Advanced DNA technology helped South Florida cold case investigators link a man known as the “pillowcase rapist” to a string of sexual assaults stemming back to the 1980s.
that Robert Kohler, 62, had been tied to six rapes after its cold case unit, formed in 2019 to address about 350 cases with dead-end leads, was able to link the crimes using DNA.
Authorities said he would threaten victims and their families if they said anything or screamed. He typically would tie their hands and or their feet during the assaults, said cold-case Sgt. Kami Floyd. The suspect would then steal from the apartment before making his getaway, authorities said.between 1984 and 1985, according to a news release.
“The task force that was put together ... had no new information coming forward. There were no new cases, no witnesses, no victims and nobody who could provide anything,” said Floyd, who led the team that cracked the cold cases.She helped launch an initiative in 2019 to reexamine the department's sexual battery cases over the years and test all of its sexual assault kits, she said in a video interview released by Broward County Sheriff's Office.
“I luckily did locate one that matched,” Floyd said of the first case. “With the help of our crime lab, in a freezer some specimens that belonged to other victims that had a list of names that we believed to be related to the ‘pillowcase rapist,’” Floyd said.