NY - Melina Frattolin, 9, Abducted, seen 9:40pm in a white van traveling south on I-87 near exit 22, Lake George, 19 Jul 2025 *arrest*

[maamager]

I wonder what details of the autopsy have not been made public that make the drowning a homicide.

you can get a pretty decent idea of some possibilities if you look at the charge details (maybe)!

NYS Open Legislation | NYSenate.gov

www.nysenate.gov

i’m so curious too — imo, i think it was more not rendering aid but i’m often wrong lol

 

[Lisbeth_S]

I'm wondering if it might be the log, was one potential clue? If it was placed on top of her, as opposed to her floating and ending up underneath?

It could well be that she had signs of the log being pushed on top of her, or signs that make it clear she had been held underwater.

you can get a pretty decent idea of some possibilities if you look at the charge details (maybe)!

NYS Open Legislation | NYSenate.gov

www.nysenate.gov

i’m so curious too — imo, i think it was more not rendering aid but i’m often wrong lol

I'm very aware of why the police is (rightfully) treating it as a homicide but I was wondering if anything specific in the autopsy findings made the ME say it's a homicide from the get go VS just the circumstances surrounding it.

 

[maamager]

I'm very aware of why the police is (rightfully) treating it as a homicide but I was wondering if anything specific in the autopsy findings made the ME say it's a homicide from the get go VS just the circumstances surrounding it.

yes totally didn’t mean to insinuate you didn’t! i just found the ny state legal language interesting in my own hypothesizing

 

[Lisbeth_S]

yes totally didn’t mean to insinuate you didn’t! i just found the ny state legal language interesting in my own hypothesizing

All good

 

[imstilla.grandma]

“Number one, as a parent, you cannot believe that a parent would actually do that to their own child,” Tonya LaFrance, a lifelong Ticonderoga resident, told The Post.

“And secondly, it’s a very, very tight knit, close community, most of the people here, everybody knows everybody."

Melina Frattolin, 9, mourned by upstate NY community where she was visiting when murdered: ‘She will be one of us’

“That is very very hard for everybody to swallow right now,” she said.

nypost.com

 

[ttjo]

I didnt see an autopsy report, but
Dan Murphy on Nancy Grace has a theory.
timestamp 42:33

 

[truthfinder2019]

New York State Police are now asking for the public’s help in tracking the whereabouts of the vehicle the father and daughter traveled in from July 11 to July 19. Authorities are specifically looking for additional video evidence and eyewitness accounts of the pair’s 2024 gray Toyota Prius — photos below — in the area of the I-87 Northway between exit 28 and exit 20 during the evening hours of Saturday, July 19.

Bbm

https://www.news10.com/news/crime/preliminary-autopsy-results-released-for-9-year-old-melina-frattolin/

 

[Curious Me]

I just had to see the timeline.



5:30 p.m. Saturday both seen in Saratoga Springs on a surveillance video.
6:30 p.m. Saturday Melina sounded fine when she made a phone call to her mom around 6:30 p.m. Saturday.
10:00 p.m. Saturday The father reports his daughter kidnapped near Lake George near I-78.

4:30 p.m. Sunday (next day) Melina's body found, she's dead, and under a log in a pond.

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

She was killed between 7:40 and 9:12 that night, according to the court complaint.

___________________________________

Melina Frattolin’s cause of death revealed after preliminary autopsy as dad faces murder charges

The Montreal girl’s body was discovered under a log in a shallow pond in Ticonderoga.

nypost.com

Melina was determined to have died by “asphyxia due to drowning,” according to the preliminary autopsy conducted at Glens Falls Hospital, and reported by New York State Police on Tuesday afternoon.

 

[truthfinder2019]

It could well be that she had signs of the log being pushed on top of her, or signs that make it clear she had been held underwater.



I'm very aware of why the police is (rightfully) treating it as a homicide but I was wondering if anything specific in the autopsy findings made the ME say it's a homicide from the get go VS just the circumstances surrounding it.

IMO they may have found defensive wounds during the external examination, and possibly other signs during the internal one

Accidental Drowning:
May show signs of a struggle with the water, such as a plume of froth at the mouth and nostrils, and other signs of immersion.
Homicide by Drowning:
May show signs of external injuries like bruises, lacerations, or other trauma that indicate a struggle before submersion, or even signs of restraint. The presence of antemortem injuries (injuries that occurred before death) is a key indicator. Defensive wounds on the hands or arms could also suggest a struggle
The presence of internal injuries inconsistent with a simple drowning scenario may have pointed towards a violent act.

 

[snideremarks]

View attachment 603287
"He (Luciano) didn't offer much", Mulholland told WGNA.

