Megan Kingsbury urged TikTok help her find her missing sister Madeline ‘Maddi’ when the mom-of-two appeared to vanish without a trace.
Maddi Kingsbury lived in Winona Minnesota, hours away from her immediate family. She lived with her husband Adam Fravel and their two children. But when Megan didn’t hear from her sister she feared the worst.
On March 31 last year, Megan Kingsbury’s last communication with her sister Maddi was when they sent each other funny texts. But at the time, she didn’t know it.
The 26-year-old, who worked as a clinical research coordinator, may be busy from time to time, she would always ‘get back’ to the family.
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Later that night, their mother Krista Naber reached out to Megan to ask if she’d spoken to Maddi, and alarm bells began sounding. As they lived hours away, they reached out to friends who lived nearby.
Her husband Adam Fravel was visiting his family an hour away from where they lived, and said he hadn’t heard from her either. When Maddi’s friend visited the Kingsbury’s home it was dark and her car was pared in the driveway.
That’s when Megan Kingsbury turned to the power of TikTok to help find out what happened to her sister Maddi. In one of her first videos, she is wrapped in a towel after the shower and asks followers one thing: “TikTok, I need you to do your thing. This is my sister Madeline Kingsbury. She’s missing… help us find her”.
It went viral, getting more than half a million views on the video app.
It worked.
She received messages from TikTok users every day, even those who lived in other countries, and asked those who had information that may help find her sister, to contact the tipline.
Meghan said “they had to bring in extra help just to go through all the tips that came in”.
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The tipline also led to investigators to execute a search warrant at Fravel’s parents house, after a neighbor said their camera captured her husband riding the family vehicle with a shovel on their property.
Cadaver dogs picked up a scent on the shovel, which investigators say is only human remains as dogs are trained to ignore live human and animal scents. Fravel’s family said his dad used it to move a dead raccoon the previous weekend.
During the search, Fravel released a statement through his attorney.
He said in part: “I have cooperated with law enforcement at every turn … I did not have anything to do with Maddi’s disappearance. I want the mother of my 5-year-old and 2-year-old to be found and brought home safely.”
68 days after she went missing, Maddi Kingsbury’s remains were found by a deputy, on a dirt road less than five miles from Fravel’s parents’ home.
“I was on the floor and like screamed, crying…what do you say when somebody tells you something like that? There’s nothing that you can say,” Megan Kingsbury said when hearing the news of Maddi.
Her husband Fravel was arrested and charged with the crime of Maddi Kingsbury’s murder, with the autopsy detailing cause of death was homicidal violence.
He is currently being held on $3m bail and awaiting trial.
His sister Theresa Sis Mjia has protested his innocence, and Fravel denies involvement in Maddi’s death.
The case has been featured in “The Disappearance of Maddi Kingsbury,” an “48 Hours.” It airs Saturday, April 13, at 10/9c on CBS and Paramount+.
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