MANKATO, Minn. — Day five of the murder trial of Adam Fravel opened Wednesday with prosecutors trying to detail the search for and discovery of Maddi Kingsbury's body.
Fravel is charged with two counts of first-degree murder involving domestic abuse, and two counts of second-degree murder in Kingsbury's death. Investigators say he killed Maddi after the two dropped their children off at daycare on March 31, 2023, and then buried her remains on a remote property approximately four miles from his parents' home in Mabel, Minnesota.
Maddi's decomposing body was discovered on that property on June 7.
10:15 a.m.
Next to take the stand was medical examiner Dr. Ross Zumwalt, a forensic pathologist with the Mayo Clinic who spent much of his career in New Mexico. Zumwalt told the jury he has testified in court between 400 and 500 times.
The jury was shown graphic photos of a decomposed body that was wrapped in a dark gray bedsheet, one that prosecutors say matched a partial set found in the townhouse rented by Maddi Kingsbury and Adam Fravel. Dr. Zumwalt also testified there was a bathroom towel with blue dot pattern wrapped around Maddi's neck in a slipknot.
“How did you know it was a slipknot?” the witness was asked.
“Because I untied it,” Zumwalt replied.
Prosecutors noted that the towel matches one seen in a photo taken in the couple's bathroom on Maddi’s phone that the jury was shown days earlier.
Questioning then turned to the autopsy completed by Zumwalt and the cause of death he listed, which was homicidal violence. Prosecutors asked him about asphyxiation, which Dr. Zumwalt testified can be caused by strangling, choking or smothering, leading to a lack of oxygen. When asked why he listed homicidal violence as Kingsbury's cause of death, the doctor said decomposition prevented him from listing a specific "mechanism" of death.
"Likely cause of death? I think asphixial cause of death is most likely but I don’t know if caused by compression of chest, blocking of airway, compression of neck, I don’t know what the exact mechanism would have been," Zumwalt explained.
"... I thought it was a death at the hands of another person and I called it homicidal violence,” he added.
The doctor went on to say that he believes Maddi was asphyxiated because there were no other signs of physical trauma like stab wounds, gunshot wounds or obvious broken bones. Zumwalt told the jury he excluded natural and toxicological causes.
9:15 a.m.
KARE 11's Lou Raguse has covered this case extensively and was in the courtroom in Mankato. He reported the first witness called by prosecutors Wednesday was Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) conservation officer Mitch Boyum.
Boyum was asked about an April 23 search coordinated with the owners of the property where Kingsbury's remains were later discovered. The officer told the jury panel that he searched the property that day and found nothing, only to later learn that Maddi had been found in a spot he missed.
“I did not know that culvert was there,” Boyum said.
Raguse reported the prosecution tried to emphasize for jurors that the body was very well hidden and to head off implications from the defense that Kingsbury's remains might have been moved at some point by someone other than Fravel.
In cross-examination, defense attorney Zach Bauer tried to show jurors just how close conservation officer Boyum was to the spot where Maddi's body was later found as he approached a gate on the property.
"How close would you have been?” Bauer asked.
"Feet," Boyum answered.
In redirect, prosecutors attempted to make clear to jurors that Maddi's body was so well concealed that law enforcement professionals were searching just feet from it and didn’t see it.
“Trees and logs on the ground would seem ordinary and not caught your attention?” prosecutor Christina Galewski asked.
“Correct,” Boyum answered.
This story will be updated throughout the day as testimony continues.