How the Pillowcase Rapist became one of the most wanted criminals in South Florida
Don’t look at me, a man ordered, covering the 36-year-old woman’s face with a pillow while he raped her. She was pinned under him, inside her apartment in Northeast Miami-Dade near Aventura.
He threatened to kill her if she didn’t obey, according to police.
The woman insisted she was “blind as a bat” without her glasses that were on her nightstand.
He believed her. She was lying. She was nearsighted and could see him.
He left her tied to the bed after the attack in February 1986. Once he left, she called the cops.
She was the 44th victim of the Pillowcase Rapist, one of the most wanted criminals in South Florida. She was also the first to see his face, according to police.
The serial rapist had terrorized young, professional women for years during the early 1980s from Miami to Deerfield Beach.
Dozens of women told police similar stories — and all of his attacks began the same.
He would sneak in through an opened or unlocked door or window. Sometimes he picked the lock. Most of the women lived alone, some were sleeping when he snuck in. He would attack and threaten them with a weapon.
The women would have a a pillowcase or sheet thrown over their head so they couldn’t see him. His face was also covered with a pillowcase, towel, shirt or fabric. After the attack, he would tie them to the bed — sometimes with pillowcases — and occasionally steal from them.
Police described the serial rapist as a stalker who spent hours or days watching potential victims, waiting for an opportunity to strike. He had a type: slender and attractive professional women in an age range of 17 to 43. All but one lived in apartments, townhouses or condos.
Edna Buchanan, the Miami Herald’s legendary crime reporter, relentlessly covered the hunt for the rapist in a series of stories in 1985. It was part of the work that won her the Pulitzer Prize.
The large scale man-hunt lasted for more than five years. During that time, police received hundreds of tips and investigated thousands of leads. The Pillowcase Rapist quickly became one of South Florida’s most terrifying and wanted criminals.
It’s estimated he raped between 40 and 45 women but police have always believed there were more victims who never came forward.
Police created fliers, a bust and used high-tech software to help comb through thousands of leads. But one day, the attacks stopped. The Pillowcase Rapist vanished — and the case grew cold.
Now, forty years later, police believe they have found and arrested the man who has evaded them for decades.
Here’s a timeline of how the case unfolded, based on the Miami Herald’s previous reporting:
May 1, 1981
The first reported rape occurs at the Alisian Lakes apartments, 4920 NW 79th Ave. So did the second, the third, the fourth and the fifth.
December 13, 1983
A rapist who has evaded police for more than two years is becoming increasingly violent, according to police. He is starting to show victim’s a weapon, normally a knife, in his encounters.
“Our ultimate fear is that he might eventually kill,” said Metro-Dade Police Sgt. David Simmons of the Sexual Battery Squad.
His victims occupations range from flight attendant, teacher and secretary to court reporter, nurse and engineer.
He’s responsible for at least 11 rapes, detectives say.
Feb. 24, 1985
After nearly four years of investigation, Metro-Dade police goes public with the case and asks for help. By this point, he’s raped at least 39 women from South Miami to Deerfield Beach. It’s believed he might live or work close to Sunset Drive.
He also has a type: slender and attractive professional women in an age range of 17 to 43. All but one live in apartments, townhouses or condos. Sometimes he returns to the victim’s home weeks later. He always enters using an unlocked sliding glass door or open window.
“He is probably somewhere between his mid-20s to early 30s, white, American, with no accent. He is 5 feet, 8 to 11 inches tall, about 170 pounds, with a slim muscular build and fair skin. He often is well tanned. His hair is dirty blond or medium brown. He is clean and neat and wears jeans, a T-shirt and sneakers. His hands are not rough or callused,” Buchanan wrote.
Police say he stalks his victims for hours, waiting for the right opportunity. He also has become “bolder.”
A few years ago, he would wake his victim up before dawn, police said. Now, he arrives earlier in the evening and assaults women who are still awake. He tends to sneak up behind them.
Feb. 28, 1985
Police say they have received 400 tips through the 24-hour hot line number they created for the case. And the manhunt makes it onto an NBC news segment. Some of the tips are promising. One of them is from a woman who never reported her assault.
If police determine her assault is connected to the Pillowcase Rapist, it brings the total number of victims to 40.
The rapist is also becoming more violent with his victims. One was nearly strangled, choked into unconsciousness, according to police.
April 12, 1985
A couple might have seen the face of the Pillowcase Rapist.
A 24-year-old woman was napping on a sofa in her apartment near Dadeland Mall when a man opened an unlocked sliding door, grabbed her by the back of her hair and forced her into the bedroom.
As they passed a lighted bathroom, she was able to steal a glance at his face. It was not covered.
Her attacker forced her onto the bed and was trying to remove her clothing. Her husband, who had just returned home, walked in and saw them.
He punched the man “very hard on the left side of his face” and chased him out. The intended victim and her husband say they got a good look at his face.
“They said he looked like the All-American boy,” police said.
Police said the attacker shared similarities with the Pillowcase Rapist but they couldn’t confirm if it was the same man.
May 19, 1985
IBM joins the manhunt for the Pillowcase Rapist. The search is now computerized, making it the most sophisticated criminal investigation in Florida history.
Here’s what Buchanan wrote:
“In an operations office at a secret location, detectives and computer experts conduct strategy sessions amid charts, aerial pictures, maps and plat photographs of neighborhoods prowled by the elusive rapist.
The data base includes all documents in the case, including leads and follow-up investigation results, information on more than 10,000 field interrogation cards, reporting contacts by patrolmen of suspicious person or vehicles and every one of the thousands and thousands of names that have surfaced during the four-year manhunt.
