Canadian businessman accused of murdering daughter, 9, goes on trial
· Toronto Sun
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Luciano Frattolin’s back was against the wall.
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Cops say his Montreal coffee company was going down the drain and he was under heavy financial pressure.
Did that drive him to allegedly murder his nine-year-old daughter Melina Galanis Frattolin on July 19, 2025?
Frattolin, 45, went on trial for second-degree murder and concealment of a corpse in Upstate New York’s Essex County on Monday morning. He has pleaded not guilty.
Considered a flight risk
Prosecutors and the defence have now begun reviewing the jury pool. Frattolin has been held in custody since the incident after a judge declared the entrepreneur with dual Ethiopian and Italian citizenship a flight risk.
According to cops and prosecutors, Frattolin initially contacted the New York State Police claiming that men in a white van had brazenly kidnapped the girl. Cops issued an Amber Alert.
But as detectives dug deeper, they said they began noticing a slew of inconsistencies in Frattolin’s harrowing tale. Cops determined that no kidnapping had occurred.
It’s a chilling replay of the notorious Susan Smith case when the South Carolina mother-of-two strapped her two boys, three-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander, into the family car and let it submerge in a lake. She later claimed a Black man had carjacked the trio.
In the Frattolin case, cops determined that the abduction tale was bogus and later found Melina’s body under a log in a shallow pond near Ticonderoga, N.Y. Her death was determined to be a homicide caused by asphyxia due to drowning.
Made bogus claims
Prosecutors theorize that Frattolin bound and drowned his daughter in woods before trying to conceal her corpse.
Now, after multiple delays and pre-trial motions, Frattolin is going on trial for his daughter’s murder. He is being represented by a public defender during the trial in Elizabethtown, N.Y., about 160 km south of Montreal.
The judge has still not yet ruled on whether or not to dismiss certain evidence from being presented at the trial. Last November, Frattolin asked the court to toss out evidence obtained from a search of his cellphone as well as statements he made to two state troopers during a two-hour car ride in the middle of the night while searching for his daughter.
A hearing on the motion was held last February.
Frattolin reported his daughter missing on their way home to Montreal from a 10-day road trip through New York state, New York City and Connecticut.
Esttranged since 2019
“He allegedly murdered Melina and left her body in a remote area where she was later discovered by law enforcement,” NYSP Captain Robert McConnell said last summer.
Melina was killed just hours after she called her mom to let her know they were on their way back to Montreal. Frattolin and Melina’s mother had been estranged since 2019. She told investigators she had no prior concerns about her ex-hubby’s behaviour.
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