48 Hours - The Day Maddi Kingsbury Went Missing

Episode Date: January 11, 2026

A young Minnesota mother goes missing. Her sister turns to TikTok for help. "48 Hours" correspondent Peter Van Sant reports. This episode last aired on 4/15/2024. To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I would like to thank all of you for taking the time to spread the word about the disappearance of Madeline, Maddie Kingsbury. Our search efforts have included people on foot in vehicles as well as by water and air. Madeline is a hardworking and dedicated mother. Family is everything to her. She's grown into an impressive and beautiful young woman. Please help us find Madeline, the children need their mother. My sister is kind and quirky and caring and my best friend. Maddie Kingsbury, a young sorority girl from Winona State University, meets Adam Fraval, a young fraternity boy.

They have two children. They were not married. Maddie was last seen the morning of Friday, March 31st. Maddie and Adam took the kids to daycare and dropped them off around 8 a.m. They got back to the house and Adam said he saw Maddie go downstairs and where her home office was to work. He left and he didn't see her again. I sent her this funny picture and we were just kind of laughing back and forth about it. And that was at 8.15 that morning and then I didn't hear anything else. Maddie's family and friends tried to contact Maddie throughout the day on March 31st without success.

I sent a message to Adam. I said, hey, none of us have heard from Madeline all day. He said, I'm concerned too because I haven't heard from her. And so I met my parents, you know, with the kids. So I contacted a friend of Maddie's. Her name's Katie. I said, I need you to go to her house and see if she's there. Nobody was home. So I called the police. I started sobbing at that point.

They said that there was no sign of her. There's no sign of a struggle. We are very hopeful that we will find her. No stone is being left unturned. Who is Spencer Sullivan? Spencer Sullivan is a man that Madeline had started seeing. It was an on and off type situation because there were some times where she would tell me, I don't know if this is going to work out because of Adam. We believe Maddie's disappearance is involuntary, suspicious, and we are using every tool at our disposal to find her.

So I took to social media, TikTok mainly. Hey, TikTok, I'm posting an update. I am out in Fillmore County. We still haven't found my sister. I mean, hundreds of thousands of people saw her TikToks. Almost 1900 people signed up. today to come look for my sister. And she was pleading with the public to help and pleading with everybody to take a look everywhere

and anywhere for her sister. People just don't vanish. My sister is still missing. Police and other law enforcement are obviously still searching. Everyone's frustrated and we just can't figure out where she is. Maddie's still missing. I think it's day 68. I would talk to her when I was out looking for her.

I wanted to be the one to find her. I didn't want anyone else in my family to find her. If it's going to be one of us, please let it be me. This has gone on too long. We want to bring her home. Peter Van Samp. reports, the disappearance of Maddie Kingsbury. There's just something about Winona that keeps pulling you back.

Scott Sherman is the mayor of Winona, Minnesota, a small city on the banks of the Mississippi. Living here, Winona is really cool. So cool that TV and film star Winona Ryder is named for the town, as she told the world in this Super Bowl ad. There's something about this place, something that feels so me. 26-year-old Madeline Kingsbury also felt that certain something about Winona. So when Mayor Sherman heard that she had gone missing, he wanted to help. I felt that Maddie was a daughter of Winona. She was a bright young woman, working through school, working a...

a job in Rochester and raising kids all at the same time. That's a lot. So I had respect for Maddie. And Mayor Sherman thought he could help. Because as an avid bicyclist, he rides the woodsy paths around Winona all year long. You know the backroads of this area. They do. And you went out yourself.

I did. But as mayor, Sherman felt his first job was to support Maddie's distraught mother, Krista Neighbor when she arrived at the Search Command Center. She gave me a hug that I will never forget the rest of my life. It was a hug that showed fear, concern. And so what message were you sending with that hug? I'm here for you. We will do our damnedest to find her.

Maddie's family first began worrying about Maddie late in the afternoon of Friday, March 31st, 2023. When Krista realized she had not heard from her daughter for nearly the entire day. Something in my gut just didn't feel right. Mother's intuition. Right. Krista contacted Megan, Maddie's older sister. But Megan said she was not overly concerned.

