MANKATO, Minn. – A Minnesota man was convicted Thursday of the murder of his girlfriend, whose disappearance in 2023 drew national attention and led thousands of people to join search efforts before her body was found hidden in a rural area of ​​the state.

Less than a day after deliberations began, the jury found Adam Fravel guilty of first-degree murder. He was arrested in June 2023, days after officers found Madeline Kingsbury’s body in a wooded area a few miles from property owned by Fravel’s parents. Kingsbury, 26, disappeared in March 2023 after dropping her and Fravel’s two young children at a daycare in Winona, a southeastern Minnesota city of about 26,000 residents.

The trial focused on competing portraits of the couple’s domestic life and the police investigation that led to Fravel’s arrest.

Phil Prokopowicz, special prosecutor handling the case for the Winona County Prosecutor’s Office, built his case around testimony from family and friends of the couple who spoke about instances of alleged domestic abuse, MPR reported. Zach Bauer, Fravel’s attorney, said the police investigation and prosecution of Fravel were based on “tunnel vision, revisionist history and secret truths.”

Witnesses testified that they saw bruises on Kingsbury’s neck, and in one case, a friend said she was on FaceTime with Kingsbury when Fravel allegedly hit her. Another friend testified that Kingsbury told her that Fravel had warned his girlfriend that she could end up like Gabby Petito, a woman who was murdered by her boyfriend in a high-profile 2021 case.

Prosecutors and other witnesses said Kingsbury had been planning to leave Fravel after becoming frustrated by his alleged abusive behavior and inadequate contributions to his family. He responded by killing her, prosecutors argued.

“The relationship was never about them,” Prokopowicz said in his closing statement. “It was always about him.”

Prokopowicz said the evidence showed Fravel was the only person who had a chance to kill Kingsbury.

Police found Kingsbury’s body in a fitted gray sheet that had been taped shut with black Gorilla tape. Prokopowicz said she was strangled with a towel, and a medical examiner concluded she likely died of asphyxiation. The towel, sheet and duct tape matched items found in his Winona home, he added.

Bauer, Fravel’s attorney, argued that there were no signs of a physical struggle inside the couple’s home, undermining the idea that Kingsbury died there. Bauer also relied on the testimony of a neighbor who claimed to have seen a stranger waving at him from his home the morning Kingsbury disappeared.

Bauer also disputed the prosecution’s claim that Fravel was engaged in a pattern of domestic abuse. He pointed to the testimony of a neighbor who claimed to have never heard the couple arguing.

The trial took place in Mankato, Minnesota, about 136 miles (219 kilometers) from Winona, after a judge granted a request by Fravel’s attorneys to have the case moved.

Fravel will be sentenced on December 16.