WINONA, Minn. – An outside prosecutor has been brought into the disappearance of Matti Kingsbury, a Winona woman missing now seven weeks. Her sister Megan told television station KTTC that Phillip Prokopowicz, a retired Dakota County prosecutor, has been put in charge as special prosecutor. Megan Kingsbury said she didn’t understand the details. Prokopowicz, age 65, lives in Inver Grove Heights, a St. Paul southern suburb in Dakota County.
Child custody complications
Special prosecutors are unusual in missing person cases. Such appointments, when they occur, usually are because local prosecutors have a conflict of interest — or if a judge has concluded that a case has become so complex that only an outsider can sort it out. The Matti Kingsbury case has been complicated by a custody battle between her parents, who have temporary custody of her 5-year-old and 2-year-old children, and the children’s father. Adam Fravel, the father, is the last person known to have seen Matti Kingsbury on March 31, the day she disappeared. Police claim that Fravel is neither a “suspect” nor a “person of ihterest.” Fravel’s attorney in the custody case, however, said he believes that heavily redacts documents submitted to Judge Mary Leahy by the Winona County Social Services agency contain police reports that he needs for his custody arguments on behalf of Fravel. Police have withheld many detailsof their investigation from the public on grounds that they don’t want to jeopardize a possible case. At a preliminary custody hearing last Monday Judge Leahy called the police investigation “the 800-pound gorilla” in the custody case.