WINONA, Minn. – Although Winona police refused publicly for 2-1/2 months to call Adam Fravel a suspect in the March 31 disappearance of Maddi Kingsbury, they questioned him several times beginning the day after she vanished. Fravel had an explanation for his whereabouts that police couldn’t shake conclusively. This is Fravel’s own account to police for the day Maddi disappeared, as itemized in the June 7 murder complaint against him after her body was found a few miles from his parents’ rural home near Mabel.
> Fravel, 29, and Madeline Kingsbury, 26, were breaking up after several years of an unsettling relationship and two children, age 5 and 2. She had told Fravel that she was seeing someone else — he didn’t know who. She was looking for another place to live with their children. He spent the day starting to vacate their townhouse on Kerry Drive on the Winona West end.
Fravel.
Kingsbury.
All agree: The relationship was on the rocks.
> Fravel had planned to make property storage runs most of the day. His plan was to travel to his parents’ home 45 miles south of Winona, near Mabel, with items he wanted to store there and then to return to Winona to take other items to Midwest Storage on Highway 14 near the townhouse.
> This was after they both had driven the children to daycare about 8:15 a.m. and returned together to the townhouse, where Maddi had a home office related to her job at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. This day, March 31, was a Friday – a day she sometimes commuted to Rochester.
> After packing up Maddi’s minivan, he left for Mabel, stopping first at a Kwik Trip on the West End. This was about 10:15 a.m. He was somewhat discombobulated about the break-up with Maddi. Thirty-five miles later, near the hamlet of Choice on Highway 43 to Mabel, he looked in the rearview mirror and realized the items he had packed were meant for the Midwest Storage unit in Winona, not his parents’ place. He turned around at a barn in Choice and drove back to Winona, not making any stops.
> About 11:30 a.m., back in Winona, he emptied the van at the townhouse. Inside he didn’t see Madeline. His car, however, was still the driveway. He figured that Maddi carpooled to Rochester. He texted Maddi but got no response.
> Fravel remained at the townhouse the rest of the afternoon. Later he texted Maddi about picking up the kids and plans for supper. When she did not respond, he decided to pick up the children at daycare and drive them to his parents’ residence in Mabel.