The founder of an organic coffee company has gone on trial in New York, accused of killing his nine-year-old daughter during what was supposed to be a trip to the state.
Luciano Frattolin, 45, of Montreal, is charged with second-degree murder and concealment of a human corpse in the death of his daughter, Melina, last year.
Frattolin has pleaded not guilty. His defense team continues to argue that Melina was kidnapped on July 19, 2025, echoing the account Frattolin gave investigators at the outset.
Prosecutors, however, say investigators soon identified “inconsistencies” in his version of events as police searched across upstate New York for Melina and for the white van her father claimed had been used in the abduction.
Authorities later discovered Melina’s remains concealed beneath a log in a secluded pond in Ticonderoga, New York — roughly 45 miles south of the location where Frattolin said she had last been seen.
As testimony began Thursday, Essex County Assistant District Attorney Carrie Daly told jurors the murder case started “when the body of a little girl was located by law enforcement” off Short Swing Trail in the Pharaoh Lakes Wilderness Area, between Ticonderoga and Schroon Lake.
“That girl was Melina Frattolin,” Daly said, according to the Press-Republican.
“The People intend to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that this defendant drowned her,” Daly told the court. “After the murder, the defendant concealed her body by placing a large rock on it.”
Luciano Frattolin, 45, of Montreal, is standing trial for allegedly murdering his nine-year-old daughter while on a trip to New York. He is pictured being escorted from the Essex County Courthouse on Thursday
Prosecutors claim Frattolin filed a bogus report that his nine-year-old daughter, Melina, was kidnapped before her body was found in a pond in Ticonderoga
Daly went on to tell the jury how Frattolin, the founder of organic coffee brand Gambella, had a 10-year relationship with Melina’s mother, Kali Galanis, that ended in 2019.
Galanis had full custody of the girl, but allowed Frattolin to take her on vacation to the United States in July 2025 – in what prosecutors say was a ploy to kill Melina as the once-wealthy dad struggled to pay child support.
He also allegedly believed that both Galanis and Melina suffered from mental illness, and had been planning since early 2025 to end her suffering, CBS 6 Albany reports.
Melina was then due back at her mother’s house at 8.30pm on July 19.
But prosecutors said a stop the father-and-daughter made at a McDonald’s in Saratoga Springs that night was the last time the nine-year-old girl’s phone showed any activity and Galanis, who tracked her daughter through the phone, lost access shortly thereafter.
By around 9.30pm, Frattolin called 911 from Lake George claiming his young girl was forced into a white van.
He told investigators he chased the van for 15 to 20 minutes before he eventually stopped in Warren County to make the call.
Prosecutors said Frattolin repeatedly revised his story when law enforcement officers presented him with new evidence
Frattolin had claimed on July 19 that Melina had been abducted and forced into a white van
The report sparked a massive manhunt for Melina, with law enforcement stopping white vans throughout the region.
At first, prosecutors said Frattolin cooperated with the investigators by allowing them to search his vehicle and cellphone as well as Melina’s phone.
But Frattolin allegedly changed his story as investigators uncovered new evidence in the case.
According to the prosecution, what officers had expected to be a brief drive to the alleged abduction site instead took hours, with Frattolin repeatedly redirecting officers.
At one point, he even allegedly told the cops they traveled too far north on Interstate 87 when they approached Exit 28 – though his cellphone and vehicle data placed Frattolin in the area, where he stayed for nearly an hour.
When he was then questioned about the stop, Frattolin allegedly told investigators that he and Melina had been looking for a place to hike or swim.
Investigators also noted that Frattolin told them he had been unable to access his cellphone immediately after the abduction because it had fallen between the seats of his rental car.
Prosecutors, though, said evidence proves he had texted Galanis following the alleged abduction that Melina would be home in 10 minutes.
They further noted that video from the McDonald’s showed he was wearing different clothes than what he was seen in later in the night – and his wet clothes and shoes were later found in a garbage bag in the woods off I-87.
His defense attorney claims Frattolin deeply loved his daughter and painstakingly planned a weeklong vacation in the Northeast US
But Warren County Assigned Counsel Administrator Brian Pilatzke argued in his opening statement that Frattolin deeply loved his daughter and had planned a weeklong vacation to show her New York City and other areas throughout the Northeast.
‘This is a tragedy. A young child is gone,’ Pilatzke said, telling the jury their ‘duty is to decide whether Mr Frattolin is guilty.’
He then went on to claim that the prosecution’s case is ‘entirely based on circumstantial evidence,’ as he criticized the investigation into the alleged kidnapping.
The lawyer claimed that the investigation was hindered by language barriers between the police and Frattolin, who lived in Canada but was a dual citizen of Ethiopia and Italy and carried an Italian passport.
Pilatzke also said law enforcement officers waited three and a half hours to issue an Amber Alert, interrogated Frattolin for hours, misled him about the evidence, threatened him with physical violence and failed to seriously investigate any possibility other than the father’s guilt.
‘Luciano fully cooperated with law enforcement,’ he said. ‘Luciano begged them to find his daughter.’
He then told the jurors that if the prosecution fails to prove his client murdered his daughter beyond a reasonable doubt, Frattolin must be acquitted.
