This story was reported by Lohr McKinstry and originally published in the Plattsburgh, N.Y., Press-Republican.
ELIZABETHTOWN, N.Y. — Police looked into several leads about someone in a white van potentially abducting a 9-year-old homicide victim, but nothing relevant to the case was ever found.
State Police Troop B Major Crimes Investigator Brady Condlin said on the stand Friday that Luciano Frattolin told police on July 19, 2025, his daughter had been abducted in a windowless white van with no back doors at a rest stop on Interstate 87 near Lake George, N.Y.
Condlin said he personally looked into two vans reported in the area, one of which had a Florida license plate, and after speaking with the owner, learned the man had been there on a camping trip. He also said that man had a GPS location of his whereabouts the entire time.
Neither of the vans he looked into matched the description of what Frattolin claimed he saw, as both were newer models and had windows and doors in the back.
Condlin said troopers also conducted traffic stops on white vans on I-87, but he was unaware of any stops that led to relevant information in the case.
Frattolin, 58, of Montreal, is charged with drowning his daughter, Melina, in a shallow pond in the town of Ticonderoga, N.Y., off State Route 74. He has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of second-degree murder and concealment of a human corpse.
Brian Pilatzke, a Warren County-assigned counsel administrator working with the Essex County Public Defender’s Office for Frattolin’s defence, asked if troopers assigned to these traffic stops were tasked with making their own determination of what was considered relevant. Condlin said they were told what to look for and nothing was found.
Pilatzke asked if he was aware of a traffic stop that occurred with a white van that had a child’s handprint on the window and a dog cage inside of it. Condlin said he had not been made aware, but by the time he got involved with the case July 20, most of the traffic stops had already been conducted.
I-87 continued to play a crucial part in evidence for the case.
Searches had also been conducted along I-87 by troopers looking for evidence July 23, days after Melina was found dead.
Now-retired trooper Brett Donahue said in court Friday they were specifically tasked with searching for a white bag full of clothes they believed to be dumped. He said he was part of a team that did a visual search of the Northway median.
Eventually, the search led him to a steep embankment, where he could see a white bag. He went down to inspect the bag and could see inside through a hole it contained clothes, and they matched the description of what they were looking for.
Donahue said he alerted a supervisor to the discovery, and members of the Troop B forensic team came to retrieve it.
Senior Investigator for Troop B’s Forensic Investigation Unit Brenden Frost was responsible for processing evidence collected in this case.
He said on the stand Friday he retrieved Melina’s clothes from her autopsy, a sexual assault kit, sample of debris from her airway and lungs, a friendship bracelet she was wearing, and a plastic bag attached to her clothes when her body was retrieved.
Frost said the plastic bag was later identified as a dry-cleaning bag. Earlier in Condlin’s testimony, he said a blue plastic bag was also secured from Frattolin’s Montreal apartment by Montreal police, which was given to him as evidence in August of last year. This bag was identified as a dry-cleaning bag as well.
The murder trial will continue in Essex County Court on Monday morning.