MANKATO, Minn. – A Minnesota man was convicted Thursday in the killing of his girlfriend, whose 2023 disappearance garnered national attention and prompted thousands of people to join search efforts before her body was found hidden in a rural area of the state.
Less than a day after deliberations began, the jury found Adam Fravel, 30, guilty of first-degree murder. He was arrested in June 2023, days after deputies found the body of Madeline Kingsbury in a wooded area a few miles away from a property owned by Fravel’s parents. The 26-year-old Kingsbury vanished in March 2023 after dropping off her and Fravel’s two young children at day care in Winona, a southeastern Minnesota town of about 26,000 residents.
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The trial centered around competing portrayals of the couple’s domestic life and the police investigation that led to Fravel’s arrest.
Phil Prokopowicz, a special prosecutor handling the case for the Winona County Attorney’s Office, built his case around testimony from family and friends of the couple who spoke to instances of alleged domestic abuse, MPR reported. Zach Bauer, Fravel’s attorney, said the law enforcement investigation and prosecution of Fravel relied on “tunnel vision, revisionist history and secret truths.”
Jurors delivered their verdict before a full courtroom with members of Kingsbury and Fravel's families in attendance. Some sitting in the courtroom gallery burst into tears when the verdicts were handed down, MPR reported.
The witnesses testified they saw bruises on Kingsbury’s neck and in one instance, a friend said she was on FaceTime with Kingsbury when Fravel allegedly hit her. Another friend testified that Kingsbury told her Fravel had warned his girlfriend that she could end up like Gabby Petito, a woman who was killed by her boyfriend in a high-profile 2021 case.
Prosecutors and other witnesses said Kingsbury had been planning to leave Fravel after becoming frustrated with his alleged abusive behavior and inadequate contributions to their family. He responded by killing her, prosecutors argued.
“The relationship was never about them,” Prokopowicz said in his closing statement. “It was always about him.”
Prokopowicz said the evidence showed Fravel was the only person with the opportunity to kill Kingsbury.
Police found Kingsbury’s body in a gray fitted bedsheet that had been closed with black Gorilla tape. Prokopowicz said she was strangled with a towel, and a medical examiner concluded she likely died of asphyxiation. The towel, bedsheet and tape matched items found in their Winona home, he added.
Bauer, Fravel's attorney, argued that there was no sign of a physical struggle inside the couple’s home, undermining the idea that Kingsbury died there. Bauer also relied on testimony from a neighbor who claimed to have seen an unknown person waving at him from the home on the morning Kingsbury disappeared.
Bauer also challenged the prosecution’s claim that Fravel engaged in a pattern of domestic abuse. He pointed to testimony from one neighbor who reported to have never heard the couple argue.
The trial took place in Mankato, Minnesota, about 136 miles (219 kilometers) from Winona after a judge granted a request from Fravel’s attorneys to have the case moved.
Fravel will be sentenced on Dec. 17.