Escaped Inmate Kidnapped & Killed KY 7YO Girl, Police Say After Break In 1996 Cold Case

[Sugar Cookie]

Authorities on Friday named a suspect in a massive break for a nearly 30-year-old Kentucky cold case with ties to Middle Tennessee.

In July of 1996, 7-year-old Morgan Violi was abducted while playing outside an apartment in Bowling Green.

Witnesses saw a man pull the girl into a burgundy van, which was located days later in Franklin, Tenn. Her body was found buried in White House, Tenn., three months later.

Nearly three decades later, police say they’ve found the man responsible for her killing — and he’s reportedly confessed.

United States Attorney Kyle G. Bumgarner announced on Friday that Robert Froburg, 62, has been charged with kidnapping resulting in death. Police say he had escaped prison and was on the run when he allegedly snatched the 7-year-old.

If convicted, he would face either life in prison or the death penalty, Bumgarner said Friday.

Officials say that Froberg confessed this week to the escapes, encounter and abduction.

He allegedly told investigators that he pulled off Interstate 65 in Bowling Green to find drugs, but ended up pulling into an apartment complex, spotting Morgan and taking her. He began driving south.

“All the while, Morgan fought,” Bumgarner said. “She screamed. She resisted. Morgan was a fighter.”

“Froberg admitted that he ultimately caused Morgan’s death in that van,” he said. “Froberg admitted to leaving Morgan’s body in the woods.”

After, the escapee allegedly told police he stayed with acquaintance for a week in Huntsville, Ala., before he went back up to Pennsylvania and was captured again.

Morgan’s body was discovered Oct. 20, 1996, near a barn in White House, Tenn., just across the Kentucky state line.

MSN

 

[Aedia]

That poor child must have been terrified. What a sad, system failure.
Hopefully her remaining relatives can at least find peace in the closure.

 

[Metalfan]

Those are demonic eyes

 

[Sugar Cookie]

Thirty years after he kidnapped and killed 7-year-old Morgan Violi, a 61-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

According to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky, Robert Scott Froberg was arrested for armed robbery in Alabama in 1988. He escaped custody in 1996 and fled to Pennsylvania, where he attempted to lure a 7-year-old boy into a treehouse in May 1996. He was apprehended and taken into custody after the child reported the incident to his mother.

Froberg escaped custody again in Pennsylvania in July 1996. He stole a van from behind his parents’ home in Dayton, Ohio, per the U.S. attorney’s office, and kidnapped Violi at an apartment complex in Bowling Green, Kentucky, on July 24, 1996. He then drove her to White House, Tennessee, and strangled her before leaving her body near a barn.

WNKY reports Violi’s remains were found three months later, in October 1996. The case went cold until DNA technology advances led investigators to Froberg. A special supervisory FBI agent “picked the case up out of the corner, dusted it off and took investigative steps that hadn’t been done and started the process,” according to Brian Butler, first assistant United States attorney for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky.

On July 24, Froberg pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping resulting in death, according to the U.S. attorney’s office. United States Attorney Kyle G. Bumgarner said, “It is hard to envision a more egregious crime than the abduction and murder of a 7-year-old child. This evil act left Morgan’s family devastated and began 30 years of unanswered questions and torturing sadness. This evil act also left the parents in our community wondering if this previously unknown predator would strike again. Whose child would he steal next? … This defendant’s depravity forever changed Morgan’s family and Bowling Green. Morgan’s abduction has been an open wound in our community for 30 years.”

WKNY reports Froberg was sentenced to life in prison without parole on Nov. 2. According to WBKO, he is currently serving a sentence in Alabama; the sentence for Violi’s death will be served concurrently.

Kentucky man who escaped custody twice gets life in prison for kidnapping, strangling 7-year-old girl in 1996

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (TCN) -- Thirty years after he kidnapped and killed 7-year-old Morgan Violi, a 61-year-old man has been sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.According to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Kentucky, Robert Scott Froberg was...

truecrimenews.com

 

[BuffettGirl]

That sketch was DAMN good! Especially below the right eye!