Autopsy Confirms Foul Play in Kingsbury Death; Ex-Boyfriend is Charged
Formal criminal charges have been filed against Adam Taylor Fravel, the ex-boyfriend of a missing Winona woman who was found dead earlier this week. The documents reveal new details and allege prolonged abuse by Fravel, 29, including an obsession with a previous murder case that gained national attention.
According to the documents, on March 31 around 8:20 p.m., Winona police were contacted by a person who identified herself as a friend of Madeline Kingsbury, 26, and said she was concerned for Madeline’s health and safety. According to the friend, Madeline had not attempted to contact her throughout the day, which was unusual. The friend was concerned and had gone to Madeline’s residence, saw her minivan in the driveway and knocked on the door, receiving no response from inside.
The friend also told police that she was aware that Madeline was having issues with her significant other, who also lived at the residence. The friend identified the significant other as Adam Fravel.
Winona police officers spoke with the witness at Madeline’s residence in Winona and an officer knocked on the door, looked in the windows and did not see anyone inside. Officers spoke with Madeline’s father on the phone and learned that her family had also not had contact with her that day, which was out of the ordinary.
A Winona police officer spoke with Fravel by phone shortly after, who said he hadn’t heard from Madeline since early in the morning and that she was supposed to pick up their children at their Winona daycare after she finished working.
Fravel said Madeline didn’t pick up the kids that morning, so he did, and took them to his parents’ residence in Mabel, Minn. Later that evening, officers conducted a welfare check inside the Winona residence and found that no one was inside.
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Investigators spoke with the children’s daycare provider, who confirmed that both Madeline and Fravel were present when they dropped their children off at daycare on the morning of March 31 around 8:05 a.m. The daycare provider also said that Fravel was alone when he picked the children up at the end of the day.
On April 1, investigators obtained a search warrant for the couple’s residence in Winona. The interior of the residence was cluttered but there did not appear to be overt signs of a struggle, the documents said. During the search, officers found Madeline’s cell phone, jacket and purse in the home. They also found a laptop computer that Madeline used to work from home.
Investigators later obtained access to the cell phone’s databases and found a text message was sent from the cell phone to Madeline’s sister on March 31 at 8:15 a.m. Investigators noted that there were no subsequent text messages or phone calls sent from Madeline’s cell phone.
Investigators had follow-up conversations with Fravel on April 1 and April 2. During these conversations, Fravel told investigators that he had met Madeline at college in Winona and that they’d had an “on and off again” relationship for the past seven years.
The couple had two children—ages five and two—and Madeline worked from home in Winona part time, Fravel told authorities. Madeline would usually travel to Rochester for work on Mondays and Fridays, and was the primary income provider for the family. She would forward him money electronically to pay the family bills, Fravel said, and he admitted that recently their relationship was “not working,” so they decided to separate and were in the process of moving out of the Winona home.
READ MORE> Coverage on the Kingsbury case
Madeline had been looking at different apartments in the area for her and the children to live in, Fravel said, and about two weeks ago, Madeline had told him that she had started a relationship with another man. Fravel didn’t know how long the relationship had been going on.
Fravel told investigators that on Friday, March 31, he and Madeline dropped their children at daycare at around 8 a.m. and they drove home. Shortly after, Madeline said she had an online meeting to attend and afterwards was going to Rochester for work. Fravel told investigators that he observed Madeline go downstairs to her home office and that he planned to do property storage runs most of the day.
Fravel said his plan that day was to travel to his parents’ home near Mabel, Minn., with items he wanted to store at the residence and then return to Winona and take items to Midwest Storage. Fravel said that before he left, he stopped at a gas station near his Winona residence. He said that when he was loading up Madeline’s van, he “wasn’t really paying attention” to what he was loading into the vehicle and he believed he left his residence for the trip to Mabel at around 10:15 a.m., the documents said.
Fravel stated that when he got to Choice, in Fillmore County, he realized the items he had loaded into the van were meant to be stored at the storage unit, not his parents’ place. He turned around in the driveway of a barn in Choice and drove back to his residence in Winona. Fravel believed he arrived at the residence at about 11:30 a.m. and emptied the van at the couple’s Winona residence. Fravel told investigators he didn’t make any other stops on his trip to and from Choice.
When he entered the residence, he did not see Madeline, but noticed his car was still there and thought that she might have carpooled to Rochester. Fravel said he remained at the residence for the remainder of the afternoon and that he texted Madeline, but never got a response.
PREVIOUSLY: Ex-Boyfriend Arrested After Maddi Kingsbury Found Dead
He again texted Madeline regarding picking up the kids and asked about plans for supper. When she again didn’t respond, Fravel said he decided to pick up the children at daycare and drive them to his parents’ house in Mabel.
During conversations with law enforcement, officers disclosed to Fravel information they had received from a person who was concerned about their relationship. The concerned party told investigators they heard Fravel tell Madeline that “if she did not listen up, that she would end up like Gabby Petito.”
Fravel then admitted to being “infatuated” with the Gabby Petito case, in 2021. Fravel said he made a previous statement to Madeline about her “ending up like Gabby Petito,” and claimed he was trying to make a joke. The Petito case, which made national news after the 22-year-old victim’s disappearance, involved extensive searches and the eventual discovery of Petito’s remains near a park in Wyoming. It was reported Petito died of strangulation and Petito’s fiancé claimed responsibility for her death in a notebook before his death by suicide.
