Minnesota man faces sentencing for killing girlfriend who vanished after leaving kids at daycare

WINONA. Minn. (AP) — A Minnesota man convicted of first-degree murder faces sentencing Tuesday for killing his girlfriend, whose 2023 disappearance after she dropped off their kids 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 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 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, because of extensive pretrial publicity. Fravel will be sentenced back in Winona by District Judge Nancy Buytendorp. Premeditated first-degree murder, the most serious of the four counts on 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 bed sheet that had been closed with black Gorilla tape. Prosecutor Phil Prokopowicz said she was strangled with a towel and that a medical examiner concluded she likely died of asphyxiation. The towel, bedsheet and tape matched items found in their Winona home, Prokopowicz said during the trial.

Prokopowicz and witnesses said Kingsbury had been planning to leave Fravel for another man after becoming frustrated with his alleged abusive behavior and inadequate contributions to their 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 they had seen bruises on Kingsbury’s neck. In one instance, a friend said she was on a video call with Kingsbury when Fravel allegedly hit her. Another friend testified that Kingsbury told her Fravel had warned Kingsbury that she could end up like Gabby Petito, a woman who was killed 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 relied on “tunnel vision, revisionist history and secret truths.” He contended that there was no sign of any physical struggle inside the couple’s home. He also pointed to testimony from a neighbor who claimed to have never heard the couple argue.