Who is Luciano Frattolin, the Montreal father accused of murdering his daughter?
A Montreal businessman has been charged with second-degree murder and the concealment of a corpse after the body of his nine-year daughter, Melina, was found over the weekend in New York state, where the two were are vacation. Here’s what to know.
Who is the accused?
Luciano Frattolin, 45, is the founder of Gambella Coffee, a company based in Montreal and named after a coffee-growing region in Ethiopia where he was born.
The website for the company appears to have been taken down, but an archived version of the site includes a biography of the founder. It calls Frattolin “an experienced entrepreneur with a proven track record of building diverse, high-performance businesses. With a background in the humanities and social sciences, his formal education, together with his pragmatic understanding about the complexities of life, motivates him to maintain an understanding of the world grounded in a distinct cross-cultural ethos.”
The site adds that he is the son of an Ethiopian mother and an Italian father, and that he spent his childhood “running between rows of crimson coffee buds on the Ethiopian family plantation, and the neoclassical architecture of his father’s Milano.” It says that his father died when Frattolin was just 17, and that he “reconciled the difficulties he faced during his youth by embodying the Nietzschean attitude of, ‘That which does not kill him makes him stronger.'”
The company’s Instagram account remains active, as does an account for Frattolin .
New York State Police said Frattolin has dual citizenship in Ethiopia and Italy and a Canadian visa.
Does the site mention his daughter?
It does, referring to her as “the light of his life” and “the inspiration for … well, everything.” It adds: ” Seeing the world through her eyes has also helped Luciano look for creative ways to reinforce and empower Melina to know, feel, and understand her own unique individual beauty and intellect, while also teaching her to celebrate those same virtues inherent in the world’s diversity. On a lighter note, Melina has also taught Luciano to let go of his rigid tendencies to keep everything in ‘perfect order’ — his love for Melina’s messy art projects and chaotic ensemble of toys supersedes his love for a meticulously spotless home.”
What do we know of Melina’s mother?
According to the Montreal Gazette , Frattolin and Melina’s mother have been estranged since 2019, and the child resided full-time with her mother. The paper quotes a police investigation that found that Frattolin and his daughter legally entered the United States on July 11 for the purpose of a vacation and were expected to return on July 19, when Melina was to have been returned to the custody of her mother.
What happened over the weekend?
According to the Gazette and other sources, a police investigation found that Melina was killed between 7:40 p.m. and 9:12 p.m. on Saturday. The felony complaint filed against Frattolin on Monday at a courthouse in Ticonderoga, N.Y., alleges he concealed her body by “positioning her under a log in a waterway.”
“On Saturday, July 19, at approximately 10 p.m., Warren County 911 received a call from a man reporting his daughter missing, with a possible abduction,” New York State Police Capt. Robert McConnell said at a press conference, per the Gazette. The next day, they conducted a search in Ticonderoga, “in an area Mr. Frattolin was suspected of having visited. During that search detail, at approximately (1:50 p.m.), members of the New York State Police Forest Rangers located Melina deceased in the shallow portion of a pond.”
According to local reports , authorities initially treated the case as a potential abduction, issuing an AMBER Alert and launching a multi-agency search. But as the investigation unfolded, inconsistencies in Frattolin’s account raised concerns; police say they determined the abduction story was fabricated and that Frattolin had deliberately misled investigators.
What has Frattolin said?
Reports say that when Frattolin was arraigned Monday morning in court, a not guilty plea was entered on his behalf before he was returned to the Essex County jail. He spoke only briefly in court, telling Judge Richard Carpenter that the address listed for him in Montreal was incorrect, and that he could not afford an attorney.
Where does he live?
According to the Gazette, the last address for Frattolin is a bed and breakfast on Bernard Street in Montreal’s Mile End neighbourhood. There was mail piled on the staircase inside the entrance’s doorway, and no answer when journalists knocked at the door. Two people told the Gazette he is no longer involved with the business at the address, which is listed as a five-room hotel.
The paper also found that the address listed for Gambella Coffee in downtown Montreal seemed to be either incorrect or outdated, the suite being the site of a law office. Neither he nor the company were listed in the building’s directory, and an employee at the front desk did not know Frattolin or many details about the company, it noted.
Does Frattolin have a criminal record?
McConnell of the New York State Police said the cause of Melina’s death is currently unknown and that Frattolin has no criminal record or any history of domestic violence. The Gazette reports that, according to provincial and municipal court records, Frattolin does not have a criminal record. He is currently involved in five lawsuits that were all filed this year, four as the plaintiff and one as the defendant, in which he is being sued by the Bank of Nova Scotia for around $83,000 on Dépanneur Café, a coffee shop he once owned.
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