An Alabama inmate, who had previously escaped jail twice, was charged this week in the July 1996 cold-case abduction and murder of a 7-year-old Kentucky girl, authorities announced at a news conference.
Robert Scott Froberg was charged Thursday in a federal criminal complaint with kidnapping resulting in death in connection with the murder of Morgan Violi.
Froberg was arrested in August 1996 for an unrelated crime and was in the custody of the Alabama Department of Corrections when he was charged with Morgan's death.
Kyle G. Bumgarner, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, said at a Friday news conference that advancements in forensic testing helped link Froberg to the crime.
Morgan was playing with her 6-year-old friend at the Colony Apartments in Bowling Green, Kentucky, when she was kidnapped, according to a federal affidavit in support of a criminal complaint. An adult saw the kidnapping and described the suspect as a man who was driving a maroon van.
Morgan's body was found three months after her abduction in the woods near a barn in Tennessee.
Bumgarner said the case had "haunted" Bowling Green for nearly 30 years.
"Morgan’s kidnapping and murder changed her family’s life forever," he said. "Morgan’s family has been left with unanswered questions: who, how, why. They’ve longed for those answers; they’ve longed for closure."
Froberg faces either life in prison or the death penalty, Bumgarner said.
In 1996, Froberg had been serving a lengthy sentence with the Alabama Department of Corrections after he was convicted of a 1988 robbery in Montgomery, the affidavit states. He escaped from the prison in April 1996.
While on the lam, authorities said he stole an elderly woman's car and traveled to Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania. In May 1996, he was apprehended after a mother called police to report that a man had been hiding in a treehouse used by neighborhood children.
He was taken to the Northumberland County Jail in Pennsylvania, but escaped in July 1996 by climbing a rain spout to the roof and then using a cable to climb down to the ground, according to the affidavit.
About a week after escaping the Northumberland County Jail, a maroon van later connected to Morgan's kidnapping was stolen from behind a residence in Ohio, according to the affidavit. Froberg's parents lived less than a half a mile from where the van was stolen, Bumgarner said.
Detectives continued to work the case over the years, Bumgarner said. The affidavit says that fiber evidence, DNA advancements and a database used to store DNA profiles led to Froberg. Fiber found in Morgan's hair was traced back to the stolen van, then a strand of hair found in the van was linked via DNA to Froberg.
Earlier this week, detectives interviewed Froberg. Bumgarner said Froberg admitted that after he escaped from the county jail, he traveled through Kentucky to Huntsville, Alabama, where he intended to hide with a male nurse he met while at the Alabama prison.
He also admitted that he kidnapped Morgan, strangled her, and then left her naked body in the woods, the affidavit states. He said he threw her clothes in a dumpster because he thought they might contain DNA evidence, according to the affidavit.
Bumgarner said Froberg stayed with the nurse for about a week before traveling to Pennsylvania, where he was arrested in August 1996 in connection with the Alabama prison escape.
