WINONA, Minn. – The attorney for Adam Fravel objected to massive blacked-out sections of documents that the Winona County Social Services agency presented in the Maddi Kingsbury child custody case. Fravel, age 29, is the father of the children, age 5 and 2, and he’s gone to court for custody. At a hearing Fravel’s attorney, Tom Braun, waved a page of County documents to show almost everything blacked out. “I’m left to guess what’s in these,” Braun told Judge Mary Leahy. Braun said he’s handicapped in making the case for custody if he can’t know what evidence the County is presenting to deny custody. Apparently the redacted information is a result of a complex overlapping of separate although related issues: First, the police investigation into Madi’s disappearance, a possible criminal issue, and, second, the child custody case, a civil issue.
Background: After the 26-year-old Kingsbury disappeared March 31, Social workers went 40 miles to Fravel’s parents home in Mabel, where he had taken the children. Backed up by deputies, the social workers took the children. Although police have investigated Fravel’s whereabouts the day of Kingsbury’s disappearance, they have said repeatedly that he is neither a “suspect” nor “person of interest.” Both are legal terms. Kingsbury’s family, however, blames Fravel, and her parents have custody for the time being.
At the hearing. Fravel sat with his attorney. Tom Braun of Rochester. Kingsbury’s parents sat at another table. The assistant county attorney representing the county Social Services Department. Rebecca Church, defended the redacted documents as intended only for the judge to see. Church accused Braun of a “fishing expedition” to learn evidence that police have against Fravel. At the same time, Church said she doesn’t have access to police information herself because of a firewall policy between her office sand police. Judge Leahy has set another hearing for June 6.
Fravel. He had no comment as he entered the Winona County Courthouse trailed by his counsel, Rochester attorney Tom Braun, and an aide.
Updating and filling voids
Among revelations at the hearing and interviews as principals came and went:
> Children. The two have been living with her Kingsbury’s parents as guardians. The County assured the court that children are receiving age-appropriate mental health support.
> Freeze out. The Kingsburys assiduously avoid speaking poorly about Fravel to the children, the County told the court. Braun noted, however, the family’s “significant disdain” for Fravel, which has been unstated but obvious publicly in news conferences, vigils and volunteer searches from which he was excluded.
> Break-up. Kingsbury and Fravel had been living with the children in a townhouse on Kerry Drive on Winona’s West End, but the relationship was disintegrating. She was looking for a new place for herself and the children.
> Disappearance detail. New details emerged in courthouse interviews to fill out what’s known about the disappearance: Fravel and Kingsbury dropped their children at daycare in the morning and returned to the townhouse, where she had a home office for her job with Mayo Clinic. Fravel reported he left for errands and came back later to find Kingsbury gone but didn’t report it. Later in the day her family called police after being unable to raise her by phone or email. Fravel has steadfastly denied anything to do with the disappearance.