Man federally charged in 1996 death, kidnapping of 7-year-old in Bowling Green

Following 30 years of questions and investigation, the U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky has announced that an arrest has been made in the 1996 death of seven-year-old Morgan Violi.

Morgan Violi was abducted on July 24, 1996 while playing with her friends and sisters at the Colony Apartments in Bowling Green. According to U.S. Attorney Kyle Bumgarner, witnesses saw a white male suspect grab Morgan, put her in a maroon van and drive away. The van was located two days later in Nashville, but Morgan’s body wasn’t found for another three months in White House, Tennessee. Her murder would go unsolved.

Investigation using advancements in forensic testing of DNA evidence, has led to a federal criminal complaint and an arrest warrant being issued against Robert Scott Froberg. Froberg is serving a lengthy sentence in the Alabama Department of Corrections. Investigators determined that Froberg had escaped from jail in April 1996, traveled to Pennsylvania where he was arrested, and then escaped again. Froberg then traveled to Dayton, Ohio, and stole a maroon Chevrolet van approximately a half a mile from his parent’s house. Froberg traveled south, exiting I-65 in Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he spotted Morgan playing in her apartment complex, snatched her and drove south.

Froberg was reportedly recently interviewed and confessed to driving her into Tennessee and strangling her, killing her.

If proven guilty, only two options await Froberg, those being life in prison or the death penalty.

There is no parole in the federal system.