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A DAD took special care to hide his daughter’s corpse after murdering her and concocted a sick lie to explain her disappearance, cops said.
Luciano Frattolin, 45, has been arrested and accused of killing nine-year-old Melina Galanis Frattolin in the middle of their tour through upstate New York.
Little Melina disappeared on Saturday evening while she was vacationing at Lake George, about an hour north of Albany, with her dad.
Frattolin called 911 that night and told a bogus lie that she had been snatched up by kidnappers driving a white van after he pulled off on the side of a highway to urinate, New York State Police said.
On Sunday afternoon, first responders found Melina’s body hiding under a log in a remote pond in Ticonderoga, about thirty miles outside where she was staying with her dad.
On Monday, cops charged Frattolin after detectives said there was no physical evidence that Melina had been abducted before she was killed.
Frattolin’s daughter lived in Montreal, Canada, and she has been in the full custody of his estranged wife since they split in 2019, according to court records.
Frattolin has dual Italian and Ethiopian citizenship and spends several months of the year in Montreal, according to La Presse.
The mom knew about the vacation, which started on July 11 and was set to end on the 20th, and told investigators that she wasn’t worried about her daughter’s safety.
Frattolin has no record of domestic violence or criminal history.
Just hours before she was reported missing, Melina talked to her mom on the phone about their journey back to Canada and sounded fine, cops say.
Melina was last seen on surveillance at a restaurant in Saratoga Springs at around 5:30 pm, and officials believe that she was murdered between 7:40 pm and 9:12 that night.
HAUNTING HISTORY
Frattolin owns the Ethiopian coffee company Gambella, which was inspired by his childhood growing up in the country.
In his bio on the website, he called Melina “the light of his life and his inspiration […] for just about everything.” The brand’s site was taken down on Monday.
On his Instagram, Frattolin described himself as a “loving father” and shared glamorous pictures from his world travels.
A timeline on Melina Frattolin’s murder
Police provided a detailed timeline after Melina Frattolin was killed.
- July 19, 5:30 p.m. – Melina is last seen on surveillance footage with her father, Luciano in Saratoga Springs, New York.
- July 19, 6:30 p.m. – The girl speaks to her mother, telling her that they are heading back home to Canada.
- July 19, 10:00 p.m. – Luciano, Melina’s father, calls 911 to report a possible abduction.
- July 20, early morning – An Amber Alert is issued for Melina
- July 20, 1:50 p.m. – A body is found in a shallow part of a pond in Ticonderoga, New York
Source: New York State Police
But despite his seemingly picturesque life, Frattolin told the court that he couldn’t afford to hire an attorney because he was broke, the New York Post reported.
The business owner was more than $200,000 in debt and lost his place in Montreal because he was $26,000 behind on rent, according to French paper Le Devoir.
In his now-deleted bio, Frattolin describes surviving an “unfortunate” event in February 2019, the same year that he separated from his wife.
He wrote that the incident “seriously affected his well-being” and that “the road to recovery was long and arduous” but didn’t give any details.
Frattolin has been charged with second-degree murder and concealing a corpse.
He appeared in an Essex County courtroom wearing a Tyvek suit and boots after cops took his clothes to plead not guilty.
He’s is set to reappear in court for another hearing on Friday.
An autopsy was performed on Melina, but her cause of death hasn’t been released.
