An Alabama inmate, who had previously escaped jail twice, was charged this week in the July 1996 cold-case abduction and murder of a 7-year-old Kentucky girl, authorities announced at a news conference.
Froberg was arrested in August 1996 for an unrelated crime and was in the custody of the Alabama Department of Corrections when he was charged with Morgan’s death.
Kyle G. Bumgarner, U.S. Attorney for the Western District of Kentucky, said at a Friday news conference that advancements in forensic testing helped link Froberg to the crime.
Morgan was playing with her 6-year-old friend at the Colony Apartments in Bowling Green, Kentucky, when she was kidnapped, according to a federal affidavit in support of a criminal complaint. An adult saw the kidnapping and described the suspect as a man who was driving a maroon van.
Morgan’s body was found three months after her abduction in the woods near a barn in Tennessee.
Bumgarner said the case had “haunted” Bowling Green for nearly 30 years.
“Morgan’s kidnapping and murder changed her family’s life forever,” he said. “Morgan’s family has been left with unanswered questions: who, how, why. They’ve longed for those answers; they’ve longed for closure.”
Froberg faces either life in prison or the death penalty, Bumgarner said.
In 1996, Froberg had been serving a lengthy sentence with the Alabama Department of Corrections after he was convicted of a 1988 robbery in Montgomery, the affidavit states. He escaped from the prison in April 1996.