Adam Fravel guilty on all four counts in murder of ex-girlfriend Madeline Kingsbury

MANKATO, MINN. – A jury here found Adam Fravel guilty of murdering Madeline Kingsbury, the Winona woman who was his ex-girlfriend and whose disappearance in March 2023 sparked nationwide interest and a search that drew more than 2,000 volunteers.

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 Dec. 17. He faces a mandatory life sentence for first-degree premeditated murder.

Kingsbury’s body was found 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.

Friends and family of both Kingsbury and Fravel were in attendance for the verdict.

Fravel, dressed in a black suit, showed emotion in court for the first time when he broke down in tears and wiped his face with a tissue as people filed into the courtroom. Both sides had tears in their eyes by the time Winona County District Judge Nancy Buytendorp finished reading the verdict.

Several of Fravel’s family members sobbed after the court adjourned.

“It’s been a disappointing day,” Fravel’s attorney, Zach Bauer, said. Bauer believes Fravel will appeal the verdict, but it’s unclear whether Bauer will continue to represent him.

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. He told her he could make her “disappear like Gabby Petito.”

Bauer dismissed the event as a bad joke, pointing out that Fravel had apologized and told her it was a joke shortly after it happened. But prosecutors say the incident, as well as others that friends observed over video calls, fit a pattern of domestic abuse. That was a key part of one of the murder charges.

Afterward, Kingsbury and her children stayed with her parents, David and Cathy Kingsbury.

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 what happened 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.

“It’s a pyrrhic victory,” David said after the verdict. “We’re not going to get Madeline back. Fravel can’t be punished enough.”

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 that 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.

Katie Kolka, one of Kingsbury’s best friends, contacted police later that night after she couldn’t get hold of Kingsbury. She tried going to Kingsbury’s house, but no one was home.

“I knew from that night that she was gone,” Kolka said after the verdict. She said she feels good that Fravel is facing justice.

Kingsbury was 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 that had been 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.

“To say this that this was a huge undertaking would be a great understatement,” said Winona Police Chief Tom Williams.

Williams said law enforcement worked together for months even after Fravel was arrested to ensure his conviction.

Prosecutors alleged 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 two children, then 5 and 2, who now live with her parents. A custody battle between them and Fravel was paused pending the outcome of the trial, which was moved out of Winona County because of media coverage and community awareness of the case.

Kingsbury’s family and friends say will continue to share her story so that she’s more well-known than Fravel. They’ve already adopted a highway in her honor and plan to start a foundation in her name.

“Anything to keep Maddi’s name out in the public,” Kolka said.

It will fall to Kingsbury’s parents to raise the children.

“We’ve got to figure out a new normal,” David said. “Life won’t be the same.”