Investigating officers spoke with a friend of Madeline who indicated that sometime in 2020 or 2021 she was on a video call with Madeline, who was in Winona at the time. Madeline was standing up, holding one of her children and cooking dinner on the video call. The friend saw Fravel enter the room and yell at Madeline to keep quiet, the documents say. Madeline asked Fravel to calm down and he said he was “not going to calm down” and allegedly struck Madeline in the face with his hand. The friend told investigators that there were several times during video calls that she observed bruises on Madeline’s face.
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Another family member disclosed a previous incident in which Fravel is alleged to have put his hands around Madeline’s throat. The family member said a red mark was seen on the side of Madeline’s neck that day.
Two Apple iPhones were searched and found to contain messages and screenshots of messages between Kingsbury and Fravel dating back years. One screenshot, taken on Sept. 21, 2021, contained the following iMessage conversation:
Maddi – “You know I’m not really okay with or over the fact that you put your hand around my neck and pushed me down in front of the kids earlier so don’t”
Maddi – “Not okay with it all but especially with them there.”
Fravel – “You’ll adjust”
Maddi – “The f*** I will”
Maddi – “You do that again without asking me and you can go somewhere else”
Fravel – “You got it mother”
Maddi – “Don’t patronize me that crossed a line.”
Fravel – “Then mind”
Maddi – “Stop.”
Law enforcement obtained videos from security cameras and motion-detection video devices at multiple residences and businesses in the Winona neighborhood where Kingsbury and Fravel lived, including along the route Fravel said he took to his parents’ house the morning of March 31.
The videos reveal the following events:
9:44 a.m. — Madeline’s van is observed in the driveway of the Kingsbury/Fravel residence in Winona. A person in a light-colored coat is observed walking up to the front of the van, bends over, and appears to remove the front license plate on the van.
9:47 a.m. — The van is still in the driveway and the same person is observed kneeling in front of the van and appears to be reinstalling a license plate.
9:55 a.m. — A person wearing a light-colored coat or sweatshirt gets into Madeline’s van while it is parked in the driveway of the Kingsbury/Fravel residence in Winona.
10:00 a.m. — The van is no longer at the residence.
10:02 a.m. — The van is observed parked at the gas station where Fravel said he had gotten gas and a person wearing a light-colored jacket and matching the general description of Adam Fravel is observed pumping gas. Investigators also noted that the license plate on the van matches the license plate registered to the car Fravel normally drives and not the plate registered to the van. Investigating officers noticed that when they observed the van later in the evening on March 31 and on April 1, 2023, the license plates registered to the van were back on the van.
10:31 a.m. — The van is observed backed into the driveway at the Madeline/Fravel residence in Winona. 11:26 a.m.—The van is observed driving away from the residence.
11:44 a.m. — A van matching the description of Madeline’s van is observed traveling southbound on Highway 43 in the direction of Rushford and Mabel, Minnesota.
11:56 a.m. — A van matching the description of Madeline’s van is observed traveling southbound on Highway 43 in Rushford and in the direction of Mabel.
11:59 a.m. — A van matching the description of Madeline’s van is observed traveling southbound on Highway 43 south of Rushford and in the direction of Choice and Mabel, Minnesota.
12:44 p.m. — Approximately forty-five minutes later, a van matching the description of Madeline’s van is observed on a video from the same location traveling northbound on Highway 43 in the direction of Rushford and Winona.
12:47 p.m. — A van matching the description of Madeline’s van is observed traveling northbound on Highway 43 in Rushford.
1:00 p.m. — A van matching the description of Madeline’s van is observed traveling northbound on Highway 43 and turned east onto Winona County Road 12 in the direction of Winona.
1:28 p.m. — A van matching the description of Madeline’s van is observed in the driveway of her Winona residence.
On June 7, 2023, a deputy with the Fillmore County Sheriff’s Office was searching a rural area in Fillmore County next to a public gravel road about one mile from Highway 43, between Choice and Mabel, Minn. Investigating officers learned that this property had been routinely maintained by one or more Fravel family members, the documents said, and near the residence of Fravel's parents. While searching the property, the deputy located human remains in a culvert adjoining the gravel road.
The remains had been wrapped in what appeared to be a grey, fitted bed sheet that had been closed with black “Gorilla” tape. Investigators noted that during a previous search of the Madeline’s Winona residence they observed a roll of black Gorilla tape that appears to be same color and width as the tape found on the fitted sheet that Madeline was wrapped in. Investigators also noted that the fitted sheet appears to be similar to other bedding at the Winona residence. Additionally, the air mattress from the Winona residence was missing a fitted sheet. On top of the air mattress without a fitted sheet were pillows that had grey pillow cases.
The human remains were transferred to the Southern Minnesota Regional Medical Examiner’s Office in Rochester and identified as Kingsbury from dental records and tattoos. The medical examiner noted that a knotted towel had been wrapped around Madeline’s head and neck. The medical examiner’s office performed an autopsy and determined the manner and cause of Kingsbury’s death was homicide and homicidal violence.
Fravel is charged with two counts of 2nd-degree murder with intent, which each carry a maximum sentence of 40 years in prison. He made his initial court appearance on the charges on Friday, with bail set at $2 million without conditions or $1 million with conditions. According to jail records, Fravel was moved to the Olmsted County Adult Detention Center in Rochester by sometime Saturday.
READ MORE> Coverage on the Kingsbury case
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If you, or someone you love, is the victim of domestic violence, please get help now. Call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 800-799-7233.