Madeline Kingsbury’s friends share details of alleged abuse in murder trial

MANKATO – One friend said she saw Adam Fravel backhand Madeline Kingsbury over a video call. Another said she watched Fravel push Kingsbury as she held her son. A third friend said Fravel told Kingsbury she would not be leaving him with their kids.

A number of Kingsbury’s friends testified Wednesday against Fravel, who is charged in Kingsbury’s death, about times they saw Fravel abuse Kingsbury or bruises they saw on Kingsbury’s body. Prosecutors are seeking to establish a pattern of domestic abuse in Fravel and Kingsbury’s relationship, which is key to one of four murder counts Fravel faces.

At the same time, defense attorneys want to discredit testimony from the friends, arguing they may have biased themselves against Fravel during the initial searches for Kingsbury after she disappeared from her Winona home on March 31, 2023. Fravel’s lawyers also seek to dismiss witnesses’ testimony about Kingsbury’s bruising, arguing the bruises happened during sex.

Hailey Scott testified she was chatting with Kingsbury on a Facetime call in February 2020 while Kingsbury made dinner, when Fravel entered the the kitchen, asking why the house was such a mess. Kingsbury replied that if she had a little help, the house wouldn’t be so messy. Fravel hit her in response, Scott told a courtroom Wednesday.

“[I] told him to never put his hands on her again or he would regret it,” Scott said.

Katie Kolka, who became friends with Kingsbury through her husband’s friendship with Fravel, told the court Wednesday that she found out about marks on Kingsbury’s neck in fall 2022 when Kingsbury was at Kolka’s house. Kolka had poked fun at Kingsbury for wearing a turtleneck when it was still warm outside, but Kingsbury pulled down her shirt to show what appeared to be a blood blister.

Kolka said the blister was reddish brown and slightly spotty on the right side of Kingsbury’s neck.

“I asked her what happened, and she said that — her voice was trembling — and she didn’t want to talk about it,” Kolka said. “She wasn’t ready.”

Kolka asked Kingsbury about it later that week; Kingsbury played the incident down but said that Fravel had choked her. Kolka told the court she asked Kingsbury to go to the police or a hospital, or even take photos of the marks on her neck, but Kingsbury told her it was no big deal. At the time, Kingsbury teared up and her face was white and a little flushed, Kolka said.

Scott testified Kingsbury had admitted to previous instances of domestic abuse shortly after Scott saw Fravel hit Kingsbury on the video call. Kingsbury told Scott it didn’t happen often, but Scott urged Kingsbury to leave the relationship.

There were other instances when Kingsbury avoided conversations about bruising, including a Facetime call in 2022 when Kingsbury was shopping and Scott saw what looked to be marks on her neck. Kingsbury said it was a shadow and hung up the call shortly after, telling Scott she was in line to check out at the store.

Yet Kingsbury told Scott about the Gabby Petito incident shortly after it happened in September 2021, when Fravel allegedly choked Kingsbury from behind and pushed her onto a couch while they were watching a documentary on Petito, the Florida blogger whose boyfriend killed her and hid her body earlier that year.

“I asked her if she was safe,” Scott said.

Lauren DuBois, who was in a sorority at Winona State University with Kingsbury and Scott, said she often saw Kingsbury at her job at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. DuBois said she witnessed Fravel shove Kingsbury into a wall or refrigerator while she was making dinner during a video call in 2022.

DuBois also told the court about a talk she had with Kingsbury in mid-March 2023, a few weeks before Kingsbury went missing. Kingsbury had planned to leave Fravel by then, but she told DuBois that Fravel had said “she would not be leaving with his kids,” according to DuBois.

In a meeting at a hotel near Mayo around the same time, DuBois said she noticed a reddish mark around Kingsbury’s neck. DuBois asked Kingsbury if there was anything Kingsbury needed and later provided her with some concealer so others wouldn’t notice.

Kingsbury “said she was figuring out a plan so that it didn’t happen again,” DuBois said.

During cross-examination, defense attorney Zach Bauer pointed out that DuBois, Scott and Kolka all became familiar with each other after Kingsbury’s disappearance, implying their conversations about the case may have led them to become biased against Fravel.

Bauer challenged Kolka on how she stored items she took from Kingsbury’s house in April 2023, when Kingsbury was still considered missing. Kolka turned over to law enforcement bedsheets that came from Kingsbury’s house after Kingsbury’s body was found in June 2023, but Bauer pointed out those items, as well as other evidence law enforcement examined at Kolka’s house, weren’t properly secured.

“Anybody could have come through the house at that time,” he said during questions.

He also pushed Scott on timelines she gave to police when Kingsbury first went missing, including when she saw Fravel backhand Kingsbury on video. At one point, she claimed law enforcement had written down the wrong date for the incident, while in another she seemed to mistake the date for when the Gabby Petito incident took place.

“I was grieving the loss of one of my best friends,” Scott said. “I was exhausted.”

She left the stand soon after, appearing to glare at Fravel as she walked across the courtroom.