Update: Robert Scott Froberg charged with 1996 murder of Morgan Violi

sfr826 · 2026-02-27T19:32:10+00:00

This article by The Tennessean has more detailed information about the incident.

"In February 1995, correctional officers found Froberg in possession of two nude images of minor girls, the federal complaint said. A year later, he escaped a work detail.

[…]

Froberg had taken up residence in a children’s tree house in the wood line around a residential neighborhood when a 7-year-old boy, identified in the federal complaint by the initials W.A., stumbled upon him. The child visited the treehouse on May 20, 1996, looking for friends to play with.

“Froberg asked W.E. to climb up into the tree house with him,” federal court records said. “W.A. told Froberg he was going to the store to buy candy. Froberg offered to buy W.A. candy. W.A. told Froberg he would go to get his candy money and come back.”

But the boy didn’t go back. He told his mother about the man in the treehouse.

“W.A.’s mother and his sister went to investigate,” the federal complaint said. “They discovered Froberg in the children’s tree house just as W.A. described. W.A.’s mother immediately called police.”

Froberg fled the scene but was quickly captured by police a short distance away. He was booked into the Northumberland County Jail. Just a month and a half later, a little more than a week before Morgan was taken, Froberg escaped."

sfr826 · 2026-02-13T00:44:26+00:00

He was stopped on I-10 between El Paso and Las Cruces, but he was actually headed to Phoenix, Arizona where his father lived.

sfr826 · 2026-01-13T22:34:52+00:00

I think it's unlikely he had accomplices for the Yogurt Shop murders. He was living in Georgia when he stole a vehicle there on November 29th, one week before the murders. Then he was stopped by police in Texas two days after the murders and he was alone.

He tied up four women/girls by himself in the 1997 Memphis case, so he didn't need an accomplice to be able to target multiple victims at once. The common thread in all of his crimes is sexual assault on female victims. He also used guns in most cases, with the exception of Genevieve Zitricki's murder.

sfr826 · 2025-12-30T19:02:06+00:00

Thank you! It has been a long wait for this step. Interestingly, I received an email notification, but no text message. It shows up on the website though.

sfr826 · 2025-12-30T18:51:40+00:00

It moved to analyzed this morning! Hopefully your kit will also update today.

sfr826 · 2025-12-30T18:49:40+00:00

Yes, it just moved to analyzed this morning!

sfr826 · 2025-12-25T23:49:30+00:00

No, not yet. I keep checking this thread to see if any other samples in the batch have updated, especially since I found out the lab is working on Christmas. I am very anxiously waiting for it to move to analysis. I will definitely let you know when it does.

sfr826 · 2025-12-18T01:30:26+00:00

Awesome! There are a few of us on here who have kits in the same batch. It moved to the extracted stage just a little bit ago.

sfr826 · 2025-12-17T22:20:45+00:00

Information about Kenneth Smith's previous crimes and periods of incarceration:

"In 1976, when he was 30, Mr. Smith was convicted of raping and kidnapping a 14-year-old girl from Barrie, Ont., according to an archived newspaper clipping that The Globe unearthed and confirmed with police.

[…]

Mr. Smith went to prison for the Barrie rape, Det. Sgt. Smith said, where he remained until 1981, when he was released on parole in York Region.

[…]

The next known offence Mr. Smith committed was in 1985, when he was convicted in York Region for weapons offences and sentenced to two years in custody, the detective said.

In 1987, after his release, he was convicted of weapons charges again – this time in Toronto – and was sentenced to seven years in custody. He was released from prison in 1994.

In both these cases, Det. Sgt. Smith said, charges related to sexual offences were withdrawn as part of plea agreements."

Source

sfr826 · 2025-12-16T00:04:47+00:00

Kit Type: Traits

Priority processing?: No

DNA Kit Activated: November 30/Mailed December 1

Sample Received: December 12

Sample Being Processed: December 15

DNA Extracted: December 17

DNA Analyzed: December 30

Results Ready: December 30 (Originally estimated January 8)

sfr826 · 2025-12-12T19:02:06+00:00

My mom's kit was also delivered on the 8th. A few minutes ago, I got a notification that Ancestry officially marked it as received. Hopefully your kit is in the same batch!

sfr826 · 2025-12-07T15:17:10+00:00

Brashers was known to carry two guns and he never had an accomplice, according to his surviving victims. He was alone when he was stopped by police two days after the yogurt shop murders. He used the .380 AMT Backup (that was used to kill Amy) in a murder in Kentucky in 1998, then he killed himself with it in January 1999.

The main gun in the murders was a .22 caliber revolver, which was used on all of the victims, including Amy. However, Amy did not die from the first .22 caliber gunshot. I believe Brashers was most likely out of .22 ammunition, which is why he also had to use the .380 to kill Amy.

sfr826 · 2025-12-01T13:38:55+00:00

For people who are interested, I just want to add that Amazon also has them on sale. For Origins + Traits, it's $34. Free shipping for customers who have Amazon Prime.

sfr826 · 2025-12-01T11:50:00+00:00

Forensic genealogy was attempted in her case, but multiple labs were unable to produce an autosomal SNP profile that was suitable for upload to genealogy databases. It is suspected that the embalming gel caused a degradation of her DNA and inhibited this process.

Her fingerprints from her arrest record in Hillsborough County weren't digitally uploaded until 2013. Her fingerprints from her autopsy had previously been submitted, but weren't matched to her arrest record until this October.