I sent her a couple text messages anyway. Hey, Mom hasn't heard from you. Can you call her? Can you text her back? She's concerned. And she didn't reply to that. At the time, Maddie was living with Adam Fraval, the father of their children. The two had met in college at Winona State University.

He was outgoing and seemed interested in getting to know us. And he seemed very almost infatuated, I guess, with Madeline. While still in college, Maddie and Adam learned they were expecting their first child and decided to settle in Winona. He manned up. He manned up. Teresa Siss, Mahia, is Adam's sister, and she says Adam quit school to support his new family. He knew he was going to be a dad.

He went and got a job, and he had that job up until COVID, and then he got laid off. While he let Maddie continue college so that she could graduate, and she did. She graduated, and he supported her. After graduation, Maddie began working at the Mayo Clinic and became a clinical research coordinator.

And Maddie's father, David Kingsbury, said she recently had begun studying for an advanced degree. She was a graduate student in a master's program at the University of Minnesota. I had just completed her first semester there. It was doing very well. Adam, who had studied computer science in college, began taking flying lessons with an eye toward getting his pilots license. When he was taking pilot lessons, he felt so accomplished. It made him feel good, and I was so proud of him for doing it, for doing something for himself. I enjoyed being around him, and I could tell that he really cared for Madeline. On the evening of March 31st, Megan was hours away from Winona when she reached out to Adam, who said he was concerned.

He said, I got home today and she was gone. Adam and the children were at his parents' home in Mabel, an hour south of Winona. That's when Megan messaged Maddie's close friend, Katie Colca, who lived in Winona. My parents and I haven't been able to get in contact with Maddie all day. Katie responds, I'm on my way over there right now. The house was eerily silent. And it was at that point Katie called the Winona police. And you want this missing person's report to be filed, but what did they tell you?

They told me that I wasn't able to report it because it hadn't been 24 hours yet. I was pacing in my kitchen. I was getting really, really worried. So was Maddie's father who tried to reach her. Where are you? What's going on? The next morning, with Maddie now missing nearly 24 hours, the Kingsbury family filed a missing persons report. And then Adam went to Facebook asking for help.

His post read in part, If anybody has seen Maddie, please contact the Winona PD, me, or any of her family members. Please help me find the mom to our two beautiful kids. The police went to great lengths, I have to say, to try to find Maddie quickly. Because they know that there's a ticking clock on these things. And the investigation took off. I mean, it's extraordinary what they did. The news that Maddie was missing spread quickly through Winona and beyond.

Haley Scott, one of Maddie's sorority sisters, wanted to help. I reached out to our sorority. I reached out to news outlets. I was grasping at straws. At the same time, detectives reached out to Adam Fraval. According to police reports, Adam told them how on the morning of March 31st, the couple dropped off their children at the daycare center. Investigators confirmed the drop-off after speaking to the daycare provider who gave police this videotape. This video has never been seen by the public until now.

It was one of the last times Maddie is seen on video before she vanished. Police say Adam told them he and Maddie returned home after the drop-off, and she went to her office in the basement to do a little work before heading to the Mayo Clinic. I have taken a look at all the evidence that we have thus far in the Maddie Kingsbury case. Mary Fulginiti, a former prosecutor and defense attorney, is a 48-hours consultant. She says that in his police interview, Adam told detectives he left Maddie his car. and borrowed her blue minivan to haul some boxes. He proceeded to put some boxes in the van that he was going to move to his parents' house.

He said he didn't see Maddie again. He drove to his parents' house along Highway 43. Police say Adam told them he got as far as the township of Choice, Minnesota, when he realized he had made a mistake. The boxes that he had in the van were ones that he actually wanted to put in storage, so he turned around and he went back to the home. Police say Adam told investigators he arrived back at his Winona home around 1130 a.m. And saw his car still in the driveway. He said he had texted her a few times asking about dinner and whether or not she was going to pick up the kids. There was no response.

Police say Adam told them he'd assumed Maddie had carpool to work. And when he did not hear from her, he went alone to do that pickup of the kids. Again, the video from the daycare appears to corroborate that part of Adam's story. So he ultimately picked up the children around 420 or 4.30 from daycare and brought them to his parents' house in Mabel, Minnesota. During a police interview, investigators noted that Adam had fresh scratches on his face the day after Maddie disappeared. Adam's sister says he told her the scratches came from a friend's dog. On Saturday, April 1st, police searched the Winona house where Adam lived with Maddie. And investigators reported they saw no overt signs of foul play.

