Hotel employee finds tablet believed to be connected to slain Montreal girl
Melina Frattolin's father has been charged with the second-degree murder of the nine-year-old
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The owner of a hotel in Lake George, N.Y. says his staff members discovered a computer tablet they hope could shed light on the death of Melina Frattolin.
The body of nine-year-old Melina of Montreal was found Sunday by searchers in a pond in New York state. Her father, Luciano Frattolin, who claimed she was abducted while they were on vacation in the United States, has been charged with murder.
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Rob Gregor, the owner of Gregor Hotels on Canada St., told CBS6 News of Albany, N.Y., that one of his employees found a tablet in a raised flower garden located near the hotel early on Sunday morning.
When a staff member turned it on, they saw photos of a girl resembling Melina. Staffers recognized the picture because an Amber Alert with her image had been issued late Saturday night after she had been reported missing.
“She plugged in the tablet and the first photographs look very much like the missing girl at the time. She was missing — we didn’t know that she was deceased — so I ran over to the hotel,” Gregor told CBS6 News.
Gregor contacted the authorities, and the New York State Police took the tablet, Gregor said. It was unclear whether the tablet belonged to Melina, he said.
The Gregor Hotel is located on Canada St., the main thoroughfare through Lake George. Gregor said it was easy to imagine someone tossing the tablet from a moving vehicle.
The hotel is located just off of Exit 22 in Lake George. It’s the same area where Luciano Frattolin contacted police around 10 p.m. on Saturday to report his daughter was missing. He said he had stopped near the exit to urinate in the woods. When he returned to his vehicle, his daughter had been abducted by individuals who fled in a white van, he said.
The next day, Melina’s body was found submerged beneath a log in a pond near Ticonderoga, about 60 kilometres north of Lake George.
New York State Police reported Melina was observed on video surveillance in Saratago Springs, N.Y., at 5:30 p.m. on Saturday, about 40 kilometres south of Lake George. At 6:30 p.m., she spoke to her mother by phone and did not indicate she was under duress.
The police force’s investigation determined sometime after Melina’s phone call with her mother and before Frattolin’s 911 call at 10 p.m. that he allegedly murdered Melina and left her body in a remote area. An autopsy found the cause of death was asphyxia due to drowning.
On Monday, Frattolin was charged with second-degree murder and the concealment of a human corpse. He pleaded not guilty.
The New York State Police told The Gazette on Wednesday that no additional information could be released at the time because the investigation is ongoing. Investigators and members of the New York State Forest Rangers were conducting a search for evidence of the area on Tuesday.
Luciano Frattolin, 45, is scheduled to appear in court Friday.
Frattolin had been separated from Melina’s mother since 2019, but he still had regular visitation with his daughter. The trip to the U.S. had been planned, and Frattolin and his daughter entered the U.S. legally on July 11. They were expected to return to Canada on Saturday, at which point Melina was to be returned to her mother.
Harry North of The Gazette contributed to this report.
This report will be updated.
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