Man charged in nearly 30-year-old kidnapping, death case

1 hour ago

ABC 36 Digital Staff,

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (ABC36 NEWS NOW) – Nearly 30 years after a 7-year-old girl was kidnapped from a Bowling Green apartment complex, a federal criminal complaint has now been filed in the case.

Robert Scott Froberg, 62, is charged with kidnapping resulting in death under federal law, according to court documents filed Thursday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky.

The complaint states the crime happened on or about July 24, 1996, in Warren County.

According to an FBI affidavit filed in support of the complaint, Morgan Violi was playing near the wood line at the Colony Apartments in Bowling Green when a man driving a maroon Chevrolet van tried to grab another child before kidnapping Morgan.

Investigators say that van had been stolen in Dayton, Ohio, the day before the kidnapping. Two days later, law enforcement found the vehicle at a truck stop in Williamson County, Tennessee.

Morgan’s body was later discovered on October 20, 1996, in the woods in White House, Tennessee, according to the affidavit.

For decades, the case remained unsolved. But according to the affidavit, advances in DNA technology allowed the FBI to re-test evidence collected from the van. Agents extracted a DNA profile from a hair found inside the vehicle. When that profile was entered into CODIS, it was linked to Froberg.

Investigators interviewed Froberg on Tuesday of this week. According to the affidavit, he waived his Miranda rights and admitted to traveling through Bowling Green, taking Morgan, and later strangling her in Tennessee before abandoning her body.

Court records show Froberg had previously escaped from custody in 1996 and had been traveling through multiple states around the time of the kidnapping.