WINONA. Minnesota (AP) — A Minnesota man convicted of first degree murder He faces sentencing Tuesday for killing his girlfriend, whose disappearance in 2023 after she dropped her children off at daycare drew national attention and prompted thousands of volunteers to join the search for her.
A jury found Adam Fravel, 30, of Mabel, guilty in November. he was arrested in June 2023, days after deputies Madeline Kingsbury’s body found in a wooded area a few kilometers from a property owned by Fravel’s parents.
Kingsbury, 26, disappeared in March 2023 after dropping her and Fravel’s two young children at a daycare in Winona, a southeastern Minnesota city of about 26,000 residents.
The trial was moved to Mankato, about 136 miles (219 kilometers) west of Winona, due to extensive pretrial publicity. Fravel will be sentenced back to Winona by District Judge Nancy Buytendorp. First-degree premeditated murder, the most serious of the four charges for which he was convicted, carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison.
Police found Kingsbury’s body in a culvert along a gravel road, in a gray fitted sheet that had been taped shut with black Gorilla tape. Prosecutor Phil Prokopowicz said she was strangled with a towel and a medical examiner concluded she probably died of asphyxiation. The towel, sheet and duct tape matched items found in his Winona home, Prokopowicz said during the trial.
Prokopowicz and witnesses said Kingsbury had been planning to leave Fravel for another man after becoming frustrated by his alleged abusive behavior and inadequate contributions to her family. He responded to those plans by killing her, the prosecutor said.
“The relationship was never about them,” Prokopowicz said in his closing statement. “It was always about him.”
Witnesses testified that they had seen bruises on Kingsbury’s neck. In one case, a friend said she was on a video call with Kingsbury when Fravel allegedly hit her. Another friend testified that Kingsbury told her that Fravel had warned her that she could end up like Gabby Petito, a woman who murdered by her boyfriend in a high-profile 2021 case.
Fravel did not testify in his own defense. His attorney, Zach Bauer, said in his closing argument that the case against Fravel was based on “tunnel vision, revisionist history and secret truths.” He maintained that there were no signs of a physical struggle inside the couple’s home. He also pointed to the testimony of a neighbor who claimed to have never heard the couple arguing.
The Associated Press