DNA evidence links former escaped fugitive to Kentucky girl’s 1996 killing

A man who was a fugitive when a 7-year-old Kentucky girl was kidnapped has been charged with her murder 30 years later, according to authorities.

Morgan Jade Violi was abducted while playing outside her apartment in Bowling Green, Kentucky, on July 24, 1996, and for 30 years her case remained inconclusive until recent advances in forensic science linked Robert Scott Froberg to her murder.

Froberg, who is currently in the Alabama prison system, was charged Thursday with kidnapping resulting in death, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky Kyle G. Bumgarner said at a news conference Friday.

“Morgan’s kidnapping and murder changed his family’s lives forever,” Bumgarner said.

“Morgan’s family is left with unanswered questions.”

Her abduction also changed the Bowling Green community, he said.

“We remember when he was kidnapped, we remember the support that was pouring in, but we also remember the fear,” said Bumgarner, of Bowling Green. “We remember worrying about our kids innocently riding bikes or playing basketball in the driveway.”

Witnesses to Violi’s kidnapping said he was abducted by a man in his 20s driving a burgundy minivan, which was found abandoned days later at a truck stop in Tennessee. The van was stolen days ago in Ohio.

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Bumgarner said at the time that forensic evidence taken from the van was “key” to tracking down Violi and linking Froberg to the crime decades later.

“A fiber found in Morgan’s hair was tested shortly thereafter by the FBI forensic laboratory,” Bumgarner said, adding that it was found to be consistent with the van.

“Yet the suspect remained unidentified for many years,” he added.

A fiber found in the maroon van connected Violi to it. It took decades for his suspect’s connection to the crime to be revealed. (FBI)

He said that due to recent advances in forensic testing, the FBI sent a strand of hair for testing this year, and the DNA profile taken from the hair was linked to Froberg.

Froberg escaped from the Alabama prison system in April 1996 and later reportedly talked to a 7-year-old boy while hiding in a child’s treehouse in Pennsylvania.

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The child told the situation to his family, who called the police. And Froberg was arrested.

He then escaped from a prison in Pennsylvania, less than a mile from where his parents lived, a week before the van was stolen from Ohio.

Young Violi from Bowling Green, Ky., was kidnapped in this stolen van. (FBI)

Bumgarner said Froberg, when confronted with the evidence in his Alabama jail this week, admitted that he took Violi with him after stealing the van.

“The whole time Morgan fought, she screamed, she resisted. Morgan was a warrior,” Bumgarner said.

Froberg also admitted to stopping in a wooded area of ​​Tennessee, climbing into the back of the van Violi was in, covering her mouth with his hand and “ultimately causing her death,” Bumgarner said.

Froberg left the boy’s body in the woods.

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He was arrested for escaping from the Alabama prison system a month after her murder and has remained there ever since.

If convicted, he could face life in prison or death, Bumgarner said.

Bumgarner added that the community had feared for years that Violi’s killer might be living “quietly” among them and that “one of our children could be next.”

“They waited too long for answers.”

He said he hopes the news gives the community and his family some sense of comfort that he is behind bars.

“They waited too long for answers,” Bumgarner said of his parents and two older sisters.

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He asked the community to “continue to surround Morgan’s family with love and prayers.”

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