Adam Fravel on trial for the Murder of Madeline Kingsbury

Video from Hubbard Broadcasting’s KAAL-TV

Attorneys delivered opening statements on Thursday in the high-profile murder trial of Adam Fravel, the former boyfriend of a Madeline Kingsbury, whose body was found hidden in a rural area of the state in 2023.

According to Hubbard Broadcasting’s sister-station, KAAL, opening statements in Adam Fravel’s murder trial were given to a nearly full courtroom at the Blue Earth Co. Justice Center.

For the very first time, Fravel and his team of attorneys, Zachary Bauer and Grace Dokken of Meshbesher & Spence, presented their arguments to the 17-person jury as to why he is innocent in the murder of the mother of his children, Madeline Kingsbury.

30-year-old, Adam Fravel is on trial for first-degree murder. He was arrested in June 2023 just days after deputies found the body of Madeline Kingsbury in a wooded area a few miles from property that is owned by Fravel’s parents.

Police found Kingsbury’s body in a gray fitted bed sheet that had been closed with black Gorilla tape. A medical examiner concluded she likely died of asphyxiation. 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.

On Thursday, the prosecution gave its opening arguments to the jury first. Phillip Propokowicz, a special prosecutor handling the case for the Winona County Attorney’s Office taking the lead. Propokowicz appeared calm, stoic and matter of fact to the jury as he told the story of Kingsbury’s life. He says “Madeline Kingsbury will not testify. She’s not here. But through the testimony of her friends, family, forensic scientists and investigators you will hear the story of Kingsbury’s life. You’ll hear her happiness, her sadness and her tragic death.”

Propokowicz explained to the jury the evidence they will see, the testimony they will hear and went through the last few months and weeks of Kingsbury’s life. A great detail of the testimony was spent on the mother went missing, March 31, 2023.

A history of domestic violence was painted to the jury, as Propokowicz walked through several instances that friends or family saw abuse happening by Fravel to Kingsbury. One of these dates back to 2021, when Kingsbury was watching coverage on the Gabby Petito case. Propokowicz said that “Fravel put his hands around her neck, pushed her down and threatened she would end up like Petito if she did not learn to mind.”

According to friends and family, Propokowicz says Kingsbury was seen with bruises on her neck several times before she disappeared and, “would even wear turtlenecks in the heat of the summer.”

Another part of the opening statement was the pieces of evidence the state is preparing to show the court, including the way in which Kingsbury’s body was found several months after she was reported missing. Kingsbury was found in a culvert on a gravel road off of Highway 43 just south of Rushford, Minn. in Fillmore Co.

Propokowicz told the jury that same bed sheet matches the missing sheet inside Fravel and Kingsbury’s shared home and that the duct tape is consistent with a similar roll found inside as well. Kingsbury’s cause of death was ruled to be asphyxiation and a bath towel was found wrapped in a slip know around her neck. The prosecution says a photo on Kingsbury’s phone of her children bathing in a bathroom shows the same bath towel hanging on a towel rack.

Propokowicz tells the jury that they will see pieces of evidence like phone data and surveillance cameras to create Fravel’s timeline from the day Kingsbury disappeared and claims Fravel was driving right where the 26-year-old’s body was found.

After 45 minutes, Propokowicz wrapped up his opening statement.

Fravel’s attorney, Zachary Bauer told the jury that investigators ignored evidence that pointed to his client’s innocence. He said Fravel had been deemed guilty by law enforcement from the beginning. He said he would challenge the prosecution’s version of how and where the body was found, and who may have had access to the remote site a few miles away from a property owned by Fravel’s parents.

Police said they investigated hundreds of tips and that digital evidence, including phone and computer records, helped lead to the discovery of the body.

Bauer argued that 24 hours after Kingsbury was reported missing on March 31, 2023, law enforcement zeroed in on Fravel and Fravel alone. Bauer stated that from April 1 until Kingsbury’s body was discovered on June 7 of that same year, Fravel was under constant surveillance. He claimed that law enforcement ignored evidence and despite several search warrants on Fravel’s person, property, electronics, vehicles and even his garbage, no direct evidence was found.

‘Revisionist history’ is another term that Bauer frequently used in his opening statements, which is defined by Cambridge Dictionary as “someone who examines and tries to change existing beliefs about how events happened or what their importance or meaning is.” Bauer questioned why the ‘history of domestic violence’ alleged between Fravel and Kingsbury was not discussed by her friends before the spring of 2023.

Bauer stated that Kingsbury’s friends had a ‘lot of frustration with how the case was moving forward’ and that they were able to discuss these stories and allegations with each other before speaking to law enforcement. Bauer told the jury there is “a lot of revisionist history with those statements.”

Another big point in Bauer’s opening arguments was the topic of ‘secret truths’ of which he claims Kingsbury had many. One of these, he says, is regarding her recent relationship with a new partner, Spencer Sullivan. Sullivan and Kingsbury were old acquaintances at Winona State University and began speaking in the fall of 2022 before their relationship became sexually intimate.

Kingsbury and Sullivan’s relationship was ‘severely downplayed’ to her own family and friends. He also claims that when it comes to the apparent bruising seen on Kingsbury’s neck several times according to family and friends, Bauer stated Kingsbury herself claimed it was because “things got out of hand in the bedroom.” The attorney told the jury they would hear from the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension that Kingsbury had researched choking multiple times on X websites.

Bauer told the jury that Fravel and Kingsbury’s relationship was full of love since they met at Winona State University and eventually brought them their two children. He added that it “had its ups and downs and there was fighting like everyone else,” and further argued that Fravel moving out of their shared townhome in Winona at the time of Kingsbury’s disappearance “was quite frankly a regular occurrence in their relationship.”

His opening statements ended with him telling the jury, “the only verdict supported by evidence shown in the case and the only verdict you can come to is not guilty.”

Kingsbury’s disappearance garnered national attention and thousands of people joined in the search for her. A judge granted a request from Fravel’s attorneys to have the case moved out of Winona, where many members of community helped search for Kingsbury. The trial will instead take place in Mankato, Minnesota, about 136 miles (219 kilometers) from Winona.

Attorneys argued before a full courtroom Thursday.