Adam Fravel to be sentenced today for murder of Winona’s Madeline Kingsbury

WINONA, MINN. – The man convicted of killing Madeline Kingsbury will learn today whether he’ll spend the rest of his life in prison.

Adam Fravel will be sentenced Tuesday for murdering the mother of his children, whose disappearance at the end of March 2023 sparked nationwide interest and a search that drew thousands of volunteers before her body was found almost 10 weeks later.

Today’s sentencing ends an almost two-year saga for the families of Fravel and Kingsbury, as well as the Winona community that coalesced around her murder.

Kingsbury was a 26-year-old clinical research coordinator at Mayo Clinic in Rochester when she died. She left behind two young children who have since gone to live with their grandparents, David and Cathy Kingsbury. A custody battle between them and Fravel was paused pending the outcome of the trial, which was moved out of Winona County because of media coverage and community awareness of the case.

Fravel was convicted on four counts of murder Nov. 7 after a monthlong trial. One of his charges, first-degree premeditated murder, carries a mandatory life sentence.

Fravel and Kingsbury had an on-again, off-again relationship for seven years before Kingsbury’s disappearance. Kingsbury would often complain that Fravel never helped out around the house, according to her friends and relatives.

They also testified in court about instances of domestic abuse, including the time in September 2021 when Fravel grabbed Kingsbury by the neck from behind and pushed her onto a couch while they were watching a documentary about Gabby Petito, the Florida woman whose boyfriend killed her and hid her body earlier that year. He told her he could make her “disappear like Gabby Petito.”

The last time Kingsbury was seen alive was March 31, 2023. She and Fravel dropped off their kids at a Winona day care. Kingsbury was set to go to work that day but never made it.

Fravel was seen driving Kingsbury’s minivan down Hwy. 43 later that morning. He told police he was dropping items off at his parents’ house in Mabel, where he planned to move that weekend, but turned around after he saw items in the back that he wanted to put in a storage unit across from his and Kingsbury’s house in Winona.

Video camera footage shows Fravel driving Kingsbury’s van along the highway but doesn’t account for him for about 45 minutes after he passed through Choice Township.

Kingsbury was found on 198th Street a half-mile off Hwy. 43, on property Fravel’s father maintained for a time. A medical examiner later said she died of homicidal violence by asphyxiation, though the body was too decomposed to find further evidence.

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