30-Year Cold Case Ends: Man Who Kidnapped and Murdered a 7-Year-Old Girl Sentenced to Life Without Parole
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. — Bowling Green is in Warren County, Kentucky. On November 2, a federal court in Bowling Green sentenced Robert Scott Froberg, 61, to life in prison without the possibility of parole. In 1996 he kidnapped and murdered 7-year-old Morgan Violi here, and the sentence closes a cold case that haunted this community for 30 years. According to WBKO, U.S. District Judge Gregory Stivers said the case has haunted Bowling Green for the last 30 years; the new sentence runs consecutively to the sentence Froberg is serving in Alabama, and he signed papers in court waiving his right to appeal.
The crime dates to 1996. According to Justice Department charging and plea filings, Froberg was arrested for armed robbery in Alabama in 1988 and escaped from the Alabama Department of Corrections on April 3, 1996. That May, in Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, he tried to lure a 7-year-old boy into a treehouse; the boy ran to his mother, and Froberg was arrested and jailed in Northumberland County. On July 16, 1996, he escaped again and fled to Dayton, Ohio.
On July 23, Froberg stole a maroon Chevrolet van near his parents' home and drove south toward Huntsville, Alabama. On July 24, at the Colony Apartments in Bowling Green, he first tried to abduct a friend of Morgan's, who broke free. He then grabbed Morgan, threw her into the stolen van and fled south on I-65, exiting at White House, Tennessee, where he pulled over near a barn, strangled Morgan and left her body there. Her remains were found in Tennessee about three months later.
For three decades, despite tireless investigative efforts, the case remained unsolved. The Justice Department says advances in DNA processing since the 1990s, including the creation of the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), led investigators to request additional laboratory testing of old evidence; a hair found in the abandoned van was associated with Froberg, who was then serving a long sentence in Alabama. A federal criminal complaint was filed on February 26, 2026; according to the complaint, Froberg confessed in an interview to driving Morgan into Tennessee and strangling her.
On July 22, 2026, Froberg pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of kidnapping resulting in death and agreed to a life sentence. U.S. Attorney Kyle G. Bumgarner said at the plea: '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. Morgan's abduction has been an open wound in our community for 30 years.'
There is no parole in the federal system, so the life sentence means Froberg will remain in prison for the rest of his life. The case was investigated by the FBI's Bowling Green office, the Bowling Green Police Department and the Robertson County, Tennessee, Sheriff's Office, and prosecuted by U.S. Attorney Kyle G. Bumgarner, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Butler and Assistant U.S. Attorney Kayla Campbell. (Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：位于 Bowling Green 的 Warren County Justice Center（资料图）。OPMaster 摄，CC BY-SA 3.0，经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: The Warren County Justice Center in Bowling Green. By OPMaster, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