"Even after several hours of interviews, he maintained the same story that two guys came along in a white van at the Exit 22 rest area while he relieved himself."

Mulholland told GNA that his story hasn't changed, and that the father still contends that Melina was kidnapped.

"He didn't crack, he has maintained his innocence, and he has not confessed," Mulholland explained.

"(Police) describe him as a sociopath."​

Police Say 'Sociopathic' Father Still Claims Daughter was Kidnapped

Mark Mulholland from News Channel 13 shared some chilling details with GNA about the man accused of killing Melina Frattolin.

q1057.com

He's not as smart as he believes himself to be if he insists on sticking to this original bogus story. Circumstantial evidence already points out he's lying. The more he lies, the more the jury will think malice aforethought.

 

[floridafreshsqueez]

Odd. He apparently may have tossed her iPad out of his car. IMO he probably did this after he killed her…

EXCLUSIVE: Hotel owner finds discarded tablet possibly linked to slain 9-year-old

A Lake George hotel owner believes he may have stumbled upon a crucial piece of evidence in the case of 9-year-old Melina Frattolin —

cbs6albany.com

 

[snideremarks]

Interesting. Kids die all of the time from drowning. If he had just called it in, said she fell in the water, he couldn't get her out, he would have been fine. But he had to make a big over the top fake story about her being kidnapped.

Victim of his own inflated drama. Dang, no DP in NY.

I agree 100%. The fact that he concealed her death by moving the location of her corpse and faking an abduction points to his consciousness of guilt. The more he sticks to his original lie the more he digs his heels.

No reasonable person accidentally discovers someone drowning and doesn’t call for help. He meant for her to die.

 

[snideremarks]

Curious about the autopsy results. I wonder how the ME determined it was drowning by homicide instead of drowning by accident.

 

[snideremarks]

a 45-year-old debt-riddled neat-freak

Interesting choice of words, journalist

 

[snideremarks]

I wonder where he was when he called 911. Presumably he was at the place where he claims the abduction happened near Lake George, which would mean he drove from Saratoga Springs, where they were seen having dinner, north to Ticonderoga, and then an hour back south to Lake George to make the 911 call. That seems strange. He could have kept going north and called 911 from another town.

Unless he called from Ticonderoga, which would explain why they were able to narrow in on that area so quickly.

He called from the fake location at the rest stop. I think after the murder he just mindlessly went southbound.

If he had just kept driving north past the border into Canada I wonder if the outcome would have been different / if he would have gotten away with it.

 

[snideremarks]

It could well be that she had signs of the log being pushed on top of her, or signs that make it clear she had been held underwater.



I'm very aware of why the police is (rightfully) treating it as a homicide but I was wondering if anything specific in the autopsy findings made the ME say it's a homicide from the get go VS just the circumstances surrounding it.

I'm thinking maybe there were signs of struggle

 

[katydid23]

I'm thinking maybe there were signs of struggle

Right, but how can they know who she struggled with? Can his defense atty say she struggled with the kidnapper?

 

[truthfinder2019]

Frattolin and his ex, who split in 2019, had been having custody issues, sources said.

Luciano Frattolin stopped answering texts from his ex-wife when she asked him one heartbreaking question — when their daughter would be home, sources told The Post on Tuesday.

After some messages and calls going back and forth between the parents, Frattolin went radio-silent on the mom’s text requesting an update — and within a day, 9-year-old Melina Frattolin would be found dead

Melina Frattolin’s mom spoke to daughter just an hour before murder — as source reveals final haunting text before dad went radio silent

Luciano, who divorced Melina’s mother in 2019, stopped answering the mom’s messages after she asked one heartbreaking question.

nypost.com

ETA

Troopers on Tuesday would not say if they believe the child drowned in the same body of water where her body was discovered.

https://www.timesunion.com/news/article/troopers-announce-cause-death-melina-frattolin-20780802.php

 

[mickey2942]

Right, but how can they know who she struggled with? Can his defense atty say she struggled with the kidnapper?

I am pretty sure, even up there, they have cameras on the roads, even here, there are "webcams" on various parts of the highway. So, not seeing a white van on any Webcams at the time of abduction, blows that theory.

 

[Inthedetails]

Right, but how can they know who she struggled with? Can his defense atty say she struggled with the kidnapper?

I'm guessing phone evidence plus perhaps cameras can place him at the drowning area when he claims he was elsewhere. Plus, perhaps, DNA under her nails (though defense might say after a vacation, it would be expected his DNA be on her).

Also, all we know is the Cause of Death. We don't know about any injuries that were not the "cause" of her death, such as bruising indicating she has held down by force.

jmopinion