MANKATO, MINN. – A jury here found Adam Fravel guilty of murdering his ex-girlfriend Madeline Kingsbury, the Winona woman whose disappearance at the end of March 2023 sparked nationwide interest and a search that drew more than 2,000 volunteers.
Adam Fravel guilty on all four counts in murder of ex-girlfriend Madeline Kingsbury
After 10 hours of deliberations, a jury found Adam Fravel guilty of killing the 26-year-old mother of two, whose disappearance sparked nationwide interest.
The Minnesota Star Tribune
November 7, 2024 at 5:36PM
Fravel, 30, was charged with four counts of murder after Kingsbury’s body was found in a culvert near a dirt road off Hwy. 43 that June, a few miles from Fravel’s parents’ property. His trial started Oct. 7, and the jury deliberated for about 10 hours before reaching a verdict Thursday morning.
Fravel is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 17.
Kingsbury’s body was found on June 7. Prosecutors say Fravel was jealous because Kingsbury planned to leave him for another man. Fravel also depended on Kingsbury financially, and the relationship appears to have turned sour after Kingsbury gave birth to the first of their two children.
Kingsbury and Fravel’s friends and family were present at the verdict.
Fravel, dressed in a black suit, appeared to cry and used a tissue to wipe his face as people filed into the courtroom. Both sides had tears in their eyes by the time Winona County District Judge Nancy Buytendorp finished with the verdict.
Several of Fravel’s family members sobbed after the court adjourned.
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 family.
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 blogger whose boyfriend killed her and hid her body earlier that year.
Kingsbury and her children stayed with her parents, David and Cathy Kingsbury, at their home afterward.
David Kingsbury told the court that he urged Madeline to file a police report over the incident, but she never did. Kingsbury said he thought Madeline “tempered her description” of the incident after she had time to think about her future with Fravel, as well as how leaving him would affect their children’s relationship with him.
Zach Bauer, Fravel’s defense attorney, dismissed the event as a bad joke gone wrong, pointing out Fravel had apologized and told her it was a joke shortly after it happened. But prosecutors say the incident, as well as other incidents friends observed over video calls, fit a pattern of domestic abuse. That was a key part of one of the murder charges Fravel faces.
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 at Mayo Clinic in Rochester that day but never made it.
Fravel was seen driving Kingsbury’s minivan down Hwy. 43 later Friday 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 later found on 198th Street a half-mile off of Hwy. 43, on property Fravel’s father maintained for a number of years. Her body was wrapped in a gray fitted sheet duct-taped together; she also had a towel tied around her neck. A medical examiner later said she died of homicidal violence by asphyxiation, though the body was too decomposed to find further evidence.
Prosecutors allege the sheet and towel found with Kingsbury came from her and Fravel’s home. Fravel’s lawyers point out DNA evidence was inconclusive (though the towel hit matches on Fravel and Kingsbury). Bauer also took issue with how evidence was taken and stored, accusing law enforcement of shoddy work after a BCA agent at one point found evidence in bags with water on top of them.
Kingsbury was 26 when she died, leaving behind at the time a 5-year-old and 2-year-old who live with her parents. A custody battle between them and Fravel was paused pending the outcome of the trial.
The trial was moved out of Winona County earlier this year because of media coverage and community awareness of the case.
Districts 14B and 54A are tight. What does the vote landscape look like there?
