Robert Froberg pleaded guilty to kidnapping and murdering 7-year-old Morgan Violi in federal court Monday. He will spend the rest of his life in prison.

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. - Before they walked into federal court, Morgan Violi's family held on to each other and prayed outside the courthouse doors.

Behind them came about two dozen people dressed in purple. Five more followed in shirts with the little girl's face on them.

Inside, 30 years after a stranger snatched 7-year-old Morgan from the parking lot of her family's Bowling Green apartment complex, they finally got to say, to his face, what he took.

"It feels like I have a sense of peace," Morgan's sister Nikki Britt told me after the hearing. "I'll always remember what happened. I'll always go back to that at different points in my life, but it does not define me anymore. I'm able to finish that chapter and move to the next chapter."

Justice 30 years in the making: man charged in Morgan Violi's kidnapping and murder
After decades of staying silent, Morgan's mother and two sisters reached out to me to open up about the day Morgan was taken, the decades of grief that followed, and their determination to find justice. "I'm Shay McAlister, and this is Shay Informed: an independent, ad-free platform
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61-year-old Robert Froberg was sentenced to life in federal prison for kidnapping and murdering Morgan on July 24, 1996. He signed paperwork on the spot waiving his right to appeal.

"This is a remarkable end for a community and for a family that have waited 30 long years to see justice done for Morgan," US Attorney Kyle Bumgarner said. "This is the end of that chapter."

Morgan was taken from the Colony Apartments in Bowling Green and was found dead in Tennessee about three months later. Federal prosecutors say a hair found in a stolen van, and a fiber from that van found in Morgan's hair, eventually led investigators to Froberg. The discovery didn't happen by chance- an FBI Special Agent picked up the case last year and started working it again.

"He literally picked the case up out of a corner, dusted it off, and took investigative steps that hadn't been done", US Attorney Brian Butler said, "from my perspective, he is a hero."

The judge told the family there was nothing the court could do that would be enough. "There is simply no justice here," he said. "There is no punishment sufficient in this case."

Froberg was wheeled into the courtroom. He now has long brown hair and a long white beard, and he looked frail. He kept his head down for most of the hearing. He lifted it only to occasionally meet the eyes of Morgan's family, when they spoke to him directly. At one point, answering a question from her father.

Morgan's sister, Heather Coleman, would later say she believed he wanted to look pitiful. "Pathetic" was her word for it.

Federal courts do not allow recording devices, so the statements below come from handwritten notes taken during the hearing. Morgan's family and Froberg himself took the stand. Every one of them had to pause at one point, as emotion stole their voice.

Glen Violi, Morgan's dad had one request from the man who killed his daughter, and Robert Froberg answered him. After court, I walked with Morgan's sisters and mom to hear how it was all sitting with them. This kind of reporting is only possible because of the people who believe in me.

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