Melina Frattolin cause of death ruled to be asphyxiation by drowning after her body was found underneath log in shallow pond near Ticonderoga as 9 year old Montreal, Canada girl’s father faces murder charges as dad pleads not guilty.
A Montreal, Canada girl whose ‘lifeless’ body was found hours after her businessman father claimed she had been ’snatched by a white van’, died by asphyxiation by drowning, according to an autopsy released on Tuesday.
Melina Frattolin, 9, was reported missing on Saturday by her father Luciano Frattolin, 45, who told police his child had been ’snatched by a white van’ in upstate New York.
However, cops claimed Luciano misled the investigation after they found the little girl’s dead body underneath a log in the shallow portion of a pond near Ticonderoga.
Melina Frattolin cause of death
The father and daughter had arrived in the U.S on July 11th for a ‘getaway’ and had been scheduled to return to Canada on the day of Melina’s body was found. The 9 year old girl had spoken to her mother the day before, telling her she was looking forward to seeing her mother the next day. But it was not to be.
The mother, whose name had yet to be released, had been estranged from Luciano since 2019 and had given permission for her daughter to travel with her ‘businessman’ father. The mother had full custody of the girl.
Come Monday, the girl’s father, the founder of Gambella Coffee, was arraigned on charges of second degree murder and concealment of a body. Luciano Frattolin pleaded not guilty to both charges.
The father now remains held without bond at the Essex County Correctional Facility.
Autopsy results released on Tuesday determined that Melina died from asphyxia due to drowning. Manner of death was determined to be homicide.
Captain Robert McConnell said her father, who lives in Montreal, Canada, killed the girl on Saturday night while they were on vacation close to the picturesque town of Lake George, located in the Adirondacks region of New York.
Canadian businessman father personal life was out of control
The father and daughter were both in America legally after starting their vacation on July 11. They were due to return to their native Quebec on Sunday.
The nine-year-old resided full time with her mother and her father visited without limitations
The horror unfolded on Saturday night, when Luciano called the local Warren County Sheriff’s Office claiming that two men in a white van had abducted his daughter.
An AMBER alert was then issued by New York State Police around 10pm, as they advised the public they believed she was in ‘imminent danger.’
Police soon became suspicious of Luciano’s story on what happened just before locating her body around 2pm Sunday.
‘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,’ McConnell told press.
Prior to her death, Frattolin’s father gushed about her online, calling her the ‘light of his life’ and sharing pictures and videos of their ‘father daughter’ time.
Portraying himself as a doting father on social media, his Instagram is filled with pictures of him and his daughter on holidays and spending time together over recent years.
Nevertheless the father had previously expressed frustration with his daughter on his company website (since scrubbed off the web) in which the dad told of struggling to learn to live with his daughter’s ‘messy art projects’ and ‘chaotic’ toys because of his obsession with keeping ‘perfect order’ in his home.
During the entrepreneur’s court arraignment on Monday it was also revealed the father was saddled with over $200K debts, embroiled in litigation against a former business partner along with being sued by his former landlord for non payment of rent along with the father telling the court he was behind on child support payments.
If convicted, Luciano Frattolin faces life behind bars in NY.