But what was in the house was her purse, her jacket, her credit cards, but no Maddie. Two days later, an anxious Megan rushed to her. out of her shower and alerted her TikTok followers to what was going on. TikTok, I need you to do your thing. I wasn't thinking about the fact that I was in a towel. I need your help. This is my sister, Madeline, Kingsbury. She's missing.

The post eventually had over a half million views. Help us find her. She's got two kids. She's my best friend. She's my little sister. We need to get her back. please help us. You mean, you're obviously in terror here, the look on your face, but you're reaching out for help and people want it to help.

Yes. So many people have asked to help look for Madeline Kingsbury that it allowed law enforcement to expand their search. There's no guidebook on how to search for a missing loved one. And searching for her was easily one of the most traumatic things I've ever experienced in my life. We're all hopeful she's alive. But by the end of the weekend, there was no sign of Maddie. Day by day, Megan continued to post updates to TikTok. It's Tuesday the 25th.

Still no Madeline. Now next week is May. We're still in this hell. I feel like all of us, like every night we would look out. It's cold, it's dark. Is she, like, laying out there somewhere? She, like, trapped somewhere. And you just, you don't know what to do.

Behind the scenes, though, investigators began taking a harder look at Adam, especially after Maddie's friends came forward with some disturbing stories. Madeline called me shortly after an incident happened between her and Adam. where he had told her that if she wasn't careful, she was going to end up just like Gabby Petito.

The Gabby Petito case fixated the nation in the fall of 2021. The search for missing 22-year-old Gabby Petito is now a multi-state effort. After the young woman from Long Island was found dead, human remains were discovered. One month after she seemingly vanished from the face of the earth. I told her you need to get out and you need to get it get out now.

That's not an empty threat. What do you think of Megan's TikTok posts? Chat now with the 48 hours team on Facebook and X. Years before Maddie vanished, her sister Megan says the on and off again relationship between Maddie and Adam seemed to be headed for a bad ending.

He just wasn't nice to her. He didn't act like he loved her. He didn't help take care of the kids. He didn't clean. And honestly, did you reach a point where you advised your sister, you know, perhaps it's time to move on in your life from him? Many times. Maddie's father, David, said it pained him to see how shabbily Adam treated Maddie. I think she literally poured out a river of love for him, and she got nearly a drop in return.

Maddie's stepmother, Kathy, says Maddie often called, saying Adam was of no help with the children. And she'd be just sobbing miserably. That Adam's not helping. I hate this. But Maddie's family and friends say there was more than just tearful arguments. About three years before Maddie went missing, Haley says she witnessed Adam slap Maddie during a video call. Haley and Maddie were talking, Haley says, when Adam appeared in the background and began shouting at Maddie. He yelled, I don't understand why this house is such a f*** mess. And she said, I don't know, maybe you should help me.

To which Adam turned and he slapped her with an open hand across the face. And in September 20th, In 2021, some 18 months before Maddie disappeared, she told Haley about Adam's dark fascination with the Gabby Petito story. Adam had an infatuation, and I would call it an obsession with the Gabby Petito case. Haley says Maddie had told her that one night,

after she and Adam watched a news special about the Petito murder, Adam's obsession turned threatening. He had actually turned and grabbed her by the throat and pinned her down and told her that if she wasn't careful, that she would end up just like her. Katie says she tried to get Maddie to do something. And I begged her and begged her. Please go to the hospital. Document it yourself. Do whatever you need to do. You need to get this documented so you can get out of there safely with those kids. But Katie says Maddie never reported anything to the police. She was more scared that Adam was going to get arrested.

She wanted to protect him. She was protecting him. Maddie did, however, tell her father David and stepmother Kathy about the choking incident. She was like horribly afraid. She'd been choked. And she was very, very scared and wanted help. Kathy says she and David drove to me. Maddie's house and got her and the children out of there.

