Bowling Green, Kentucky: Froberg Gets Life Sentence in 1996 Morgan Violi Murder

Robert Scott Froberg, 61, will spend the rest of his life in federal prison for the 1996 abduction and murder of 7 year old Morgan Violi of Bowling Green, Kentucky. United States District Judge Greg Stivers accepted Froberg's plea agreement and sentenced him to life on November 3, 2026, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Kentucky said. A life sentence in federal court carries no parole.

Froberg pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping resulting in death. The sentencing closed a case that stayed unsolved for three decades, until forensic testing on a hair recovered from the van used in the abduction pointed investigators to a man who was already serving a long prison sentence in Alabama.

The 1996 abduction

Morgan Violi was playing with her sisters and friends at the Colony Apartments in Bowling Green on July 24, 1996, when witnesses saw a man grab her, put her in a maroon Chevrolet van and drive away, prosecutors said. The van was found two days later in Franklin, Tennessee, and searched for evidence. Morgan's body was found in woods near White House, Tennessee, on October 20, 1996. The killing drew national attention at the time and stayed open for years despite the work of local and federal investigators.

How the case was solved

Using advances in forensic science, the FBI laboratory tested evidence from the abandoned van. A hair found in the van returned an association with Froberg, who was serving a lengthy sentence in the Alabama Department of Corrections, prosecutors said. Investigators then found that Froberg had escaped from Alabama custody during the period when Morgan was abducted and killed.

After that escape, Froberg traveled to Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania, where he attempted to abduct a seven year old boy and was taken to the Northumberland County Jail, prosecutors said. He escaped from that jail, went to Dayton, Ohio, stole a maroon Chevrolet van about half a mile from his parents' house, and drove south on I-65, exiting at Bowling Green. Froberg admitted to investigators that he drove Morgan to White House, Tennessee, and strangled her, prosecutors said. He left the stolen van in Franklin, Tennessee, and was later arrested in Pennsylvania and returned to Alabama custody.

Froberg had been scheduled for release from Alabama custody in the near future. Instead, he will now remain in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons for life, prosecutors said. The case was investigated by the FBI, the Bowling Green Police Department and the Robertson County, Tennessee, Sheriff's Office.

United States Attorney Kyle G. Bumgarner and First Assistant United States Attorney Brian Butler said Morgan's kidnapping and murder forever changed the lives of her family and of the entire Bowling Green community, and that the family and law enforcement never stopped working for answers. FBI Louisville Special Agent in Charge Olivia Olson said the bureau hopes the sentence closes a dark chapter for the family and for Bowling Green, and that investigators never stopped following leads in the thirty years since the abduction.

The Courier Journal in Louisville reported the sentence on Friday, November 6, as the top item in its morning local briefing, three days after Judge Stivers imposed it in Bowling Green.