Melina Frattolin, the nine-year-old girl who was found dead just hours after her father claimed that she was kidnapped, died from drowning, her autopsy has confirmed. Luciano Frattolin reported his daughter missing on Saturday, telling authorities she had been taken by someone driving a white van in upstate New York.
However, police later said Luciano had misled the investigation after they found the young girl's lifeless body underneath a log in the shallow waters of a pond near Ticonderoga. Luciano Frattolin, a Canadian CEO, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder of his daughter on Sunday. He is currently being held in custody and has entered a not guilty plea.
Bizarre Motive Behind Drowning Daughter
The autopsy has since determined that Melina's cause of death was asphyxia resulting from drowning. Frattolin, 45, who once claimed himself to be a successful coffee business owner living a lavish lifestyle, appeared in court on Monday facing charges of killing his daughter Melina during a trip to upstate New York.
Captain Robert McConnell said that Frattolin killed his daughter Melina on Saturday night while they were vacationing near the scenic town of Lake George in the Adirondack Mountains, roughly 60 miles north of Albany.
While police have not formally identified a motive, the timeline presented during Monday's press conference suggests that the alleged murder took place just as Luciano was preparing to give custody of his daughter.
The pair was last seen on surveillance video in Saratoga Springs around 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, police said.
Young Melina sounded completely normal when she spoke with her mother on the phone around 6:30 p.m., just before she and her father were supposed to catch a flight back to Quebec, police said.
Father's Mental Health in Question
Luciano reportedly was struggling to keep up with child support payments—and shared bizarre social posts claiming the young girl had turned his life upside down. Frattolin, who was born in Ethiopia, praised Melina on the official website of his Montreal-based coffee business, Gambella Coffee, describing her as "beautiful" and "the light of his life." However, the write-up also revealed unsettling clues about his troubled mental state.
He admitted struggling to cope with his daughter's "messy art projects" and "chaotic" toys, because of his obsession with keeping "perfect order" in his home.
In the biography—which has since been removed from the web—he also referenced a life marked by deep personal struggles, mentioning experiences with "racism," "feelings of isolation," and the loss of his father as a teenager.
Frattolin hints at an "unfortunate event" in 2019 that he claimed had a serious impact on his mental health and forced him onto a "long and arduous" path toward healing.
Police revealed during a press conference on Monday that he became estranged from his ex-wife that same year. Alongside emotional turmoil and a strained relationship with his former spouse, Frattolin was also dealing with over $200,000 in debt linked to his business ventures in Montreal.
Since 2020, the struggling businessman had been renting a property in Montreal's trendy Mile End neighborhood, which he subleased on Airbnb, according to La Presse. He hired two property managers to run the venture, including handling rent payments—allowing him to use the remaining income to cover child support, according to court records reviewed by the outlet.
However, his lease was terminated by the landlord in August 2024 after he fell behind by $26,000 in rent. He was subsequently barred from accessing the property, where he claimed he kept his daughter's winter clothes and toys.
Frattolin is now suing the property managers for more than $115,000, alleging they misused the rental unit without his consent and failed to pay the rent as agreed, according to Le Devoir.
In response, the property managers accused Frattolin of planning to empty his bank account and leave the country — a claim he has denied.
A former staff member at Dépanneur Café, a coffee shop previously owned by Frattolin, said he had been splitting his time between Italy and Canada over the past year and a half. Frattolin reportedly still owes the Bank of Nova Scotia around $83,000 related to that business.
The bank also claims he is responsible for another $97,000 in unpaid credit card debt from Café Gambella, a second coffee venture that shares its name with his online coffee brand.
However, Frattolin's Instagram painted a starkly different picture of his finances, filled with images of luxurious travel, high-end sports cars, and captions like "I'm truly addicted to Porsche."
