New York.- Data obtained from cell phones and a vehicle proved decisive for a jury to find Luciano Frattolin, a 46-year-old Canadian resident, guilty of the murder of his 9-year-old daughter Melina, whose homicide he attempted to cover up by reporting a fake kidnapping during a vacation in New York state.
An Essex County jury found Frattolin guilty of second-degree murder and concealment of a corpse, following a trial in which the prosecution reconstructed, through technological evidence, the movements made by the defendant during the minor’s final hours of life. The verdict was reached after less than an hour of deliberation.
The crime occurred in July 2025, when father and daughter were taking a trip from Montreal, Canada, through different locations in the northeastern United States. Surveillance cameras captured both of them in Saratoga Springs during the afternoon of July 19th and, approximately an hour later, Melina spoke with her mother and indicated that she was returning to Canada with her father.
Hours later, Frattolin went to the authorities to report the girl’s disappearance. He claimed that Melina had been kidnapped after they stopped near Lake George, a version that triggered a massive police mobilization and the activation of an Amber Alert. However, investigators began to detect contradictions in his account and found no evidence to support the existence of an abduction.
The search ended the following day when forest rangers located Melina’s body in Paragon Brook, near Ticonderoga, approximately 40 miles from where her father had placed the alleged disappearance. The autopsy determined that she died by drowning and classified the death as a homicide.
During the judicial process, prosecutors presented records obtained from mobile devices and the car rented by Frattolin. That information allowed for the reconstruction, practically minute by minute, of the route taken by the accused and placed him in the vicinity of the location where the body was subsequently found.
Essex County District Attorney Michael Langey highlighted that technological information was a fundamental piece of the investigation, because phone records and navigation applications showed locations inconsistent with the story initially provided by Frattolin.
The Prosecutor’s Office also presented documents found in the accused’s vehicle which, according to investigators, contained references supporting the existence of prior planning. The defense, for its part, questioned the investigation and maintained that the authorities focused prematurely on Frattolin without sufficiently investigating his version regarding a possible kidnapping. The accused decided not to testify during the trial.
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Melina lived permanently with her mother, Kali Galanis, who had custody of her. The minor was with her father as part of an authorized vacation when the crime occurred.
Frattolin remains in custody and is scheduled to return to court on October 14, the date set for his sentencing. For the second-degree murder conviction and the additional charge related to the concealment of a body, he faces an extensive prison sentence.
The case, which initially mobilized authorities under the hypothesis of a kidnapped girl, ended up becoming a homicide investigation in which digital tracking allowed for the reconstruction of Melina’s final hours and discredited the version presented by her own father.
