Autopsy shows Montreal girl, 9, drowned in New York state, father charged

MONTREAL — A nine-year-old Montreal girl whose body was found in a shallow pond in Upstate New York on the weekend died from asphyxia due to drowning, New York State Police said Tuesday as they continued their homicide investigation.

Police released autopsy results for Melina Frattolin after a forensic pathologist at Glens Falls Hospital in Glens Falls, N.Y., determined the manner of death was homicide.

Her father, Luciano Frattolin, 45, a resident of Montreal, is facing charges in New York state of second-degree murder and the concealment of a human corpse. A not-guilty plea was entered on his behalf during an initial court appearance on Monday.

Police said the body of his daughter was found on Sunday in Ticonderoga, N.Y., about 50 kilometres northeast of Lake George near the New York-Vermont boundary.

Police have said the motive for the girl’s death is under investigation. They have also said Frattolin has no criminal or domestic violence history.

Frattolin and Melina’s mother had been estranged since 2019. Melina lived full time with her mother, who had not expressed concerns about letting her daughter spend time with her father, police said.

On Tuesday, they asked the public for help in the case, releasing photos of a grey 2024 Toyota Prius used by Frattolin and his daughter during their stay in the United States. Police specifically were looking for video or eyewitness accounts on the evening of July 19.

Melina spoke with her mother over the phone at about 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, and did not appear to be under duress, police said. About three and a half hours later, Frattolin called 911 and reported his nine-year-old daughter missing and possibly abducted.

Police determined the father’s version was not true and a search by several agencies on Sunday afternoon turned up her body.

Frattolin has operated businesses that have been mired in several legal proceedings in Montreal since the beginning of 2025.

In one case, documents reviewed by The Canadian Press show that Scotiabank was suing Frattolin to recover more than $150,000 in unpaid credit card bills.

Frattolin also filed a lawsuit against a man hired to manage a property in a trendy Montreal borough he was operating as a short-term rental.

His lawyers said they were launching the case after Frattolin learned, last August, that his landlord had terminated a lease due to 10 months of unpaid rent, adding up to more than $26,000. Frattolin accused the property manager of failing to do his job and pay the rent.

The court documents said Frattolin was living in Canada part time and using the short-term rental business to pay for his daughter’s monthly child support and his expenses.

But he did not receive the revenues anticipated and instead was “left with considerable sums to pay the arrears of rent, interests penalties and charges related to the property,” the filing reads.

“Furthermore, Frattolin stored some of his personal belongings and his daughters’ winter clothes and toys before leaving the country,” the filing reads, adding he is unable to access the property to recover those items.

His lawyer also alleged that the property manager had accused Frattolin of emptying the business bank account and fleeing to Italy. But the lawyer denied this in a letter.

“He did not return to Italy to evade anything,” the lawyer’s letter read.

Frattolin also alleged in the filing, which has not been tested in court, that the property manager threatened to work with the mother of his child to prevent him from entering the province of Quebec due to the business’s unpaid taxes.

In two other cases, Frattolin filed motions against various telecommunications giants, seeking an order compelling them to disclose the identity of someone who allegedly accessed his email account over several months.

Frattolin described himself a loving father, traveller and coffee lover on his Instagram page. He is the owner of a coffee importing and distribution business, and an online biography that has since been removed described him as the son of an Ethiopian mother and Italian father with a varied business background.

The biography said Frattolin has been living in Montreal in order to spend more time with “his beautiful daughter Melina,” who is the “light of his life.”

The biography also alludes to personal struggles: his mixed ethnicity led to “incidences of racism and feelings of isolation,” and his father died when Frattolin was 17. It also refers to a period of time in which he “lost his passion for the art of life,” and an “unfortunate event” in February 2019 that “severely affected his well-being.”

Police say 2019 was the year he separated from Melina’s mother.

Frattolin is due back in court on Friday in Ticonderoga.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 22, 2025.

Sidhartha Banerjee, The Canadian Press