The father of a nine-year-old girl who was found dead in New York allegedly killed her before he was set to hand custody of her back to her mother. 

Luciano Frattolin is accused of murdering his daughter Melina on Saturday while they were on their way back to their Montreal home in Canada, before falsely claiming she had been kidnapped.

Authorities activated an AMBER alert, but police began to suspect that Frattolin had ‘fabricated’ his story, as explained by officers during a press conference on Monday morning.

During the press conference, officials stated that Luciano and Melina had left Canada for the US on July 11 for a holiday, with plans to return on Sunday.

Luciano was set to hand custody of his daughter back to her mother that day, officials said, adding that her mother had full-time custody. 

At around 6:30 on Saturday, Melina phoned her mom to say she was heading back to Canada, but sometime that night she was allegedly murdered. Her cause of death is not yet known. 

Police have not officially determined a motive, however the timeline laid out by cops at Monday’s press conference suggest that the alleged murder came as Luciano was set to give custody of his daughter back.  

He is now facing charges of second-degree murder and concealment of a corpse.  

Luciano Frattolin allegedly killed his daughter Melina on Saturday before reporting that she had been abducted 

Cops said Luciano Frattolin, 45, ‘fabricated’ reports of his daughter’s abduction, and he is now facing charges of second-degree murder and concealment of a corpse

Melina’s body was tragically found in a remote area near the town of Ticonderoga on Sunday. 

The discovery came hours after cops issued an urgent AMBER alert when Luciano reported that she was taken by someone in a white van. 

When her body was found, detectives said there was no evidence she was ever abducted and there was ‘no threat to the public’ following Luciano’s arrest.  

Cops said that ‘as the case progressed, law enforcement identified inconsistencies in the father’s account of events and the timeline he provided.’ 

She was located in Ticonderoga, New York, around 45 miles south of where her father said she had last been seen.

Lake George, the spot where he said he last saw her, is a small waterside town in the Adirondack region of upstate New York around 60 miles north of Albany.

On Sunday afternoon police issued an update saying ‘there is no indication that an abduction occurred’ and the little girl had been found dead. (Pictured: Melina with her father)

Police said both Melina Frattolin and her father Luciano are Canadian residents

Lake George, where the girl’s father said she was last seen, is a small waterside town in the Adirondack region of upstate New York around 60 miles north of Albany

Luciano is the founder of an organic coffee brand called Gambella, according to the product’s website.

‘Luciano Frattolin is an experienced entrepreneur with a proven track record of building diverse, high-performance businesses,’ the website reads.

‘With a background in the humanities and social sciences, his formal education, together with his pragmatic understanding about the complexities of life, motivates him to maintain an understanding of the world grounded in a distinct cross-cultural ethos.

‘The son of an Ethiopian mother and an Italian father, Luciano was born in the small, remote village of Gambella.

‘With a childhood spent running between rows of crimson coffee buds on the Ethiopian family plantation, and the neoclassical architecture of his father’s Milano, his vision of the world and his pursuits within, reflect these hyphenated cultures.’