Maddi update: A slightly odd daycare pickup

WINONA, Minn. – Police picked up an early hint at a home daycare center that something was amiss regarding the status of Maddi Kingsbury. A week after Kingsbury vanished, the daycare operator, Brooke Pelowski, who tends for 10 children, told police that Kingsbury’s housemate, Adam Fravel, showed up unexpectedly to pick up the children at the end of the day that she disappeared. Usually Kingsbury picked up the kids, ages 5 and 2, although sometimes it would be Fravel by himself, Pelowski said. This time, Pelowski said, she hadn’t received an advance call from Kingsbury about a change in the usual routine – although it was not unusual for Fravel to come alone. His usual assurance to the children that everything was fine was an explanation like: “Mommy is on her way back from Rochester.” Kingsbury had a job at Mayo Clinic. This time when the kids asked, “Where’s mommy,” he said: “We are going to grandma and grandpa’s.” This all is according to Pelo2ski. At the time Pelowski wasn’t particularly concerned about Fravel’s explanation. But on reflection, and having learned that police were investigating Kingsbury’s disappearance, Pelowski recalled Fravel’s explanation and wondered whether he meant he was taking the children to Kingsbury’s parents or to his parents. As it turned out that Fravel drove the kids 40 miles to his parents’ house near Mabel, which would have been unusual.

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