{"id":833230,"date":"2026-07-29T08:03:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T08:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/833230\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T08:03:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T08:03:12","slug":"frattolin-trial-cell-data-placed-father-at-site-where-daughters-body-was-found-police-testify","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/833230\/","title":{"rendered":"Frattolin trial: Cell data placed father at site where daughter’s body was found, police testify"},"content":{"rendered":"

This story was reported by Lohr McKinstry and originally published in Plattsburgh, N.Y.\u2019s\u00a0Press-Republican<\/a>.<\/p>\n

ELIZABETHTOWN, N.Y. \u2014 A revelation came Monday in the Luciano Frattolin murder trial when testimony placed him at the site near Eagle Lake, N.Y., where his nine-year-old daughter Melina\u2019s body was found.<\/p>\n

Frattolin, 46, of Montreal, is charged with killing his daughter and has pleaded not guilty to felony charges of second-degree murder and concealment of a human corpse.<\/p>\n

Testimony continued on Day 3 of the trial<\/a> with New York State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation Investigator Daniel Mauro taking the stand to say he questioned the man for 13 hours after Frattolin reported his daughter had been kidnapped by two men in a white van on July 19, 2025.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe nature of the conversation was if he had changed his clothes during the day,\u201d Mauro said. \u201dAt first, he said no, then he said he changed his shirt. He (said he) was sweaty.\u201d<\/p>\n

Police believe Frattolin changed his clothes, including his shirt, shorts and shoes, because he\u2019d gotten them wet wading into a marsh in the town of Ticonderoga, N.Y., to drown his daughter.<\/p>\n

The wet clothing was later found in a trash bag discarded along Interstate 87, the route the two were taking to return Melina to her mother in Montreal after a vacation in the United States.<\/p>\n

The jury was shown a video recording made in an interview room at the Warren County Sheriff\u2019s Department, the agency to which Frattolin first reported Melina missing.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know something you haven\u2019t told us,\u201d Mauro tells Frattolin in the video.<\/p>\n

Frattolin insisted his daughter had been kidnapped.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were exploring all possibilities,\u201d Mauro said in court. \u201cHe said he\u2019d stepped in a puddle. When he said he was in the water, that opened up new possibilities.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the conclusion of the interview with Frattolin on July 20, 2025, police began preparing charging documents for him, Mauro said.<\/p>\n

Warren County Assigned Counsel Administrator Brian Pilatzke, representing Frattolin, asked Mauro if police had lied to his client during the interview.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are different techniques, but yes,\u201d Mauro said.<\/p>\n

He said Frattolin, who has dual Ethiopian and Italian citizenship, told them he\u2019d been assaulted in Ethiopia and was in a coma for four weeks. After that, his memory and cognitive abilities declined, Mauro said Frattolin told them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen he was told his daughter was dead, he didn\u2019t believe you?\u201d Pilatzke asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe wanted to see a picture,\u201d Mauro replied.<\/p>\n

Next to testify was BCI Investigator David Mosher, who was called to the Warren County Sheriff\u2019s Department from another assignment.<\/p>\n

Mosher said Frattolin told them he and his daughter had vacationed in New York City, Connecticut and Massachusetts before heading home July 19.<\/p>\n

He said they took Frattolin for what turned out to be a two-hour-and-20-minute search for the rest area where Frattolin said Melina was taken.<\/p>\n

Frattolin finally identified it at the pull-off rest stop between Exits 22 and 23 on southbound I-87. Frattolin said he\u2019d turned around to find a rest area for Melina to use the restroom because he couldn\u2019t find one northbound.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said he was 99.9 per cent sure that was the one (between Exits 22 and 23),\u201d Mosher said.<\/p>\n

At one point, Frattolin thought the CIA had kidnapped Melina, he says on the recording made during the search for the rest area.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n

\u201cThat theory seems far-fetched,\u201d Mosher told Frattolin.<\/p>\n

Mosher told Frattolin they have cellular data that puts him at the marsh where Melina was killed, the video shows.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not lying,\u201d Frattolin insists.<\/p>\n

The trial will resume Tuesday with Mosher continuing his testimony at 9:15 a.m. in Essex County Court.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This story was reported by Lohr McKinstry and originally published in Plattsburgh, N.Y.\u2019s\u00a0Press-Republican. ELIZABETHTOWN, N.Y. \u2014 A revelation…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":833231,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194292],"tags":[49,48,2338],"class_list":["post-833230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-montreal","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-montreal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=833230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/833230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/833231"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=833230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=833230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=833230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}