Adam Fravel is charged in Winona County with the murder of Madeline Kingsbury, with whom he shared two children. A judge ruled on Wednesday that the trial will start Oct. 7 in Blue Earth County.

By Trey Mewes

The Minnesota Star Tribune

August 21, 2024 at 11:31PM

A photo of Madeline Kingsbury stood at the front of a room alongside law enforcement during a 2023 news conference at Winona City Hall. (Elizabeth Flores/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

The murder trial of the Winona man accused of killing the mother of their children has been moved to Mankato and will start Oct. 7.

Winona County District Judge Nancy Buytendorp, who previously ordered a change of venue in the trial of Adam Fravel, wrote in an order Wednesday that Blue Earth County “is best positioned to ensure the impartiality required for a fair trial and is well-suited to accommodate this ... case.”

Madeline Kingsbury’s disappearance drew national attention as thousands of people joined the nearly 10-week search. Her body was found in Mabel, Minn., a few miles from property owned by Fravel’s parents. Fravel, her ex-boyfriend, denied involvement shortly after she went missing.

The last time Kingsbury was seen alive was when she and Fravel dropped off their children, ages 2 and 5, at day care the morning of March 31.

A grand jury indicted Fravel on first-degree murder charges last year, arguing that the killing was premeditated and that it took place with a past pattern of domestic abuse. Fravel’s attorneys tried to get the charges thrown out, but Buytendorp upheld the grand jury’s decision in June. She also signed off on the prosecution’s request to seek harsher sentencing for Fravel if he’s convicted, based on the deliberate concealment of Kingsbury’s body.

Buytendorp previously decided to move the trial out of Winona County after Fravel’s attorneys argued he wouldn’t get a fair trial there. She cited ongoing media coverage and a public-opinion poll supplied by lawyers to support her decision.

Fravel was arrested in June shortly after Kingsbury’s body was discovered.

Search warrants unsealed last year indicate friends and family knew for some time that Kingsbury and Fravel were in an abusive relationship, one Kingsbury was trying to get out of.

Warrants show several friends and family told police Fravel reportedly told Kingsbury, “If you don’t listen, you’ll end up like Gabby Petito,” the social media influencer who was slain by her boyfriend while the couple was traveling together in 2021. Fravel later told police he meant it as a joke.