Authorities say they now know who kidnapped and strangled 7-year-old Morgan Violi almost 30 years in the past.
Prosecutors say Robert Scott Froberg admitted to taking the lady in July 1996 throughout a jail escape. They say he snatched her close to a Bowling Green, Kentucky, condo constructing, drove her in a maroon van to a completely different city, strangled her with a handkerchief, and dumped her physique — all earlier than being recaptured.
Froberg had solely evaded investigators’ suspicion till a latest re-test of hair collected from the van, prosecutors say. He now faces both life in jail or the demise penalty.
“For years, this community has feared that Morgan’s abductor lived silently among us and that one of our kids could be next,” US Attorney Kyle Bumgarner stated in a assertion Friday. “Investigators in the FBI and the Bowling Green Police Department have worked tirelessly to bring justice for Morgan. They applied new technology, reexamined old evidence, and never stopped searching the truth.”
It was solely lately that investigators had the flexibility to run a strand of hair they discovered on the scene by a nationwide database — CODIS — that shops DNA from native, state and federal investigations, and match it to Froberg.
Using that match and piecing collectively Froberg’s associates — together with a male nurse identified to trade cash or help for sexual favors — the FBI and native police had been capable of establish him.
Froberg was already serving a prolonged jail sentence in Alabama for armed theft the yr that Violi went lacking, however had escaped from a work element and drove to Pennsylvania, prosecutors say. He was recaptured after a youngster found him on a playground and instructed their mum or dad, however he rapidly escaped custody as soon as once more.
In a Tuesday interview outlined in court docket paperwork, Froberg — now in his 60s — instructed investigators he then stole a automotive and began driving to Alabama to stick with a male nurse he met whereas incarcerated. Froberg stopped in Kentucky to purchase marijuana, in line with court docket paperwork, which is when he noticed Violi and one other youngster enjoying within the car parking zone.
Froberg allegedly instructed investigators that he grabbed Violi, who was “screaming” and “freaking out,” and that he instructed Violi they had been going to see her father to calm her down. Investigators say he admitted to protecting her mouth along with his hand, strangling her within the maroon van he had stolen, and disposing of her physique within the woods.
Froberg additionally cleaned and deserted the van at a truck cease, the place it was later discovered by authorities and swept for proof. That is the place investigators finally discovered a strand of his hair.
“Morgan fought,” Bumgarner stated at information convention Friday, which Viori’s mother and father reportedly attended. “She screamed. She resisted. Morgan was a fighter.”
Froberg was captured and rearrested in August 1996 and has been in jail since.