Listen to this article
Estimated 2 minutes
The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.
A Montreal man has been sentenced to life in prison for killing his nine-year-old daughter and leaving her in a marsh in rural New York.
The sentence comes two months after a jury in Essex County Court convicted Luciano Frattolin of second-degree murder and concealment of a human corpse in the death of Melina Frattolin.
Judge Tatiana Coffinger delivered the sentence after rejecting a motion to set aside the guilty verdict.
Frattolin would not be eligible for parole before 25 years. Coffinger also sentenced Frattolin to one to three years for concealment of a corpse. That sentence will be served consecutively.
The defence issued a notice of appeal following the sentence.
Melina had been living in Montreal with her mother, and had gone on a road trip to the U.S. with her father in July 2025.
On the night they were scheduled to return home, Frattolin called police, reporting that his daughter had been kidnapped after he had stopped the car he was driving on the side of the road.
During the three-week-long trial, the defence argued that local police had not adequately investigated Frattolin’s claims that his daughter was kidnapped.
The prosecution called on several police officers and experts, however, who used car location data, cellphone data and surveillance camera footage to recreate Frattolin’s movements on the day his daughter died and prove his story was false.
The jury spent an hour deliberating on Aug. 10 at the end of the trial, before concluding that Frattolin had drowned his daughter in a marsh in a rural area of New York.