A jury found Luciano Frattolin guilty of killing his 9-year-old daughter, Melina, and hiding her body during a trip from Montreal, Canada, to New York in the summer of 2025.
Prosecutors argued that Frattolin, 46, drowned his daughter after traveling with her to New York for a vacation. Melina lived primarily with her mother, who had custody of the child.
Security camera footage showed Frattolin and Melina in Saratoga Springs at around 5:30 p.m. on July 19, 2025. About an hour later, Melina spoke with her mother and said that she and her father were returning to Canada.
Later that night, Frattolin reported his daughter missing, telling authorities that he had not seen her after stopping near Lake George. An Amber Alert was issued the following morning, but investigators found inconsistencies in his account and no evidence that a kidnapping had occurred.
Melina’s body was discovered the next day in a wooded area in Ticonderoga, about 40 miles from where Frattolin said she had disappeared. An autopsy determined that the girl died from asphyxia caused by drowning, and her death was ruled a homicide.
The jury reached its guilty verdict after about one hour of deliberations. Family members embraced and cried as the verdicts were read in court.
