Federal authorities have charged Robert Scott Froberg, 61, in connection with the 1996 kidnapping and murder of 7-year-old Morgan Violi. The charges were filed in U.S. District Court on February 26, 2026.
The announcement was made at a press conference on February 27 by U.S. Attorney Kyle G. Bumgarner for the Western District of Kentucky, FBI Special Supervisory Agent William Kurtz, Bowling Green Police Chief Michael Delaney, and Commonwealth’s Attorney Kori Beck Bumgarner.
According to the criminal complaint, Morgan Violi was abducted on July 24, 1996, while playing at the Colony Apartments in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Witnesses reported seeing a white man take Morgan and drive away in a maroon Chevrolet van. The van was later found south of Nashville, Tennessee. On October 20, 1996—three months after her disappearance—Morgan’s body was discovered in White House, Tennessee.
For years the case remained unsolved. Recent advances in forensic DNA testing allowed investigators to test a hair found in the abandoned van. The FBI laboratory linked this evidence to Robert Scott Froberg, who was serving time in Alabama at the time of testing. Investigators learned that Froberg had escaped jail twice in 1996 and stolen a maroon Chevrolet van near his parents’ home in Dayton, Ohio before traveling south to Bowling Green.
Law enforcement officials stated that Froberg confessed during a recent interview to driving Morgan into Tennessee and strangling her.
U.S. Attorney Bumgarner said: “Morgan Violi’s family never gave up on her, and neither did the Bowling Green community or its law enforcement community. For years, this community has feared that Morgan’s abductor lived silently among us and that one of our kids could be next. 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 for the truth. Yesterday, we filed a criminal complaint charging Robert Scott Froberg with her kidnapping, resulting in her death.”
If convicted of these federal charges, Froberg faces either life imprisonment or the death penalty; parole is not available under federal law.
The investigation is being conducted by the FBI and Bowling Green Police Department. United States Attorney Kyle Bumgarner and First Assistant United States Attorney Brian Butler are prosecuting the case.
Authorities remind that a criminal complaint is an allegation only; all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt.
