The trial of the father accused of killing his daughter and leaving her body in an Adirondack pond last year began at the Essex County Courthouse in Elizabethtown Thursday.
During opening statements, the prosecution painted Luciano Frattolin as a man continually changing his story as investigators discovered information that challenged his narrative. His attorney said law enforcement decided his client's guilt before the investigation began.
Essex County Assistant District Attorney Carrie Daly told jurors they will present evidence that contradicts claims by Frattolin that his 9-year-old daughter Melina was kidnapped by two men in a white van before she was murdered. Her body was found on July 20, 2025, in Paragon Brook near Ticonderoga. Her death was determined to be due to drowning.
Luciano Frattolin’s relationship with Melina's mother, a resident of Montreal, ended in 2019, and the girl's mother had custody. An agreement between the two allowed Luciano to take Melina on a trip to New York City and New England the week before she died.
The prosecutor cited several inconsistencies in Luciano Frattolin's statements.
Digital evidence, including GPS tracking on his rental car and his and Melina's phones, placed them at the parking lot of a trail at the marsh where the girl’s body was found.
Based on surveillance video, Luciano Frattolin was wearing different clothing when he reported that Melina had been abducted than what he had on earlier at a McDonald's in Saratoga Springs where the two stopped to eat.
A bag of wet clothes matching what Luciano Frattolin was wearing earlier was found by investigators near Pottersville, and an FBI analysis found that soil in the socks and sneakers cannot be differentiated from the marsh where the girl’s body was found
Prosecutors also stated that every time new evidence has uncovered inconsistencies, Luciano Frattolin changes his story.
During the defense's opening statement, attorney Brian Pilatzke said investigators ignored Frattolin’s report of a kidnapping. He said law enforcement ignored the pleas of a distraught father hampered, not only by a language barrier, but also by a past head injury that causes memory gaps.
Although Frattolin cooperated with law enforcement throughout the investigation, his attorney said he was threatened by officers who immediately believed he was the perpetrator of the crime before beginning an investigation into his daughter's disappearance.
As for the wet clothing, the defense maintains the two had gone on a short hike.
Pilatzke told the jury that the prosecution’s case is based solely on circumstantial evidence with no confession nor witnesses to the crime.
Luciano Frattolin has pled not guilty to second-degree murder and concealment of a human corpse.
Due to his dual Italian and Ethiopian citizenship, the judge considers Frattolin a flight risk. He has been held at the Essex County jail.
