Sickening place 'killer dad' hid daughter Melina Frattolin's body after faking disappearance from Lake George
Organic coffee brand founder Luciano Frattollin, 45, attempted to conceal his daughter Melina's body in shallow waters in Ticonderoga, upstate New York, after claiming she had been kidnapped at a location 45 miles away, officials have said.
New York State Police gave more heartbreaking details about the little girl's death in a press conference on Monday, after charging her father with second-degree murder and concealing a body. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges.
Captain Robert McConnell said Frattolin, who lives in Montreal, Canada, killed Melina on Saturday night while they were on vacation close to the picturesque town of Lake George, located in the Adirondacks region of New York 60 miles north of Albany.
Frattolin and Melina were in America legally after starting their vacation on July 11, and they were due to return to their native Quebec on Sunday.
The horror unfolded on Saturday night, when Frattolin called the local Warren County Sheriff's Office claiming that two men in a white van had abducted his daughter.
New York State Police issued an amber alert for help finding the little girl at around 10pm, advising the public that she was believed to be in 'imminent danger'.
But detectives quickly 'identified inconsistencies in the father's account of events and the timeline he provided', and they found Melina dead just before 2pm on Sunday.
New York State Forest Rangers discovered her body 'in the shallow water of a pond' in Ticonderoga, New York, around 45 miles south of where her father said she had last been seen on the highway close to Lake George.
Frattolin has been charged with murder in the second degree and concealment of a human corpse, and he is being held at the Essex County Correctional Facility.
He was seen in a white jumpsuit and shackles being hauled into Ticonderoga Town Court on Monday, where he pleaded not guilty to both charges.
Captain McConnell said Melina's mother, who has been estranged from Frattolin since 2019, was expecting her daughter to be returned to her home in Montreal on Sunday.
Melina resided full time with her mother and Frattolin visited without limitations. He also had zero criminal record, McConnell said.
Surveillance footage from 5.30pm on Sunday showed Melina'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 en route back to Canada.
'The child appeared to be in good health and did not indicate she was under any duress,' McConnell told the press conference.
'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 Melina 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' Melina 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'.
NYSP said that 'as the case progressed, law enforcement identified inconsistencies in the father's account of events and the timeline he provided.'
Melina's cause of death is pending the results of an autopsy, which was scheduled for Monday.
McConnell expressed his condolences for Melina's family. 'This is certainly a difficult case and a heartbreaking investigation,' he said.
Frattolin 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.'
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