Father of Montreal girl who was found dead in N.Y. charged with 2nd-degree murder
New York State Police said officers from the Warren County Sheriff's Office received a call Saturday at around 10 p.m. ET from a man who said his daughter was missing from the area of Exit 22 of Highway I-87 in Lake George, possibly due to an abduction.
They said the child was identified as Melina Frattolin and her father as 45-year-old Luciano Frattolin. Both were later confirmed to be Montreal residents.
Robert McConnell, Bureau of Criminal Investigation captain for the New York State Police, told reporters at a news conference on Monday morning that the father and daughter had been on vacation in the United States since July 11.
Melina resided full time with her mother and Frattolin would visit the child when he was in Canada. The parents had been estranged since 2019, police said.
McConnell explained that the trip was planned and that the mother was aware of it and had no concerns about Melina being with her father.
Frattolin and his daughter were expected to return to Canada on Saturday, July 19, at which time Melina would be returned to her mother's custody in Montreal.
According to McConnell, at about 5:30 p.m. ET on Saturday, video surveillance images showed the girl 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.
WATCH | N.Y. State Police provide update on the investigation:
The child appeared to be in good health and did not indicate she was under any duress.
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 dead in the shallow water of a pond on Sunday at approximately 1:50 p.m. ET in Ticonderoga, N.Y., about 50 kilometres east of Lake George, near the New York-Vermont border.
The charges against Frattolin allege he concealed her body under a log.
The Warren County Sheriff's Office initially led the investigation and transferred it to the New York State Police. As the case progressed, officers identified inconsistencies in the father's account of events and the timeline of Melina's disappearance.
Police refute Frattolin's initial abduction account
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.
"He fabricated the initial report of the abduction."
Frattolin appeared at the Ticonderoga town court on Monday. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf at his arraignment, according to court officials. The public defender's office assigned to defend Frattolin did not immediately respond to phone and email requests for comment from The Associated Press.
The victim's cause of death is pending the results of an autopsy which is scheduled for later today.
On the website of a company called Gambella Coffee, the girl's father was described as someone who "spends as much time as he can in Montreal, Canada with his beautiful daughter Melina."
By Monday morning, the link to the website was broken.
Melina was described as the "light of his life, she is the inspiration for…well, everything."
The company is headquartered in downtown Montreal.
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