Left: Missing mother of two, Madeline Kingsbury (Winona Police Department). Right: Adam Fravel appears in a mugshot (Winona County Sheriff's Office).
A 29-year-old man in Minnesota accused of killing the mother of his two children is facing heightened legal stakes after a grand jury indicted him on even more serious charges in the death of his 26-year-old estranged girlfriend. A grand jury in Winona County indicted Adam Taylor Fravel on two counts of premeditated first-degree murder with a past pattern of domestic abuse and two counts of second-degree murder in the slaying of Madeline Kingsbury, authorities announced Monday.
Fravel had initially been arrested in June and charged with one count of second-degree murder with intent but not premeditated and one count of second-degree murder without intent during the commission of a felony.
The more severe charges of first-degree murder mean that if Fravel is convicted, he will serve a mandatory sentence of life in prison. Under Minnesota state law, any person facing a potential life sentence must be indicted by a grand jury.
Kingsbury is believed to have disappeared at around 8 a.m. on March 31 after dropping off her children — ages 2 and 5 — at day care with Fravel. Fravel told authorities that after dropping off the kids, they returned to their shared apartment and Kingsbury then left to run errands but never returned.
Kingsbury's remains were found on June 7 by a sheriff's deputy between Choice and Mabel, Minnesota, on a property maintained by one of Fravel's family members, according to a copy of the criminal complaint obtained by Law&Crime. Her body was wrapped in a sheet and black Gorilla tape that matched items found in their home.
The discovery of Kingsbury's body came on the same day that Fravel was taken into custody.
The complaint further claims that a concerned person told law enforcement that Fravel once told Kingsbury, "If she did not listen up, she would end up like Gabby Petito."
Petito was a 22-year-old woman from New York who was murdered by her boyfriend in Wyoming while the two were on a cross-country van trip in the summer of 2021. Petito died by strangulation.
Petito's boyfriend, Brian Laundrie, went missing after returning to his family's home in North Port, Florida, without Petito. His remains were found in a swamp near his parents' home. An autopsy determined he died by suicide in September 2021. Laundrie confessed to killing Petito in a letter found with his body.
Per the complaint, Fravel admitted he was "infatuated" with the Petito case but claimed he was making a joke when he made the remark to Kingsbury.
In court documents, prosecutors allege that text messages and videos between Fravel and Kinsbury show that Fravel had previously physically abused her on numerous occasions.
"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," a text from Kingsbury reads.
Fravel responded, "You'll adjust."
The complaint says on the morning of March 31, video recorded a person wearing a light-colored jacket changing the front license plate on Kingsbury's van in their driveway. That license plate was registered to a vehicle driven by Fravel, the complaint states.
Police said in the complaint they traced the movements of Kingsbury's van using traffic and surveillance cameras on March 31. The vehicle, and a person matching Fravel's description, were seen in several locations along Highway 43 toward Mabel, Minnesota, and then returning in the same direction to Kingsbury's home in Winona that afternoon.
"I think we see what I refer to as the three forensic horsemen in this case: video surveillance, internet records and phone records," said Joe Giacalone, a retired New York City Police sergeant and adjunct professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice.
Giacalone added on Law&Crime's Sidebar podcast, "Those are the things that are going to play big roles in many of these cases in the future, too."
Fravel is currently being held in the Olmsted County Jail in Rochester, New York on $2 million bond. He is currently scheduled to appear in court on Tuesday morning.
Colin Kalmbacher and Angenette Levy contributed to this report.
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