Father of Montreal girl who was found dead in N.Y. charged with 2nd-degree murder | CBC News

The Montreal father of the nine-year-old girl who was found dead after being reported missing in northeastern New York was arrested Monday morning and charged with second-degree murder and concealment of human corpse.

A news release from New York State Police says officers from the Warren County Sheriff’s Office received a call from a man who said his nine-year-old daughter was missing from the area of Exit 22 of I-87 in Lake George, possibly due to an abduction, on Saturday just before 10 p.m. ET.

They say the child was identified as Melina Frattolin, and her father as 45-year-old Luciano Frattolin and both were later confirmed to be Quebec residents. 

Robert McConnell, Bureau of Criminal Investigation captain for the New York State police, told reporters on Monday morning that the father and the daughter were on vacation in the United States and were due to return to Canada on Sunday. 

The child resided full-time with her mother and Frattolin visited the child when he was in Canada. The parents had been estranged since 2019, said police.

According to McConnell, at about 5:30 p.m. ET on July 19, video surveillance images showed Melina and her father in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Around 6:30 p.m. ET, Melina spoke to her mother on the phone and told her they were going back to Canada.

The child appeared to be in good health.

Sometime after that call and before Frattolin’s call to the police, the man allegedly murdered his daughter and left her body in a remote area, said McConnell. Melina was found in the shallow portion of a pond on Sunday in Ticonderoga, N.Y., about 50 kilometres east of Lake George near the New York-Vermont border.

The release says the Warren County Sheriff’s Office initially led the investigation but, as the case progressed, officers identified inconsistencies in the father’s account of events and the timeline of Melina’s disappearance.

No indication abduction occurred, police say

McConnell shared the suspect’s initial account with reporters. 

According to him, Frattolin told police he had stopped his car in the area of Exit 22 in Lake George to urinate, left his vehicle to go into a wooded area and when he returned to the car, his daughter was gone. 

Frattolin reported a white van fleeing the scene southbound. And in a subsequent interview, he mentioned two unknown men who forced Melina into the white van. 

“That lead was thoroughly investigated and disproven,” said McConnell, adding that the suspect has no domestic violence or criminal history.

On Monday morning, Frattolin was at the Essex County correctional facility where he was being held pending arraignment.

Frattolin will appear at the Ticonderoga town court today. 

On the website of a company called Gambella Coffee, the girl’s father is described as someone who “spends as much time as he can in Montreal, Canada with his beautiful daughter Melina.”

The company is headquartered in downtown Montreal.

Melina is the “light of his life, she is the inspiration for…well, everything,” the website reads.