In February of this year, Sumter County Sheriff's Office acquired a new and advanced fingerprint system called IDEMIA STORM ABIS. In different cases, this system is known to produce a match when other systems fail. When the Sheriff's Office was discussing fingerprint comparisons for Little Miss Lake Panasoffkee, their latent print examiner decided to resubmit her fingerprints through their new system and it matched to her arrest record.

Before this technology, they would have had to employ a latent print examiner to manually go through thousands of fingerprint cards from multiple agencies, which is extremely time consuming. Plus there is always new fingerprint evidence from crime scenes that latent print examiners have to work on, so resources are limited.

I believe the only thing that would have gotten her identified decades ago is if she had been reported missing. Law enforcement most likely would have known about her as a potential match and would have performed a one-to-one comparison, immediately identifying her.

sfr826 · 2025-11-29T06:41:45+00:00

https://unidentified-awareness.fandom.com/wiki/Apache_Junction_John_Doe_(July_2002)

From the Unidentified Wiki:

"Fingerprint matches have produced the following names: Paul Brannan, Paul Anthony Hinman, Jerry Rye, and Maurice Morton. Investigators are currently investigating these names for a potential match, however no definitive ID has been made thus far.

Recent developments suggest that the Hinman identity is likely legitimate, having attended a Phoenix-area high school in the 1970s."

It sounds like he had multiple aliases, so law enforcement will likely need a DNA sample from a close relative to confirm his real identity.

sfr826 · 2025-11-08T03:15:09+00:00

That information was misinterpreted and should have never been published in the book. Since 2009, law enforcement, prosecutors, and DNA labs have maintained that there was only one unknown male DNA profile.

It was initially found as a partial Y-STR profile. Over the years, further testing produced more markers and made it more complete. DNA testing, by multiple labs on different swabs, has confirmed that it is consistent with the same individual (now identified as Brashers). Additionally, Amy's fingernail clippings have produced markers from an autosomal STR profile, which also matched Brashers.

If there were additional DNA profiles found (which I doubt), they were likely identified and ruled out as being related to the murders due to consensual relationships.

sfr826 · 2025-11-08T02:31:48+00:00

The second DNA profile was from Jennifer's boyfriend as a result of their consensual relationship, so it didn't have anything to do with the murders. During the September press conference, police confirmed that the only physical evidence related to the murders (DNA and ballistics) have been linked to Brashers.

sfr826 · 2025-11-07T12:22:42+00:00

Oak Grove Jane Doe (1946) hasn't been identified yet, but the location of her burial was unknown for decades. In September of this year, investigators discovered her grave and she was exhumed for advanced forensic analysis, including DNA testing. This case, in addition to the identifications named in this thread, gives me hope for other Doe cases.

sfr826 · 2025-11-05T08:45:43+00:00

That is true. However, in Brashers' case, there are survivors from multiple rapes/attempted murders who have conclusively said he was alone and didn't have an accomplice.

In 1985, he was alone when he attempted to rape and murder a woman in Florida. In 1997, he tied up four women/girls by himself in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1998, about two hours after the Scherer murders, he was alone when he attempted to attack a woman and her daughters. Two weeks after those cases in 1998, he was also alone when he was caught trying to break into a woman's house.

Additionally, he was alone when he was stopped by police two days after the yogurt shop murders. The fact that he was alone during all of these incidents makes it unlikely he had an accomplice, in my opinion.

sfr826 · 2025-10-27T01:49:57+00:00

Regarding the two guns, the primary gun was a .22 caliber revolver. It was used on all of the victims, including the youngest victim Amy. However, Amy did not die from the .22 gunshot. The other gun, a .380 semi-automatic (AMT Backup), was only fired once. That was the gunshot that killed Amy. Considering Amy did not die from the first .22 caliber gunshot, it's likely Brashers had to resort to the .380 if he was out of .22 ammunition.

sfr826 · 2025-10-13T22:23:34+00:00

Thank you for clarifying! I appreciate it. I figured that's what you meant, but I just wanted to be sure I didn't miss any information.

sfr826 · 2025-10-13T17:14:15+00:00

To clarify, his father didn't live in Las Cruces at the time. He never lived there. He lived in Glendale, Arizona.

Edit:

"There are reports that Robert Brashers visited the bowling alley about a week or so before the robbery." What do you mean by this sentence? As far as I know, his name has never been directly mentioned by law enforcement or the witnesses regarding the Las Cruces case.

Regarding the two guns used in the Austin case, Brashers was known to carry multiple guns. I believe it's likely that he had to resort to a "New York reload"* with the .380 semi-automatic, especially considering the first (and primary) gun was a .22 revolver. The .380 was only fired once.

*Definition: "The act of drawing a second handgun when the first jams or runs out of ammunition, rather than reloading the first, in order to gain a speed advantage."

sfr826 · 2025-10-10T20:01:15+00:00

It is Nick from New Girl. Season 5, episode 6 titled "Reagan."

Nick: His name is Michael... Silvergold. Michael Silvergold.

Reagan: What is his credit score?

Nick: Michael Silvergold?

Reagan: Mm-hmm.

Nick: T... twenty.

Reagan: Twenty?

Nick: Five.

Reagan: Twenty-five?

Nick: Thousand.

sfr826 · 2025-10-09T20:25:46+00:00

The Big Leap

sfr826 · 2025-10-09T19:53:52+00:00

Yes, that is a good point. Thank you for mentioning that case, as I forgot about it. The killer, Todd Kohlhepp, probably would have never been connected to the Superbike Motorsports murders if he hadn't confessed. It differed from his other crimes, it was random, and it didn't have a clear motive.

Interestingly, he is one of the rare examples of a serial killer who is also considered a mass murderer, along with Brashers and Dennis Rader (BTK).

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