She came with us. We went to the house so she could get some of her things and some of the clothing for the kids and whatnot and put the kids in the van and followed us back to our home in Farmington. But Kathy says Maddie stayed in the Kingsbury house only three days before returning to Adam because he was upset that she'd left. I did tell her something, he's going to kill you. that to Matt. Yeah. You felt there was enough danger that you had to say to your own daughter,

I think he may kill you. And how did she respond to that statement? Or did she? Honestly, I mean, she became a pro at minimizing thing, and it came back to, well, he was joking. He told me he was joking. And she wanted to believe that. When Maddie went missing, her friends and family reported those incidents to police.

According to a search warrant, detectives interviewed Adam and asked if he and Maddie had ever had any physical altercations. He said, oh no. When detectives asked about those Gabby Petito comments, police say Adam admitted them, but claimed he was trying to make a joke. But according to a search warrant, investigators found an old screenshot Maddie had saved of some texts she'd exchanged with Adam. Maddie says, you know, I'm not really okay with or over the fact that you put your hand

around my neck and pushed me down in front of the kids earlier. So don't. Not okay with it at all, but especially with them there. Adam replies, you'll adjust. Maddie says, the F I will. Detectives wanted to know everything about what Adam did the day Maddie went missing and began collecting surveillance videos from homes and businesses. Police say a blue minivan that looked like Maddie's was videotaped on Highway 43. The road Adam told police he'd taken that morning. But according to a search warrant, that timestamps do not match Adam's timeline. The cameras tracked the blue minivan until around noon, police say.

And then there's a 45-minute gap. That gap occurs around Choice Minnesota. Police say that is where Adam told them he realized he took the wrong boxes, turned the van around, and drove straight back to Winona. According to that warrant, there is a 45-minute window that Fraval could not be tracked. I mean, where was he during those 45 minutes? I mean, that was the big, you know, the big question, right? But with no direct evidence and no sign of Maddie,

investigators did not arrest Adam, and he continued to live at his parents' home with the children. Meanwhile, Megan continued her updates on TikTok. Madeline still has not been located, unfortunately, so we're still plugging along and looking for her. As detectives continued to investigate, they uncovered a new lead. A romantic relationship Maddie had been. having with another man, an army veteran named Spencer Sullivan. I'm Spencer Sullivan, and I was dating Madeline Kingsbury at the time of her disappearance. And now, police were interested to know Spencer's whereabouts the day Maddie went missing.

Do you have a dark curiosity? Heart starts pounding, horrors, hauntings, and mysteries is a weekly podcast hosted by me, Kailen Moore. Each week, I'll take you on a dark journey through terrifying, true urban legends, bizarre true crime cases, chilling tales of backwoods horror and more. So if you're looking to join a passionate community of The Darkly Curious, check out Heart Starts pounding on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. And remember, stay curious. In the spring of 2023, Maddie knew her relationship with Adam was falling apart, and she was brutally honest with her father.

She says, you know, Dad, I know that I'm in a lot of. a bad relationship. I know my family knows it. I know my friends know it and I'm embarrassed about it, but I don't know what to do about it. But Maddie had joined Tinder, which is where she reconnected with Spencer, who she knew from college. We were friends on Facebook, so I knew that she had kids. I wasn't sure what the status of the relationship was exactly with Adam Fraval. As it turns out, Spencer also knew Adam from Winona State. He was a in the same fraternity as I was. Tell me about the Adam you knew back then.

He and I didn't really talk all that much. Maddie told Spencer that she and Adam had reached the point of no return. Maddie and Spencer began dating, but quietly. We both kind of agreed to keep a secret between us until she was on her own. Mostly, the relationship was a secret from Adam. Maddie's family and girlfriends knew about it, and they told police about Spencer when Maddie went missing. That's when investigators called Spencer in for an interview.

They're just kind of asking me general questions about when we had started dating. Where were you at this point? What were you doing at this point? What were you doing on March 31st, 2023? That morning I was at work. Spencer surrendered his phone, while investigators checked out his alibi. As they looked into his story,

they also learned from Maddie's friends and family that only six days before she disappeared, she finally had told Adam about Spencer. She didn't want to lie, and she just, it bubbled up inside of her, this guilt. Is it true that Maddie told Adam about Spencer? Yeah. That's a pretty gutsy thing to do.

