Friends of slain Winona woman detail alleged abuse at murder trial

MANKATO – One friend said she was on a video call with Madeline Kingsbury when Kingsbury’s ex, Adam Fravel, backhanded her. Another said she watched Fravel push Kingsbury as she held her son. Other friends 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, saying they may have biased themselves against Fravel during the initial searches for Kingsbury after the young mother 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.

Prosecutors are set to wrap up their case Thursday, and defense attorneys will call witnesses Friday. Closing arguments are scheduled for Monday, followed by jury deliberations.

Hailey Scott testified she was chatting with Kingsbury on a Facetime call in February 2020 as Kingsbury made dinner when Fravel entered 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 on the right side of her 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 said Fravel had choked her but played down the incident. 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 brushed it off.

It’s “fairly common” for victims of domestic abuse not to report abuse events to police, according to Melissa Scaia. She is a domestic abuse expert who testified that victims can often feel trapped as they seek to end the violence in their relationships but not the relationship itself.

Having kids in the relationship can also be a complicating factor.

“Many, many victims have said to me directly something like, ‘He’s awful to me, but I don’t want to take the kids away from him,’” Scaia said. “So kids become a big motivator.”

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

Kingsbury told several friends about one 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 Gabby Petito, the Florida blogger whose boyfriend killed her and hid her body earlier that year.

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

Kolka read text messages with Kingsbury from December 2022, including a conversation about Kingsbury trying to leave Fravel and the previous times they split up.

“That’s what sealed it for me when I kicked him out last year,” Kingsbury texted, referring to the choking incident. “I thought I could get past all the trauma but really I was doing it for him and the kids.”

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 makeup 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 might 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 that 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 choking 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.