LE went for 2nd degree murder, hence no premeditation. Interesting. I also wonder if he ever had the intention at all to get her back to her mum.
I also thought something was off and I'm sure many veteran WS-ers did as well. (The "white van" takes me back to the Laci/Scott Peterson case.) But I am so sorry for the loss of this beautiful child. I will never understand how people can hurt and kill children.
That would be after the fact, though. While he might have premeditated and planned to put the body under the log, the results don't actually show that just yet, IMO. I'm just glad he's in jail. I know more will come out later.
I think the "two men and a white van" was the best haphazard excuse he can come up with in a rush while driving away from the murder site. Maybe it was the first thing that came to mind and he didn't have time nor the wits to realize how ridiculous it was.
I don't know where the "he killed her before she was to fly back home" came from, when they were only 2.5 hours away by car?The father of a 9-year-old Canadian girl found dead in upstate New York was arrested and charged in her murder Monday — accused of killing her just before he was supposed to fly her back home to his ex-wife.
Frattolin and his daughter had been traveling across Connecticut and New York as part of a custody visit he arraigned with his ex-wife, with whom he split in 2019, New York State Police revealed at a press conference Monday.
The dad was authorized to travel with his daughter, who lived with her mom full-time, and had no previous criminal history or domestic violence history, cops said.
Tragic Melina Frattolin’s dad charged with murder after he reported her missing, as new details hint at possible motive
Luciano Frattolin — a 45-year-old debt-riddled neat-freak — was charged with second-degree murder and unlawful disposal of a corpse after the tragic child was found dead in a shallow waterway outsi…nypost.com
And under a log, or partially.
I agree. Though Luciano's description of Melina on his Gambella Coffee site was weird, it doesn't give me SA vibes.
Melina sounded fine when she made a phone call to her mom around 6:30 p.m. Saturday, shortly before the girl and her dad were scheduled to fly back to Quebec, cops said.
nypost.com
I have to say, the fact that he claimed she’d been abducted after he pulled over so she could go relieve herself in the woods makes me wonder if perhaps the poor child had an accident and unintentionally soiled the seat of his vehicle. That might’ve enraged him enough to kill her, narcissistic control freak that he is.
Exactly right-they did not find her accidentally.
I also wondered if perhaps part of the vacation to CT/NY involved visiting casinos—to be clear, this is MOO/just something that came to mind since both states have quite a few of these establishments, some of which are pretty upscale/swanky. Obviously, you couldn’t bring a kid in there, so IF this was something that transpired (and in light of his massive debts/money troubles, I could see it—he would not be the first desperate man who tried to solve his financial issues by gambling), either she stayed at their hotel room or in the car while he gambled. If he had any reason to think she might tell her mother about this, he might have killed her to keep it secret.
I originally had the same thought, but I think his story was that he stopped so that he could relieve himself. And while he was occupied, she was taken. Which obviously doesn’t make much sense. I do think it was a scenario like what you described, though. One where he didn’t plan it but reacted with anger/violence to something that annoyed him.
