MIAMI _ Robert Koehler, the suspected Pillowcase Rapist believed to have attacked dozens of South Florida women in the early 1980s, pleaded not guilty Tuesday as prosecutors upgraded felony charges against him.
Koehler's defense lawyer entered the not-guilty plea during a brief court hearing on Tuesday. The 60-year-old defendant did not appear in court.
He was formally charged with one count of armed sexual battery, and one count of armed kidnapping. He will remain behind bars while awaiting trial, tentatively set for April 13.
Koehler is charged, for now, in only one case, a 1983 attack on a 25-year-old woman in Northwest Miami-Dade. Police and Miami-Dade prosecutors say DNA tests have linked him to at least 25 cases, and they are still working toward gathering evidence for additional charges.
The Pillowcase Rapist stalked his victims in Miami-Dade and Broward counties, breaking into the apartments or town homes of women living alone. He got his moniker because he would sometime use a pillowcase, or some other fabric, to cover his victim's face, or his own.
By 1985, Miami-Dade police started a massive task force aimed at catching the intruder, who left little evidence behind.
Detectives checked out hundreds of leads, interviewed potential suspects and conducted stakeouts. An artist even created a sculpture based on the description of one victim who managed to see his face.
The case, however, went cold and the task force was disbanded. Koehler, police said, did not stop his attacks _ he was arrested in 1990 after breaking into a woman's apartment and raping her in Palm Beach County.
Detectives did not link the case to the Pillowcase Rapist, despite the similarities to the years-old attacks in the neighboring counties.
He wound up pleading guilty to sexual battery, but serving only 120 days in jail. He became a registered sex offender, but his DNA was never taken, despite a 1989 Florida law requiring genetic samples be given to law enforcement.
His DNA was not in CODIS, or Combined DNA Index System, the FBI's DNA database of criminals. But cold-case detectives zeroed in on Koehler, who lived in Palm Bay, by analyzing DNA of potential family members that had been publicly uploaded.
Authorities have not disclosed exactly what sites were used to scour genetic profiles. In other high-profile cases, police officers have used a site called GEDMatch, which compiles genetic profiles voluntarily uploaded by users who use sites such as Ancestry.com to trace their lineage.
