Melina Frattolin, 9, was found dead in Upstate New York on July 20 after her father, Luciano Frattolin, 45, reported she had been abducted by two men in a white van.
Following his report, authorities issued AMBER alert, but soon after, they realized that the father fabricated the story.
“Mr. Frattolin reported that he had stopped in a parking lot near Exit 22 on I-87 in Lake George to urinate,” New York State Police Capt. Robert McConnell told reporters on Monday at a briefing. “He initially said he walked away from his vehicle, and when he returned, his child was gone. He reported a suspicious white vehicle near the scene, in addition to two men in the vehicle. This theory was thoroughly investigated and refuted.”
Melina’s body was located in the shallow portion of a pond in upstate New York near the town of Ticonderoga on Sunday, hours after her father reported she had allegedly been abducted, The Mail reported.
Luciano was since arrested for the killing of his own daughter and taken to Ticonderoga Town Court on Monday, where he pleaded not guilty to murdering Melina.
Authorities believe he did the horrific crime while traveling back home to Montreal, Canada, from New York where they were on vacation. He is now facing charges of second-degree murder and concealment of a corpse.
Luciano and Melina’s mother had been estranged since 2019 and she had a full custody of their daughter.
He is the founder of an organic coffee brand called Gambella.
“Luciano Frattolin is an experienced entrepreneur with a proven track record of building diverse, high-performance businesses,” according to the company’s website.
“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.”
Luciano told the court he couldn’t afford a lawyer despite his social media showing him leading a luxurious lifestyle, traveling abroad, and driving expensive cars.
According to The New York Post, the motives behind the alleged killing of 9-year-old Melina haven’t been determined yet, but according to Montreal news agencies, Luciano struggled to pay child support and owed hundreds of thousands of dollars to creditors.
On his company’s website, he referred to his daughter as to “the light of his life” and his “inspiration.”
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