I wish she had not. It all came pouring out, and Megan says Maddie told Adam she was leaving him and looking for an apartment where she would live with their children. Did she tell you how Adam reacted to the news? I think she said he cried and he was really hurt at the time. I'm sure he was personally hurt and heartbroken. All of a sudden you find out she has feelings with somebody else and it's over. Adam's sister Teresa, as well as his brother Ryan, say news of the breakup hurt them as well,

because Maddie was a cherished member of their extended family. Maddie was a sister to all of us, and our hearts are broken. We lost a close family member. They point out that although Adam and Maddie always had an on and off relationship, they stayed together for seven years. I was completely shocked when I learned that she was dating Spencer behind my brother. back. Maddie's best friend Katie says

tensions between Maddie and Adam were sky high after her revelation about Spencer. It was the day before she disappeared. She called me crying. And she asked if she could come work at our house. She said that Adam was hovering over her while she was working and making comments about some other man raising his kids

and, you know, are you really going to leave me for another man. She felt very threatened. Maddie left her house and went to Katie's, before ending up at Spencer's home, also in Winona. She came over to celebrate my birthday with me. She brought a couple donuts that we could split with each other. She had a gift for me. It was a little Lego set, little Star Wars Lego set. I got a card from her and it was a Star Wars card. That last time you saw her person to person. I remember she's standing on my front steps. She, Turned around and smiled at me and waved and the last time of us are. Within days of his interview, police confirmed Spencer's alibi and returned his phone.

Eventually, police say he was clear. Maddie's friend Haley says Spencer was the best thing to happen to her in a long time. Spencer showed her that she deserves so much more than Adam. Spencer says he was devastated in the wake of Maddie's disappearance. I thought to myself, like, stuff like this doesn't happen here. You know, we were talking about her moving into a new place. She wanted me to come over and help her decorate, do stuff, and the next day, she's gone.

He says he couldn't stop thinking about the birthday card Maddie had given him. I think I reread that card at least a hundred times. that all I could think was this kid. Sorry. Four days after Maddie vanished, her parents were given temporary custody of her children. My niece and nephew are no longer in the custody of their father.

You know, we appreciate the concern for them, but they're in good hands. When Maddie's friend Lauren Du Bois thought about Maddie's children, she recalled a conversation she'd had with Maddie a month earlier, and she reported it to police. She told me that she needed me to know that if anything were to happen to her or her children, that Adam did it.

She would never leave her children for anything, under any circumstances. Ten days after Maddie disappeared, police had received a tip that Adam had been seen riding near his parents' home with a shovel in his family's utility vehicle. Police seized his vehicle, and, according to a search warrant, cadaver dogs alerted to assent in the vehicle and on the shovel. You know, it's my understanding that they are trained and specifically trained to find human remains.

Two days later, Adam put out a statement through his attorneys. It read in part, I have cooperated with law enforcement at every turn. I did not have anything to do with Maddie's disappearance. I want the mother of my five-year-old and two-year-old to be found and brought home safely. I want that more than anything. Maddie had been missing 35 days when Katie and others gathered to remember her. She was the kindest most beautiful soul. Even on the brightest days, it still feels dark and blooming without her here.

David Kingsbury addressed the crowd inside a local church. We know that Madeline is around here somewhere. She just didn't vanish. Someone knows something. Someone saw something. Make this your battle cry. Where's Madeline? Where is she?

Make it loud. And don't stop until she's found. Go behind the scenes with the, the 48 hours post-mortem podcast. For Megan Kingsbury, June 7th, 2020, started out like every other day since Maddie disappeared.

Hey, TikTok. Good morning. Happy Wednesday. Maddie's still missing. Please continue to spread the word about my sister, Madeline. But hours later... We begin the hour with breaking news out of southeastern Minnesota.

68 days after Maddie disappeared, a sheriff's deputy found human remains along this lonely country road. And while it hadn't been certified by the medical examiner, they were fairly certain that it was my daughter. It was on the floor and like scream, crying. You know, what do you say when somebody tells you something like that? There's nothing that you can say. For Maddie's best friend, Katie, the new. was shattering. Her reaction captured on her video doorbell camera. The very next day, Maddie's friends heard the news from Winona's police chief.

