Father charged with murder of ‘missing' daughter found dead in pond
Luciano Frattolin told Warren County Sheriff's Office that his daughter, Melina, may have been abducted. An amber alert suggested she was last seen in a white van heading southbound from Exit 22 on the Northway.
Her body was recovered on Sunday morning from the shallow part of a pond north of Lake George village, near the state border with Vermont.
Mr Frattolin has since been charged with second-degree murder and the concealing of a corpse, New York State Police spokesman Robert McConnell said.
Authorities said that there were inconsistencies in the father's account, and that they concluded there was no evidence of an abduction.
Both Mr Frattolin and his daughter were residents of Montreal. They had entered the US legally for a holiday on July 11, News10 reported.
Mr Frattolin has been estranged from Melina's mother since 2019, the website said. The nine-year-old was set to return to her custody following the end of the trip with her father.
Police said Melina had spoken with her mother by phone on Saturday evening, and had seemed in high spirits.
'The investigation has determined, 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,' state police Troop G captain Robert McConnell said in a press conference on Monday.
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