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By Joshua Rhett Miller
Senior Reporter
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A serial prison escapee has been charged in the 1996 kidnapping and murder of a 7-year-old girl, authorities announced Friday.
Robert Scott Froberg, 61, who is currently serving a 40-year sentence in Alabama for robbery, has confessed to abducting Morgan Jade Violi in Kentucky in 1996 and causing her death later that summer after he previously escaped an Alabama prison.
U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky Kyle Bumgarner characterized the cold-case arrest as "one of the most significant announcements" by the office in at least a decade.
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"For years, the community has feared that Morgan’s abductor lived silently among us," Bumgarner told reporters. "We feared that one of our kids might be next. I hope this announcement today can give some level of comfort to this community, my hometown."
Froberg, who had been arrested later in 1996, now faces up to life in prison or the death penalty if convicted. He is currently in prison in Alabama on unrelated charges, Bumgarner said.
The FBI's Louisville Field Office had previously sought the public's help in identifying a suspect in Violi's kidnapping and murder. The 7-year-old had been taken from the parking lot of her apartment complex in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
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"Numerous witnesses reported seeing a white male, driving an older maroon Chevrolet van, grab Morgan, place her in the passenger side of the van, and speed off in an unknown direction of travel," FBI officials said in a wanted poster.
The van used in the abduction had been stolen from Dayton, Ohio, and later recovered in Franklin, Tennessee, at a truck stop on July 26, 1996, FBI officials said.
The girl's remains were later found in Robertson County, Tennessee. A white, older-model van with a sliding door had been spotted on July 25, 1996, where the girl's body had been found, according to the FBI.
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Froberg, who also previously escaped from a prison in Pennsylvania, had been interviewed this week by investigators prior to his arrest while in custody in Alabama.
"Froberg admitted he ultimately caused Morgan's death in that van," Bumgarner told reporters.
The girl fought back and screamed, prompting her mother to let out a gasp as the prosecutor spoke during Friday's press conference, The Tennessean reported.
A criminal complaint filed Friday alleges a hair found in the abandoned van led investigators to Froberg following recent advancements in forensic testing of DNA evidence.
After escaping custody in Alabama in April 1996, Froberg traveled to Pennsylvania, where he was arrested and escaped a second time, federal prosecutors said.
Froberg proceeded to Dayton, Ohio, where he stole a marron Chevrolet van near his parent's house. He then traveled to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where he abducted Morgan as she played outside with her sisters and friends at an apartment complex, prosecutors said.
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