Miami-Dade case he’s at present in custody for.
A “key breakthrough” occurred after Koehler’s son was arrested in an unrelated case, CNN beforehand reported. His son’s DNA was comparable sufficient to the Pillowcase Rapist’s that investigators believed the unknown attacker was his father. After arresting Koehler in 2020, police obtained a search warrant that allowed them to get a swab of his DNA to verify the match, Miami-Dade State Lawyer Katherine Fernandez Rundle mentioned on the time.
Broward County authorities imagine there could also be extra victims unknown to legislation enforcement and inspired anybody with data to succeed in out to the BSO Chilly Case Unit or the Broward Crime Stoppers tipline.
“Primarily based on the variety of comparable instances that occurred in South Florida within the Nineteen Eighties and gaps within the reported assaults, detectives and victims imagine there could also be extra victims of the ‘Pillowcase Rapist’ who’ve but to return ahead,” the BSO video mentioned.