Robert Scott Froberg was sentenced to life in federal prison on Monday, Nov. 2, in connection with the 1996 kidnapping of 7-year-old Morgan Violi in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The sentencing came nearly 30 years after the child's abduction and killing, in a case that investigators said was advanced by DNA evidence recovered from a stolen van.
The sentence was handed down in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Kentucky. According to the federal judgment, Froberg had pleaded guilty to a single count of kidnapping on July 22. He was charged in February 2026, decades after Morgan was taken from the Colony Apartments in Bowling Green.
Froberg's federal life term will run consecutively to the prison sentences he is already serving in Montgomery and Jefferson counties in Alabama. The judgment also requires him to pay a $100 assessment. Following sentencing, he was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.
The kidnapping occurred on July 24, 1996. Court records previously reported by LEX News state that Froberg stole a maroon Chevrolet van in Dayton, Ohio, a day earlier. Investigators said he subsequently traveled to Bowling Green in the vehicle and abducted Morgan from the apartment complex.
Morgan's body was later discovered in woods in White House, Tennessee. The investigation into her disappearance and death remained cold for decades. The eventual development that led investigators to Froberg involved a hair recovered from vacuum sweepings collected from the stolen van, according to court documents.
The FBI developed a DNA profile from that hair. Court records say the profile was submitted to CODIS, the national DNA database, where it produced an association with Froberg. Investigators identified that evidence as the break in the longstanding case before he was charged in February.
Investigators interviewed Froberg in Alabama that same month. According to the federal affidavit, he waived his Miranda rights during the interview and admitted that he had kidnapped and killed Morgan. His guilty plea to the federal kidnapping charge followed in July.
Monday's judgment imposed the life sentence for that kidnapping count. It specifies that the federal punishment will be served consecutively to both of the Alabama sentences Froberg is currently serving.
