Following a three-week trial, a jury in Essex County on Monday convicted Luciano Frattolin of killing his 9-year old daughter during the pair’s summer trip from Montreal to New York.
Melina Frattolin’s body was found in Paragon Brook near Ticonderoga on July 20, 2025. Her head was in the water under a fallen tree and a rock had been placed on top of her body.
After less than an hour of deliberations Monday, a jury found Melina's father responsible for her death and concealing her body. Luciano Frattolin was flanked by his lawyers as the jury foreman announced the verdicts: guilty of second-degree murder and also concealment of a human corpse.
Sheriffs then handcuffed Frattolin and led him out of the courtroom. Later, outside the courthouse, District Attorney Michael Langley said the jury did not believe defense claims that his daughter had been kidnapped.
“They were here for three weeks. This is a trial where they took notes. I think they had a good idea of what they were going to do when they got into the deliberations room. We put on a good case and I think they just agreed with the evidence”
Much of the evidence offered by the prosecution was electronic data pulled from Luciano Frattolin and his daughter Melina’s mobile phones and the rental car he was driving. The data provided a timeline of Frattolin’s driving on July 19, 2025, from the time he left a McDonald’s in Saratoga Springs until he arrived at the Warren County Sheriff’s Office later that night. Langley said that technology was key to the case.
“The digital evidence was big in this case. Knowing where he was and knowing he was telling people he was at other places was huge. Shutting his daughter’s phone off so her mother couldn’t tell where she was big. So, the digital evidence in this case made the case. It’s the only reason that they found her. She was 40 miles away in the woods under a tree and the fact that they found her in less than a day is a tribute to the use of technology in criminal cases.”
Langley added:
“The fact that we could tell where he was every minute. His data was so good because he had a newer IPhone. He was using Google maps, so it was communicating constantly. We had every minute, I think every second, there was data on this case. So we could tell where, exactly where his vehicle was during the entire trip and that was huge. Knowing where he was, was not where he was telling people where he was.”
Defense lawyers refused to comment except to say that it was a difficult case. They have 30 days to file an appeal.
The defense had argued that law enforcement failed to believe and follow up on Frattolin’s report that his daughter had been kidnapped by two men in a white van. Langley rebutted the kidnapping claim.
“Like I said in my closing, all he wanted the police to do was look for two white men and a white van. And if they would’ve done that they never would have found Melina. They used their instincts. They knew something was wrong and then with 24 hours they had found the body. So, I think he really believed that they were going to go with his story. He was going to get to go home and they weren’t going to find her.”
Defense lawyers questioned why there was no DNA linking Luciano to the killing of his daughter. Langley said a number of factors eliminated DNA evidence.
“The weather, the humidity, the water. That was all factors in there not being a lot of DNA. The clothes that he threw off the Northway they were out there for three days. It was 90. It was raining. Just, a lot of DNA was found but not enough to ever create a profile to compare it to anybody because it was so deteriorated.”
During closing arguments the defense tried to sow reasonable doubt over the circumstantial evidence in the case, noting there were no witnesses and no DNA linking Luciano Frattolin to the death of his daughter Melina. They also asked why someone who had allegedly killed his daughter would voluntarily go to the police and turn over electronic devices.
Langley said the circumstantial nature of the evidence was the most difficult aspect of the case.
“The fact that there wasn’t a witness, there was no DNA tying him to the scene, that was a big point that they kept trying to make. It was circumstantial. You had to infer things from evidence, so that was the hardest part. There was no smoking gun saying look at your DNA here or there. He denied it the whole time and I’m sure he’ll still continue to deny it.”
The district attorney said that handwritten notes by Frattolin found in his rental car helped prove intent.
“Without someone saying they’re intentionally doing it, it’s hard to know what’s in someone’s mind. We were fortunate enough that he put on paper what he was thinking. It was something that when you read it there definitely was a plan. Melina’s life was coming to an end somewhere on this vacation no matter where he went.”
Melina’s mother had custody of her daughter and had nixed a planned trip by Luciano and Melina to Ethiopia. She instead allowed the trip to the U.S. Langley said Melina’s mother was informed of the verdict shortly after the jury announced it.
“It was a very stressful year knowing that the person you had a child with is now convicted of murdering your child and it was her only daughter. She waited for her daughter to come home all night. Daughter never came home and she had to get the call the next day that she’s dead in a brook in Essex County, New York.”
Frattolin is being held at the Essex County Correctional Facility and will be sentenced on October 14. He faces at least 15 years to life in prison.
