MANKATO, Minn. — BCA Special Agent Joe Swenson was the first witness called Monday morning, the 8th day of testimony in the 1st-degree murder trial of Adam Fravel for the death of Maddi Kingsbury, his ex-girlfriend and mother of his two children.
Swenson, based in Rochester, took the stand and testified about arriving at the scene where Maddi’s remains were found inside a culvert on June 7, 2023. He recalled that the remains were so hidden that he couldn’t tell where the Fillmore Co. Deputy was pointing until they started moving logs and brush.
The BCA agent described some of the logs in the ditch as being 6-10 feet long and “the size of older wooden powerlines, 6-inches [in diameter].”
“It certainly appeared the logs were placed there on purpose,” Swenson said.
Then prosecutor Phil Prokopowicz questioned Agent Swenson about discoveries made during an April 27, 2023, search of the Winona home Fravel and Kingsbury shared. Jurors were shown photos inside the garage as Agent Swenson testified about finding a roll a roll of black Gorilla duct tape, which seemed to match the tape wrapped around Maddi’s body.
Swenson told the courtroom he also found Wyze-brand surveillance cameras in the garage, which had been taken down from inside the townhome and were not operational on the day investigators believe Maddi was killed.
During cross-examination, defense attorney Zach Bauer was able to expose a couple weaknesses in the investigation. Since that search of Fravel's garage occurred more than a month before Maddi's body was found, investigators did not collect the black duct tape as evidence. As a result, Agent Swenson admitted they were not able to analyze and compare it to the tape tied around Maddi's body.
Regarding the dark gray fitted bedsheet found wrapped around Maddi's body, Agent Swenson testified that Maddi's best friend Katie Kolka turned over the rest of the matching bedding to police after the discovery of the body.
In cross-examination, Agent Swenson acknowledged that no comparative testing of the sheets was done, despite available services the BCA could have used.
When Bauer was questioning Swenson regarding Maddi's body being in an area that had been previously searched, Swenson doubled-down on his assertion that the body could have easily been missed.
"As good as it is to have citizens come out and help search… they don’t know what they don’t know. They can be shoulder to shoulder and still step over a body. If they don’t have the training and expertise, it can be very easy to miss. It’s essentially finding a needle in a haystack,” Agent Swenson said.
The second witness of the morning and 52nd witness of the trial to be called to the stand was Winona Police Sgt. Adam Brommerich.
Brommerich showed the jury photographs police took of Fravel on April 6, one week of the disappearance, that showed scratches on his face and bruising on his body.
Despite the scratches on his face appearing faint, the bruising on his body was very evident, including sets of bruises on each side of his chest, bruises on the inner-part of his right arm above his elbow, and a ring of bruises around his right forearm.
The prosecution is sure to argue that the bruises resulted by a struggle between Maddi and Fravel.