UNSOLVED: The Morgan Violi Kidnapping and Murder

Innocent Blood
by Robert A. Waters

The distance between an unsolved murder and a decade seems to drag on forever. During that time, families are shattered and communities devastated. The brazen mid-day abduction and murder of seven-year-old Morgan Violi from Bowling Green, Kentucky was said to have snatched the innocence from the sleepy, Bible-belt community. As her mother Stacey said, “That’s the day I lost faith in the human race.”

Shortly after noon, on July 24, 1996, Morgan was kidnapped from the front of her home. She and her sister and a friend were playing just outside the door of the Colony Apartments when a van stopped beside them. A man got out, pulled Morgan into his vehicle, and sped away.

The Bowling Green Police Department and the Warren County Sheriff’s Department didn’t waste time. The Amber Alert system was not yet in place, but they recognized the danger to the child and launched a determined search. Deputy Roger Osborne described the police response. “We went up to the first overpass on Interstate 65,” he said, “and watched the vehicles for one matching the description. We had the entire area surrounded.” Osborne said he is still amazed that the suspect was able to slip through the dragnet.

The FBI was called in to help coordinate the investigation. Over the years, local detectives and the feds have investigated thousands of leads. A reward of $67,000 is currently being offered.

Stacey Violi, Morgan’s mother, had finalized her divorce from her husband, Glen, just two hours before the kidnapping. Investigators quickly tapped him as the main suspect, but he had an airtight alibi: Glen Violi was at work during the time of the abduction and was eventually eliminated as a suspect.

The family wanted answers. Where was their little girl? Was she still alive and being held captive by some monster? Or had her voice been silenced forever? Morgan would have started the second grade when school began in the fall. She was a friendly girl with a beautiful smile. The family couldn’t imagine life without her.

Four months later, on October 20, 1996, a hiker found Morgan’s remains. She was located about 40 miles south of Bowling Green, in Robertson County, Tennessee, near a culvert along the side of North Swift Road. Detectives have released little information about this part of the investigation.

On the day Morgan went missing, witnesses noticed an older model white Ford van parked beside a rundown barn about a hundred feet from where the child’s body was found. It had lingered there for about four hours. The van had unusual louvered windows in the sliding door. Investigators searched extensively for this vehicle but never found it.

The maroon van used in the abduction was found parked at a truck stop in Franklin, Tennessee. It had been stolen from Dayton, Ohio two days earlier.

Several eyewitnesses described the suspect as a white male with shoulder-length sandy-brown hair. According to the Robertson County Sheriff’s Department, “he appeared to be in his twenties at the time. He had a slender build but with defined muscles. At that time he had a mustache and some beard. He did have one outstanding feature that was noticed by all witnesses--he had a sharp, distinct nose.” The suspect was about six feet, one inch tall and weighed approximately 180 pounds.

A devastated Stacey Violi told reporters: “I never realized there was anyone that evil who could just take [Morgan] and do that.”

Ten years later, her outrage still has not faded. “Revenge is a double-edged sword,” she said. “But I’ll suffer the rest of my life and I want [the killer] to suffer for the rest of [his] life.”

Below is a police sketch of the suspect. Since he had almost certainly stolen a van in Dayton, Ohio, he may well be a career criminal and may be incarcerated somewhere. If you think back to ten years ago and recognize the suspect, please call the Bowling Green FBI office at 270-781-4734.