Fravel Pretrial Day 2: Kingsbury’s friends allege history of abuse in relationship
(ABC 6 News) – The second day of Winona murder suspect Adam Fravel’s pretrial began with testimony from alleged victim Madeline Kingsbury’s close friends.
Five women — Katie Kolka Hailey Scott, Lauren DeBois, Michaela Shaw, and Holly Stamschror — detailed times Kingsbury confided in them about times Fravel hit her, or times they saw Fravel act violently toward their friend during video calls.
Each woman testified that Kingsbury said Fravel had choked her in front of the kids, and they told her to leave the relationship and seek help.
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Kolka claimed that in the fall of 2022, she noticed marks around the sides of Kingsbury’s neck under a turtleneck sweater.
“She started crying, said she wasn’t ready to talk about it yet,” Kolka said.
Scott, Kingsbury’s former sorority sister, told the court she saw Fravel slap her friend during a Facetime call–but that Kingsbury “very much downplayed” the issue afterward.
Kingsbury wanted the children to have a father in their lives, Scott said in the hearing, and avoided talking about bruising Scott said she saw during other Facetime calls.
However, in the days before Kingsbury’s 2023 disappearance, Scott told the court things escalated.
“She was afraid to be alone with him,” Scott said.
Both women also mentioned hearing about a choking incident, where Fravel allegedly pinned Kingsbury to a couch and told her she would end up like murder victim Gabby Petitito.
DeBois, a third friend, said Kingsbury asked her for advice about leaving an abusive relationship–but it was difficult to discuss her troubles with Fravel, since he went through Kingsbury’s phone regularly
DeBois also said Kingsbury was nervous about leaving the relationship because Fravel had threatened to “make it difficult” for her to see the children if she did.
Shaw testified that Fravel said something like “If you leave me, I’ll make sure you never see your kids again.”
Kingsbury also feared physical violence, DeBois said in court, and warned in 2023 that if anything happened to her, Debois should “know Adam did it.”
DeBois told the court she considered that a “dire threat,” but Kingsbury asked her not to report the conversation to law enforcement.
“She said ‘Please don’t, it’ll make it worse for me,'” DeBois said.
New briefs in the case are due Sept. 13, 20, and 23. The case will be taken under advisement Sept. 24.