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A man who was an escaped fugitive at the time of a 7-year-old Kentucky girl’s abduction has been charged in her killing 30 years later, according to authorities.
Morgan Jade Violi was abducted while playing outside her apartment building on July 24, 1996, in Bowling Green, Kentucky — and for 30 years her case remained cold until recent advancements in forensic science linked Robert Scott Froberg to her killing.
Froberg, who was already in the Alabama prison system, was charged Thursday with kidnapping resulting in death, United States Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky Kyle G. Bumgarner said at a press conference Friday.
“Morgan’s kidnapping and murder changed her family’s life forever,” Bumgarner also said.
“Morgan’s family’s been left with unanswered questions.”
Morgan Jade Violi on the left, with a sketch of the suspect shown at right. (FBI)
He said her abduction also changed the Bowling Green community.
“We remember when she was abducted, we remember the outpouring of support, but we also remember the fear,” said Bumgarner, who is from Bowling Green. “We remember that we were concerned about our kids in the driveway innocently riding a bike or playing basketball.”
Eyewitnesses to Violi’s abduction said she was taken by a man in his 20s driving a burgundy van that was found days later abandoned at a truck stop in Tennessee. The van was stolen in Ohio days before.
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Bumgarner said forensic evidence taken from the van at the time was “key” to tracing Violi — and then decades later, linking Froberg to the crime.
“A fiber found in Morgan’s hair was tested by the FBI forensic laboratory shortly” after she was found, Bumgarner said, adding that it was found to be consistent with the van.
“Still, the suspect remained unidentified for many, many years,” he added.
A fiber found in the burgundy van linked Violi to it. It took decades for her suspect to be linked to the crime. (FBI)
Due to recent advancements in forensic testing, he said, the FBI sent a strand of hair for testing this year, and a DNA profile extracted from the hair was linked to Froberg.
Froberg had escaped from the Alabama prison system in April 1996, and was reported to later have talked to a 7-year-old boy in Pennsylvania while hiding in a child’s tree house.
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The boy told his parents, who called the police — and Froberg was arrested.
He then escaped from a jail in Pennsylvania a week before the van was stolen from Ohio, less than a mile from where his parents lived.
Young Violi of Bowling Green, Kentucky, was kidnapped in this stolen van. (FBI)
Faced with the evidence at his prison in Alabama this week, Froberg admitted to taking Violi with him after he stole the van, said Bumgarner.
“All the while Morgan fought, she screamed, she resisted. Morgan was a fighter,” Bumgarner said.
Froberg also admitted that he stopped in a wooded area of Tennessee, climbed into the back of the van where Violi was, covered her mouth with his hand and “ultimately caused her death,” said Bumgarner.
Froberg left the child’s body in the woods.
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He was arrested a month after her killing for fleeing the Alabama prison system, where he has remained since.
He could face life in prison or death if convicted, Bumgarner said.
Bumgarner added that for years the community feared that Violi’s killer might be living “silently” among them, and that “one of our kids might be next.”
“They’ve waited far too long for answers.”
He said he hoped the news would give the community and her family some sense of comfort that he is behind bars.
“They’ve waited far too long for answers,” Bumgarner said of her parents and her two older sisters.
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He asked the community to “continue to surround Morgan’s family in love and in prayer.”
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