Body found south of Winona; father of missing woman's children arrested

The Winona Police Department arrested the father of a missing woman's children on Wednesday, not long after a sheriff's deputy found a body in nearby Fillmore County.

In a Wednesday night Facebook post, the Winona Police Department said the body had yet to be identified, but that it was found using information gathered during the investigation into Madeline Kingsbury's disappearance at the end of March.

A Fillmore County deputy found the human remains Wednesday afternoon north of Mabel, which is about 46 miles south of Winona. The body was in the brush off of Highway 43.

Officers arrested Adam Fravel, 29, after discovering the body. As of Wednesday, Fravel was in the Winona County Detention Center on suspicion of second-degree murder, the jail log shows.

It's not directly indicated on the log if Fravel was arrested on suspicion of murdering Kingsbury, whose 27th birthday was June 1. Winona police declined to take additional questions in a phone call from the Star Tribune. The department plans to hold a news conference Thursday to release more details.

The children, ages 5 and 2, have been in the custody of Kingsbury's parents since she was last seen in Winona on March 31.

"Numerous" members of various police departments and sheriff's offices, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Southern Minnesota Regional Medical Examiner's Office are working to identify the remains, the Winona police Facebook post read.

"We are asking the community to respect the family's privacy at this time and not to speculate on the case until further information is made available," the post read.