Father arrested in New York in death of 9-year-old daughter he had reported missing
Luciano Frattolin, the father of Melina Frattolin, was charged with second-degree murder and concealing of a corpse, New York State Police spokesman Robert McConnell said.
State Police said Luciano Frattolin reported the girl missing and possibly abducted on Saturday, leading officials to issue an Amber Alert to enlist the public's help in finding her.
But authorities said over the weekend that there were inconsistencies in the father's account, and that they concluded there was no evidence of an abduction.
Authorities found the girl's body on Sunday north of Lake George village, near state border with Vermont.
Frattolin, 45, did not immediately respond to requests for comment sent via LinkedIn, Instagram and his company website over the weekend. He described himself as a 'loving father' on his Instagram profile, and on the website of a coffee company said to be founded by him, a post says that his daughter Melina is 'the light of his life.'
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Daily Mail
3 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Shocking statement 'Killer dad' Luciano Frattolin made about daughter as money troubles, infidelity is revealed
The man accused of drowning his nine-year-old daughter and leaving her lifeless body beneath a log in a murky pond once confessed he didn't like being 'tied down' by the little girl. Luciano Frattolin, 45, a Canadian businessman now facing second-degree murder charges, allegedly fabricated a story about his daughter Melina being abducted by men in a white van, but police say the truth was far worse. Melina was found drowned in a remote section of forest in upstate New York on Sunday afternoon, her body partially concealed, after her father himself called 911 the night before to report her missing. Now, a portrait is emerging of a man whose once-polished public image including that of a doting father masked a troubling private life marked by debt, deception, and emotional detachment from the child he claimed to cherish. 'He loved his daughter, but he didn't like the idea of being tied down,' a former associate of Frattolin told the Montreal Gazette, speaking on condition of anonymity. The friend, who knew Frattolin during his time in Ethiopia, where the accused had investments in mining and hotel construction, said that while Frattolin visited his daughter at least once a year, he remained mostly distant from her day-to-day life in Montreal. That emotional distance was laid bare in eerie writings Frattolin posted to his now-deleted coffee business website. There, the accused father reflected on his obsession with maintaining 'perfect order' in his home and how his daughter's 'messy artwork' and 'chaotic toys' disrupted his sense of control. Yet, in a disturbing contradiction, he also wrote that 'she is the light of my life… the inspiration for everything.' Frattolin pleaded not guilty in Ticonderoga Town Court on Monday while shackled in a white prison jumpsuit. At the arraignment, he revealed he was more than $200,000 in debt, citing the collapse of his business empire in Canada, claiming he could not afford a lawyer. His next court appearance is scheduled for Friday. The horror began on Saturday night, when Frattolin called 911 and claimed that two men had forced his daughter into a white van near Lake George while he was urinating in the woods. New York State Police quickly issued an Amber Alert, but soon began to suspect that his account didn't add up. 'There was no evidence of an abduction,' said Captain Robert McConnell of the New York State Police, who confirmed the cause of death was drowning and classified the case as a homicide. Adding to the unraveling lies, a local woman named Rebecca Kulickowski told News10 she spotted a man she believes was Frattolin running frantically up a wooded hill the same night Melina vanished. 'It only caught my eye because as I was driving past the car, I seen a skinny tall guy,' she said. 'He was running up a hill that he was parked next to… I just didn't feel right… our eyes locked when I drove by.' By Sunday afternoon, police found Melina's body in a shallow, muddy pond about 30 miles north of Lake George, partially hidden beneath a log. Surveillance footage from earlier that evening showed Melina with her father in Saratoga Springs, and at 6:30pm, she called her mother in Montreal and said they were on their way home. 'She appeared to be in good health and did not indicate she was under any duress,' said Capt. McConnell. 'The investigation has determined that sometime after Melina's phone call with her mother, and before Mr. Frattolin's 911 call, he allegedly murdered Melina and left her body in a remote area where she was later discovered by law enforcement,' said Capt. McConnell. Authorities believe the murder occurred just hours before Melina was due to be returned to her mother, who has had full custody since 2019, when she split with Frattolin after discovering he was seeing another woman during a visit to Ethiopia. 'She came to visit him while he was recovering from an assault,' said the former friend, referring to a 2019 incident that left Frattolin with permanent eye damage. 