A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf at his arraignment on Monday (Tuesday AEST), according to court officials. The public defender’s office assigned to defend Frattolin did not immediately respond to phone and email requests for comment from The Associated Press.

Luciano Frattolin called 911 on Saturday night and later told authorities his daughter had been abducted from a parking lot near Lake George, a resort town in upstate New York. That led officials to issue an “amber alert” to enlist the public’s help in finding her.

But authorities said there were inconsistencies in the father’s account, and that they concluded there was no evidence she had been taken.

Frattolin initially said he could not find his child after he stepped out of a wooded area at a parking area near Lake George.

“During a subsequent interview, he then reports two unknown males forced her into a white van,” McConnell said. “That lead was thoroughly investigated and disproven.”

Surveillance video shows the father and daughter in another nearby resort town, Saratoga Springs, at about 5.30pm on Saturday. The girl spoke on the phone with her mother about an hour later and did not indicate she was under duress, police said.

Police believe Frattolin killed the girl after the phone call and before he made the 911 call.

Forest rangers found the girl’s body on Sunday afternoon in the shallows of a pond about 48 kilometres north of Lake George, in Ticonderoga, authorities said. The criminal complaint said Frattolin concealed her body under a log.

An autopsy has been scheduled.

Police said the father and daughter had been vacationing since July 11 in the US and were expected back in Montreal that weekend. The girl lived in Montreal with her mother, who has been estranged from Luciano Frattolin since 2019, police said.

Frattolin did not respond to requests for comment sent via LinkedIn, Instagram and his company website over the weekend.

He described himself as a “loving father” on his Instagram profile, and on the website of a coffee company said to be founded by him, a post says that his daughter Melina is “the light of his life.”

Police said Frattolin had no prior criminal or domestic violence history.