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Cold case solved: Man pleads guilty in 1996 kidnapping, murder of 7-year-old Kentucky girl
New DNA testing linked Robert Scott Froberg to the cold case, and prosecutors said he faces a life sentence if the plea is accepted.
Robert Scott Froberg pleaded guilty last Wednesday in federal court to the 1996 kidnapping and murder of 7-year-old Morgan Violi, ending a case that remained unsolved for nearly 30 years.
Escaping from an Alabama prison in April 1996, Froberg drove to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he abducted Morgan from the Colony Apartments before strangling her near White House, Tennessee.
Prosecutors credited recent forensic technology advancements for the breakthrough, noting FBI testing identified a hair found inside the stolen van, which linked the vehicle to Froberg.
U.S. Attorney Kyle G. Bumgarner stated the family witnessed the defendant "admit his horrors" and agree to a life sentence, with formal sentencing scheduled in Bowling Green.
For the Bowling Green community, the abduction left 30 years of "unanswered questions and torturing sadness," while parents wondered if the previously unknown predator would strike again, Bumgarner noted.