'And she found him with someone else. That's why they separated.' Since then, Frattolin maintained sporadic contact with his daughter and struggled to stay afloat financially. He had fallen $26,000 behind in rent on a Montreal property he sublet as an Airbnb, which he used to help pay Melina's child support and is currently suing two property managers for over $115,000, accusing them of mismanaging payments. In a court filing, the Bank of Nova Scotia said Frattolin owed $83,000 on a shuttered café and an additional $97,000 in credit card debt. His company, Café Gambella, which marketed ethically sourced Ethiopian coffee, has collapsed. Despite the unraveling finances and fractured family ties, Frattolin tried to present himself online as a man of vision and virtue. His Instagram was filled with photos of father-daughter trips, Thanksgiving celebrations, and exotic vacations to Ethiopia and Italy. One particularly unsettling YouTube video showed him frolicking in the snow with Melina, set to a lullaby: 'Now hush, little baby, don't you cry. Everything's gonna be alright… Daddy's here to hold you through the night.' But behind the camera, friends say, he was 'image-obsessed,' dressing in designer clothes and refusing to fly coach. 'He was one of the first people to bring a Porsche into Ethiopia,' the former associate said. 'He had a Land Cruiser, too. In Ethiopia, that's wealth.' At the same time, his online biography alluded cryptically to an 'unfortunate event' in 2019 that required a 'long and arduous recovery', hinting at the physical and emotional damage he suffered in the assault.
NBC News
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Helped by AI, man built bombs he planned to detonate in Manhattan, officials say
Federal prosecutors indicted a 55-year-old Long Island, New York, man Tuesday, alleging he built seven homemade bombs with the help of artificial intelligence, a process he called 'easier than buying gun powder,' according to court documents. The man, Michael Gann, transported the bombs from Long Island to New York City and stored five of them and four shotgun shells on an apartment building rooftop in the SoHo neighborhood, officials said. He intended to combine the shotgun shells with one or more of the improvised explosive devices, they said. On March 27, Gann posted a message to President Donald Trump's official X account, the indictment said. 'Dear @POTUS, I'm thinking just now here in NYC that it's too bad that the wall wasn't built before the National Guard would have to come here for the Protests and Riotation," he was said to have written. "Or would you just drop a bomb on this place while and because they seem to be coming and coming?' Five weeks later, Gann was arrested after he posted on Instagram, "Who wants me to go out to play like no tomorrow?" according to authorities. Gann has not yet entered a plea, and his attorney declined to comment. Ordering online Gann told law enforcement officials that he used two household compounds that he ordered online to make the improvised explosives, according to court documents. He also purchased over 200 cardboard tubes and more than 50 feet of fuses. One of the devices he built had roughly 30 grams of explosive powder — about 600 times the legal limit for consumer fireworks. Officials said he appeared to have acted alone was not acting as part of a group. "Gann allegedly produced multiple improvised explosive devices intended for use in Manhattan,' said Christopher Raia, the head of the FBI's New York field office. 'Due to the successful partnership of law enforcement agencies in New York, Gann was swiftly brought to justice before he could harm innocent civilians." One of the witnesses, a U.S. military veteran, told the FBI that as Gann was mixing the explosives in Inwood, New York, a town in Long Island, he said, 'what kind of veteran are you? You see a problem going on in the neighborhood and you do nothing about it.' 'Gann then pointed to a Jewish school,' according to a criminal complaint that was filed at the time of his arrest. A second witness agreed to make phone calls to Gann while the FBI listened in, according to the criminal complaint. Gann told the witness in one call that 'he had lit one of the devices near the East River on the FDR Drive; that the device had exploded, scaring Gann,' it says. Gann then said, according to the witness, that he was considering disposing of the remaining five devices by throwing them into the river or turning them in to the New York City Fire Department. On June 5, the day of the alleged call, law enforcement agents saw Gann walking down the street carrying a shoulder bag, according to the complaint. When the agents identified themselves to Gann, he told them he was on his way to the fire department to drop the devices off, it says. After being read his rights, Gann told law enforcement officials that he 'wished to make pyrotechnics and used artificial intelligence to learn which chemicals to purchase and mix,' the complaint says. It says Gann created four devices initially and threw three from the Manhattan side of the Williamsburg Bridge. Two devices fell into the water, and one fell on the train tracks and was recovered near there. "Gann built explosive devices, stored them on a rooftop in SoHo," interim U.S. Attorney Jay Clayton said, 'and threw one onto the subway tracks — putting countless lives at risk.'