The entire 11 volumes of case files in the investigation stretch the length of two desks. They have all been entered into a system capable of scanning the equivalent of the Library of Congress within seconds for a specific word, phrase, name or piece of information. It can spit out the names of all suspects with a particular description, accent, limp or unusual characteristic at once.”
Police have received a total of 573 tips on the 24-hour hotline. Nearly 200 more tips through regular telephone lines from tipsters who couldn’t get through the hotline. 162 total tips were worth investigating.
Total rape victims: 40, but police believe there are more.
Suspects cleared so far include airline pilots, Florida Power & Light and Southern Bell employees, roofers, mail carriers and exercise enthusiasts who frequent certain health spas.
September 1, 1985
In the midst of their search for the Pillowcase Rapist, police find and arrest the “A/C Rapist,” a man who posed as an air-conditioning repairman in 1980-1981 and assaulted women in Kendall. He was also an exhibitionist.
His youngest victim was 15, the oldest 26.
Police said he had striking similarities to the Pillowcase Rapist:
▪ He lived at the Tahoe Springs Apartments, 4920 NW 79th Ave. — where the Pillowcase Rapist assaulted his first five victims in 1981.
▪ His brother lived in a South Miami apartment house — where the Pillowcase Rapist has also struck.
▪ He stalked women in apartments across South Florida, sometimes in the same complexes.
He also had type O blood, but it didn’t have the rare subgrouping of the Pillowcase Rapist. Lead investigator Sgt. David Simmons wondered if the two men had ever bumped into each other.
September 29, 1985
Pedro Gabriel Gonzalez, an ex-Miami policeman who was jailed on first-degree murder charges for brutally killing his girlfriend confesses to police that he is the Pillowcase Rapist.
Gonzalez had also confessed his identity to a co-worker and his girlfriend, who became terrified and told her friends. No one ever reported it to police.
Police thought they had finally solved the case. He fit the Pillowcase Rapist’s physical description and was telling them his “motive” for the crimes.
For five days, he strung police along. Then the blood results came in. While Gonzalez had Type O blood, he didn’t have the rare subgrouping characteristic that is only found in one percent of the population.
The Pillowcase Rapist was still on the run. He’s assaulted at least 43 victims since 1981, according to police.
February 16, 1986
One of the Pillowcase Rapist’s victims finally saw his face.
It happened on Feb. 11, 1986 at 12:45 a.m. The 36-year-old woman convinced him she was “blind as a bat” without her glasses. It was a lie. She later described him to police.
“The rapist is a white man of American descent. His face is broad and strong looking. He wears -- or did at the time -- a trimmed mustache. He is in his mid-20s to 30s. His build is medium and athletic. His skin is fair and often suntanned, with acne on his upper back. His hair is short to medium length, thick, brown and wavy,” Buchanan wrote.
The 36-year-old woman was his 44th known rape victim. Four other women had previously escaped his attempts.
February 17, 1986
Police receive dozens of new tips on a man callers say resembles the Pillowcase Rapist.
A week earlier, police thought they had caught him at a Kendall complex he had previously struck twice. A woman called to say there was a man on her second-floor balcony, watching her as she undressed.
Police took the 24-year-old man into custody.
“He fit the rapist’s description. His shoe size was the same. He moved to Miami, he told police, in May 1981, the month the Pillowcase Rapist struck in Dade for the first time,” wrote Buchanan. “The woman also fit the profile of the rapist’s victims.”
A blood test proved he was not the man cops were searching for.
March 10, 1986
Police announce that they will be unveiling a life-size bust of the Pillowcase Rapist later in the week. Tony Lopez, a well-known artist, was commissioned by the police department to create the sculpture with the help of the 36-year-old woman, the only victim to have seen the Pillowcase Rapist’s face.
Fliers of the man’s face will also be distributed to all customers in Winn-Dixie and Publix supermarkets in Dade and Broward and are being posted in storefronts, shopping centers and malls.
March 16, 1986
The Pillowcase Rapist Task Force is created. It’s compiled of up to 20 full-time detectives exclusively working the case.
April 3, 1987
The Pillowcase Rapist Task Force disbands a year after its creation. The rapist has not struck since Feb. 11, 1986.
March 3, 1991
After more than five years of checking thousands of leads, overnight stake outs, sophisticated computer searches and high-tech lab examinations, the Pillowcase Rapist got away.
There are no active leads, no detectives assigned to the case. The file is thicker than 25 telephone books.
Detectives estimate a total of 40 to 44 women were attacked by the Pillowcase Rapist but have always believed there were more who never reported it.
Police say it’s possible he was arrested for an un-related crime, moved from the area, is seeking psychiatric help or died in a car accident. There is another guess.
The bust created with the help of the victim who got a good look at his face — though detectives can’t say for sure if it does depict the man responsible for the majority of the rapes — led to thousands of new tips from people who thought they recognized him.
“There were no more attacks after that,” lead investigator Metro- Dade Sgt. David Simmons. “It would be interesting if one day we find out just how close we got after we commissioned the bust.”
Jan. 19, 2020
60-year-old Robert Eugene Koehler, a registered sex offender from Palm Bay, is arrested. Law enforcement officials believe he is the Pillowcase Rapist who got away nearly 40 years ago.
Details of what led police to Koehler remained unknown Monday. The case was investigated by Miami-Dade police, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Miami Herald staff writer David Ovalle contributed to this report.
‘I am not guilty.’ Suspected Pillowcase Rapist will remain jailed until transfer to Miami
