Madeline Kingsbury

Case background and investigation

Madeline Kingsbury was a 26-year-old mother of two who lived in Winona, Minnesota, and worked at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, according to MPR News. She disappeared on March 31, 2023. MPR News reported that she was last seen dropping her children at a Winona daycare together with Adam Fravel, her former partner and the children's father.

Her disappearance prompted a large search and drew national attention. According to a criminal complaint described by Fox 9, Fravel told police that he left the home at about 10 a.m. that day to take items to his parents' house near Mabel, turned back partway, and assumed Kingsbury had gone to work with someone else because her vehicle was still at the home. Fox 9 reported that the complaint cited surveillance footage that investigators said was inconsistent with that account.

On June 7, 2023, a deputy found human remains off Highway 43 near Mabel, in Fillmore County. According to the Minnesota Supreme Court's later opinion, the remains were wrapped in a bedsheet, and the cause of death was determined to be homicidal violence, most likely asphyxiation. Fravel was arrested the same day, and on June 9, 2023, prosecutors filed two counts of second-degree murder in Winona County, Fox 9 reported. He was later indicted on four counts, including two of first-degree murder.

The trial was moved from Winona to the Blue Earth County Justice Center in Mankato because of pretrial publicity, according to MPR News. After a trial of about three weeks, the jury found Fravel guilty on November 7, 2024, of first-degree premeditated murder, first-degree murder involving a past pattern of domestic abuse, second-degree intentional murder and second-degree felony murder.

On December 17, 2024, Fravel was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. MPR News reported that Kingsbury's family addressed the court and that Fravel maintained at sentencing that he was innocent.

Fravel appealed, arguing among other points that hearsay statements had been wrongly admitted. The Minnesota Supreme Court heard arguments in January 2026 and on April 29, 2026, affirmed the convictions, holding that the evidence was sufficient to prove premeditation and intent and that the other claims lacked merit or were harmless, according to the published opinion and reports by Fox 9 and KTTC.