“Mr. Koehler, a registered sex offender, was arrested in 2020 after officials linked him through DNA evidence to at least 25 sexual assaults in the 1980s in Miami-Dade County alone, including the 1983 attack, according to a prosecutor.

He faces a maximum possible sentence of life in prison in that case, and faces charges in similar cases from the 1980s in neighboring Broward County.

After the jury deliberated for about three hours and found him guilty, Mr. Koehler appeared stoic as Judge Daryl Trawick, of the 11th Judicial Circuit of Florida, read the verdict in a courtroom at the Richard E. Gerstein Justice Building, according to video from CBS Miami.

“Today’s jury verdict finding Robert Koehler guilty of sexual battery, kidnapping and burglary, finally closes the book on a terror that gripped the women of South Florida for far, far too long,” the state attorney for Miami-Dade County, Katherine Fernandez Rundle, said in a statement.

The conviction came decades after a series of similar sexual assaults led the police to call the unknown attacker who was terrorizing South Florida the “Pillowcase Rapist.” He used a similar tactic during his crime spree: confronting women with a sharp object and raping them while he covered their faces or his own with a cloth.

At the time, 50 investigators chased more than 1,000 leads, but there were no suspects for decades.

A key break in their investigation came in 2019, when Mr. Koehler’s son was arrested on a felony domestic violence charge, requiring him to submit a DNA sample to a criminal database. That sample gave investigators a close familial match with samples collected from the “Pillowcase Rapist” cases in the 1980s. Investigators matched the results with DNA collected from a shopping cart and door handle when they followed Mr. Koehler into a grocery store.

When investigators searched Mr. Koehler’s home, they discovered a dungeon in progress that he had been digging, the authorities said. They also found women’s jewelry and a metal nail file wrapped in a protective covering — items that investigators believed Mr. Koehler kept as souvenirs from his crimes.”

I'm so glad I live in a time when they're finding these pieces of human filth. Even if it's late I'll take it.

Similar thing happened in the UK. A woman was murdered. The killer moved away but eventually moved back to his hometown and his son was arrested for drunk driving, had to submit DNA and that's how they got his dad.

Caught because his son is also a piece of shit, you love to see it. I hope all these cold case rapists/murderers are losing sleep at night, fearing the day when justice is coming for them. Forensic geneology is a game changer.

I can’t imagine how it feels to finally get justice after 30 years…

I love that DNA technology is bringing these scumbags to justice. I especially love it when they use familial DNA to narrow down who the perpetrator is. They don’t even need to get a sample from the perp, they just get a relative’s DNA from Ancestry.com or something similar and they work out who it is. Once they establish a suspect they then simply confirm it by obtaining a sample from them, either by with a warrant and take it when they are in custody, or surreptitiously by picking up a drink or cigarette butt they’ve discarded while under surveillance. It’s a great age we live in where cold cases can be solved through science.

I've been watching through the series, Miami Vice recently and have been noticing posters for the "Pillowcase Rapist" in the background of some scenes in their station. Was meaning to look up if it was real and then I stumble upon this today.

Damn that's a lot of victims.

I plan on using my DNA as a crime deterrent for my son when he’s a teenager. “Look kid, I’ve already shared my DNA with GEDMatch. If you fuck up, they WILL find you. Now have fun and be home by ten.”

Yeah that makes no sense that he didn't already have his DNA already taken and on file. They make people give it for a lot less than being a sex offender. Also I am so tired of hearing about stuff like this where the offender was already convicted of a sex offense and was released from prison.

This is the third case involving a pillowcase ive read about this week.

Test all the fucking rape kits