Law enforcement has confirmed the remains are those of Madeline Kingsbury. You can't ever prepare yourself for one of your children. to die, much less be found somewhere outside, found as she was. And she was wrapped in a gray fitted bed sheet that had black duct tape around the ends, and there was a towel wrapped around her head. Adam Fraval was arrested and charged with second-degree murder. The gray bed sheet wrapped around Maddie, according to the criminal complaint, seemed to match a set found in Maddie's home.

And the isolated road where Maddie's remains were found, according to that criminal complaint, had been maintained by the Fraval family at one point. This area is also close to the township of choice, where police believe there are 45 minutes unaccounted for in Adam's timeline. This area here in this culvert is where Maddie's body was found. Someone left a little angel here to mark the spot. Maddie's autopsy listed her cause of death as homicidal violence, nothing more. And in October 2023, Adam was indicted on additional.

first-degree murder charges. Adam's possible motive for murder, in a warrant, investigators alleged Adam was in distress due to his financial dependence on Maddie and was upset about the end of their relationship. Investigators also learned that Maddie had a death benefit of $170,000

but had not listed a beneficiary. She was his meal ticket. She was, one who provided for them. According to a search warrant, when police entered the couple's house, they noticed that surveillance cameras inside the home had been removed. And former prosecutor Mary Fulginiti says it's the way they appeared to have been taken down that caught detectives' attention.

They found that the surveillance cameras that he had installed had been ripped out, that they were no longer there. So all of those are indicators of, you know, he's up to something in consciousness. of guilt. He had those down weeks before they were in the process of moving. Adam's sister and brothers say, at one point, before Maddie and Adam broke up, the couple was planning to move together to Adam's parents' home. We want people to know that there are two sides to the story. Take, for instance, those cadaver dogs, alerting to the utility vehicle and shovel. Adam's family says that's because on the previous

This weekend, their dad used that shovel to move a dead raccoon. A raccoon. A raccoon. He used the shovel to pick it up. Every time we would try to clarify anything to the investigators, we were just treated with that, like we're just delusional. I believe Adam, 150 percent, that he is innocent. He would never harm Maddie, the mother to his children.

You know, he'd never do such a thing. his defense team has asked a judge to suppress Adams' police interview because they claim he wasn't read his Miranda rights. It's the interview where he admitted making comments about Gabby Petito but said he was only joking. In preliminary hearings, his lawyers also say there is not enough evidence to warrant the first-degree murder charge. Adam's siblings insist, authorities should take a closer look at Spencer Sullivan. We're trying to expand the investigators' eyes that something else could easily have happened.

What do you think of that? I mean, they're trying to protect Adam. They kind of need to come to terms with the fact that, in my personal opinion, they got the right person. There's a presumption of, in a sense, in our legal system, of course, that everybody's entitled to, But there's also the Court of Common Sense. And then the Court of Common Sense, all roads lead to Adam Frable.

The Kingsbury family is speaking out now in hopes of saving someone else. That's the reason why we're here, and that's the reason why we're talking about this. Because we don't want it to happen to anybody else. This is emotionally very powerful right now for you. You don't blame yourself for this, do you? I think we all blame ourselves to some degree. Because when I would talk to her, I didn't push. You know, I wanted her to be able to say things when she was ready to say things.

He had her hooks in her. And the kids make it really difficult. For Maddie's father, whatever the jury decides, there is a larger truth that haunts him. I'll always be the father of a murdered girl. Spencer Sullivan told us he too feels haunted by a conversation he and Maddie had weeks before she vanished.

She told me that she was in love with me. Fortunately, I was too chick-a-say back, but does that bother you? Every day. I saw a future with Maddie.

And it felt like somebody just the next 60 years out of my life. For Megan, who is so close with her little sister, she still can't imagine a future without Maddie. I feel like even just saying that we're sisters doesn't describe being the closeness that we had. We were confidants for each other.

How do you want Maddie to be remembered? Somebody that mattered. I mean, I think everything we've seen and heard from people really affirm that. She mattered to many, many people. All of her friends said she's my best friend. She was everybody's best friend. In December 2024, Adam Fraval was convicted of murdering Maddie Kingsbury and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole.