A 45-year-old Canadian man has been charged with murder after the body of his 9-year-old daughter was discovered in a pond in upstate New York, days after he claimed she had been abducted.
Luciano Frattolin of Montreal was arraigned on Monday on charges of second-degree murder and concealment of a human corpse in connection with the death of his daughter, Melina Frattolin, New York State Police confirmed. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf.
Police said Frattolin initially called 911 on Saturday night, reporting that Melina had been abducted near a parking lot by Lake George, a popular resort town in the Adirondacks. An Amber Alert was issued as search teams mobilized across the region.
But investigators soon uncovered inconsistencies in his story.
“During a subsequent interview, he then reports two unknown males forced her into a white van,” said State Police Capt. Robert McConnell. “That lead was thoroughly investigated and disproven.”
Surveillance footage showed father and daughter together in Saratoga Springs, about 5:30 p.m. Saturday. Police said Melina also spoke to her mother by phone an hour later and sounded calm, indicating she was not under duress. Authorities now believe the girl was killed shortly after that call and before Frattolin made the 911 report.
Melina’s body was discovered Sunday in the shallow waters of a wooded pond about 30 miles north of Lake George, near Ticonderoga. Police say her body had been partially concealed under a log.
An autopsy is pending.
Frattolin and his daughter had been vacationing in the US since July 11 and were scheduled to return to Montreal that weekend. Police said Melina lived with her mother in Montreal and that the parents had been estranged since 2019. Frattolin had no prior criminal or domestic violence record.
On social media, he had publicly described himself as a “loving father,” and on the website of a coffee company he founded, he once called Melina “the light of his life.”
Frattolin’s court-appointed public defender did not respond to media requests for comment.
Erizia Rubyjeana
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