Prosecutors in New York have laid out a harrowing case against coffee company founder Luciano Frattolin, alleging the 45-year-old father drowned his nine-year-old daughter in murky marshland during a trip upstate. Melina Frattolin was found dead in July 2025 near Eagle Lake in Ticonderoga, where experts told jurors her lungs, airway and stomach contained mud, vegetation and debris from the swampy water. Frattolin, the founder of Gambella coffee, has pleaded not guilty to murder. The prosecution claims he killed the child as part of a calculated plan to avoid child support payments. In court, as jurors were shown disturbing photographs of Melina’s body, Frattolin looked away and was seen writing rapidly on a legal pad. Medical examiner Dr. Michael Sikirica testified that the girl was discovered in knee-deep marsh water, covered in “a large amount of mud,” and said the evidence pointed clearly to drowning. “The lungs were just full of black material, basically mud and plant debris,” Sikirica told the court.
Cell phone data links father to lake
Sikirica said it was immediately apparent that Melina’s lungs were overexpanded, a finding he described as consistent with drowning. He also testified that her body appeared to have been held down in the water by a stone. The grim medical evidence followed earlier testimony that Melina had pleaded with her mother not to send her on a planned trip with her father to Ethiopia, his country of origin. Prosecutors this week also introduced cellphone records they say place Luciano Frattolin near the lake area where his daughter’s body was later recovered.
Police spot inconsistencies in father’s story
Frattolin reported Melina missing on July 19, 2025, telling authorities that two men in a white van had abducted her while they were traveling home to Canada from New York. New York State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation Investigator Daniel Mauro testified that he questioned Frattolin for 13 hours after the missing-child report was made. According to Mauro, Frattolin gave shifting answers about whether he had changed clothes, initially denying it before saying he had changed his shirt because he “was sweaty.” Investigators said those inconsistencies raised suspicion, with police believing he may have changed because he had been in the marsh water.
Jurors see interrogation footage and new evidence
Authorities later allegedly recovered Frattolin’s wet clothing inside a trash bag discarded along Interstate 87, the highway he had been using while driving Melina back to her mother in Montreal, according to the Press Republican. Jurors were shown portions of Mauro’s recorded interview with Frattolin, including the moment the investigator challenged his claim that Melina had been “kidnapped.” “You know something you haven’t told us,” Mauro said during the interrogation. Frattolin maintained that his daughter was taken by two men in a van after he pulled to the side of the road to urinate, claiming she was snatched while his back was turned.
Father disputes cell phone location evidence
During questioning, another investigator confronted Frattolin with cellphone evidence allegedly putting him near the location where Melina’s remains were found. Frattolin denied deception, insisting, “I’m not lying.” Earlier Tuesday, Melina’s mother, Kali Galanis, testified that the New York trip came only after Frattolin failed to secure permission to take their daughter to Ethiopia. That overseas trip had been planned for January 2025, but Galanis said she refused to allow it after Melina told her she did not want to go.
Mother fears daughter’s overseas trip
Galanis, who was separated from Frattolin, told jurors she grew uneasy about the proposed international travel after her lawyer raised concerns about cases in which estranged parents take children abroad and do not return. She also said Melina had shared other “troubling and alarming” remarks her father allegedly made about the child’s reluctance to travel to the East African country. Those concerns, Galanis said, ultimately led her to block the Ethiopia trip.
Prosecutors allege trip was murder plot
“I became uncomfortable,” Galanis testified as the murder trial continued. “I was not OK with that anymore.” Frattolin then agreed to take Melina to New York instead, prosecutors say, where he allegedly killed her while on the return drive to Canada. The prosecution argues the outing was a cover for a plan to end his child support obligations. Frattolin also allegedly believed both Galanis and Melina had mental health issues and had been considering since early 2025 a plan to “end” the child’s suffering, CBS6 Albany reported. His defense team disputes the prosecution’s theory, maintaining that Melina was abducted that night as Frattolin originally told police.