Daily Mail
15 hours ago
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Disturbing behavior of Melina Frattolin's dad 'moments after he murdered the nine year-old'
The father of a nine-year-old girl facing murder charges over her death was spotted running through a hill by a witness after allegedly killing his daughter and hiding her body. Melina Frattolin was reported missing on Saturday by her father Luciano Frattolin, who told police his child was abducted by someone in a white van in upstate New York. Her body was later found underneath a log in a shallow section of a pond near Ticonderoga, having died by drowning. State Police say her father, a Canadian CEO, faked the missing report and is facing a second-degree murder charge, as well as concealment of a human corpse. He has pleaded not guilty. Ticonderoga resident Rebecca Kulickowski had tipped police off after saying she spotted a man she thinks was Luciano sprinting through a hilly section of woodland on Saturday night. She told News10: 'It only caught my eye because as I was driving past the car, I seen a skinny tall guy. And he was running up a hill that he was parked next to and there was wooded area on the bottom of it. 'I just didn't feel right, there was something about him, I don't know, our eyes locked when I drove by, he looked at me.' After waking up the next day to an Amber Alert over the disappearance of Melina, she immediately called the cops to explain what she had saw. State Police said they had received over 700 tips from the public after the initial alert was issued. As part of their investigation, they also released pictures of Luciano's vehicle, a grey 2024 Toyota Prius, as they asked for help in gathering more evidence. Captain Robert McConnell said her father, who lives in Montreal, Canada, killed the girl on Saturday night while they were on vacation close to the picturesque town of Lake George, located in the Adirondacks region of New York. The father and daughter were both in America legally after starting their vacation on July 11. They were due to return to their native Quebec on Sunday. The horror unfolded on Saturday night, when Luciano called the local Warren County Sheriff's Office claiming that two men in a white van had abducted his daughter. Police soon became suspicious of Luciano's story on what happened just before locating her body around 2pm Sunday. He is being held at the Essex County Correctional Facility and was spotted in a white prison jumpsuit and shackles while being hauled into Ticonderoga Town Court on Monday. Captain McConnell said Frattolin's mother, who has been estranged from Luciano since 2019, was expecting her daughter to be returned to her home in Montreal on Sunday. He is being held at the Essex County Correctional Facility and was spotted in a white prison jumpsuit and shackles while being hauled into Ticonderoga Town Court on Monday The nine-year-old resided full time with her mother and her father visited without limitations. He also had zero criminal record, McConnell said. Surveillance footage from 5.30pm on Sunday showed Frattolin's final moments as she was seen with her father in Saratoga Springs. At 6.30pm, she phoned her mother and told her that she and her father were on their way back to Canada. 'The child appeared to be in good health and did not indicate she was under any duress,' McConnell said. 'The investigation has determined sometime after Melina's phone call with her mother and sometime before Mr Frattolin's 911 call, he allegedly murdered Melina and left her body in a remote area where she was later discovered by law enforcement.' Captain McConnell said Luciano initially told cops that his child was kidnapped on the highway near Lake George when he pulled over to urinate in the woods. The alleged killer dad said he turned around to find his daughter was no longer in their car, and he saw 'a suspicious white van' fleeing the scene. He later added that 'two unknown males forced' Frattolin into the vehicle. But when her body was found, detectives said there was no evidence she was ever abducted, and detectives said there was 'no threat to the public.' McConnell expressed his condolences to the family. 'This is certainly a difficult case and a heartbreaking investigation,' he said. Prior to her death, Frattolin's father gushed about her online, calling her the 'light of his life' and sharing pictures and videos of their 'father daughter' time. 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 read.
