Jury box. Jurors are at 90 degrees from the witness stand, the nearest juror only a bit more than an arm’s length away. The judge’s bench is elevated to left in this image. Facing the judge are prosecution and defense tables.
Cops: Fravel first cooperative, then clams up
MANKATO, Minn – A police investigator testified that Adam Fravel turned uncooperative on the third day of the investigation into the disappearance of his on-again, off-again companion Maddi Kingsbury. Fravel is now on trial for Kingsbury’s death. Testifying at the trial as a prosecution witness, investigator Anita Sobotta said recounted interviewing Favel about the whereabouts of Kingsbury. Fravel, she said, told herbthat he had last seen Kingsbury the morning of March 31. Their relationship, he acknowledged, had become rocky.
The Mabel interviews
The night that Kingsbury disappeared, Fravel was at his parents’ rural home near Mabel, 40 miles south of Winona. With Maddi missing, he explained that he had taken their two children to his parents’ place. On body cam video played to the jury, Fravel was in a recliner and seemed to take Kingsbury’s disappearance casually. Fravel said that he and Kingsbury had been “in an on and off relationship for seven years. ” He said that they had started couple therapy. He then explained that two to three weeks earlier that he and Kingsbury “just weren’t feeling it anymore” and decided to separate. He wasn’t surprised that she had left, he said. Fravel gave officers his phone and password.
Cell phone
Sobotta said that Fravel gave her a cell phone. The phone, she said, showed Fravel texted Kingsbury half a dozen times about her whereabouts, what her plan was, and if she would be taking their daughter to visit family over the weekend. There were no responses to any of the messages. The last message Fravel received from Maddi had been about cash transfer of $20 in the morning. Sobotta said that she and her partner, Deputy Police Chief Jay Rasmussen, were confused by the texts and the times they ostensibly were sent. Fravel, she said, had trouble explaining why the texts and times were aligned the way they were. Sobotta said she and Rasmussen told Fravel that they were having a hard time buying his story. About an hour into the interview, Fravel was directly asked numerous times:
> “Do you know where Maddi is?”
> “Do you have anything to do with her disappearance?”
Fravel replied: “No.” The interview ended when Fravel said: “I’ve been working with you guys, but now I am putting up a wall.” He invoked his right to an attorney.
Face, neck scratches
Sobotta testified that Fravel appeared to have scratches on the left side of his face on his nose, above an eye, on his neck, and two more below his nose. Fravel claimed the scratches were from his home gym equipment or maybe from his daughter or a cat or a dog. Fravel told investigators, “Maddi and I do not have any history of violence,and we have never laid hands on each other.”
A deteriorating relationship
As the interview progressed, Sobotta said, Fravel acknowledged that Maddi was in a relationship with an old college friend, Spencer Sullivan. The officers told Fravel that an informant had reported that Fravel ordered Maddi to stop talking to Sullivan or she would “end up like Gabby Petito.” Petito was a woman in a widely reported murder case in Wyoming. Sobotta said tyat Fravel acknowledged he did say as much but that it was a joke. “I was infatuated with the case. It was so stupid, I was just trying to make a joke.” He denied the informant’s report that he choked Kingsbury. He said he hugged her from behind, Sobotta testified. On their household finances Fravel reported that Maddi was the primary breadwinner but that he helped with bills.