Advertisement 1

Murder case against father of nine-year-old Montreal girl moves to grand jury in New York

Article content

MONTREAL — The case against the father of a nine-year-old Montreal girl found dead in Upstate New York will move directly to the grand jury stage.

Advertisement 2
Story continues below
Article content

The court in Ticonderoga, N.Y., and the secretary for the district attorney both confirmed that the felony hearing scheduled to take place today for Luciano Frattolin has been cancelled.

Article content
Article content

Instead the case will move to a grand jury, where its members will assess the prosecution’s evidence to decide whether there is probable cause that Frattolin killed his daughter Melina and should stand trial.

The 45-year-old has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and the concealment of a human corpse after his daughter’s body was found in a shallow pond in New York state last weekend.

Police have said Frattolin originally reported his daughter missing and potentially abducted, but officers determined the story to be false.

Preliminary autopsy results released this week concluded the nine-year-old Canadian girl died from asphyxia due to drowning, and the death was ruled a homicide.

Read More
  1. Luciano Frattolin is seen in a photo from the Gambella Coffee website.
    Legal battles of Luciano Frattolin, man accused of killing his 9-year-old daughter
  2. Melina Frattolin was reported missing by her father on July 19 in Lake George. On Monday, Luciano Frattolin, 45, was charged with second-degree murder and concealing a body.
    Man charged with killing Montreal daughter 'pretty prominent in Ethiopia,' ex-friend says
  3. Nine-year-old Melina Frattolin of Montreal was found dead in New York state on Sunday, July 20, 2025. Her father, Luciano Frattolin, has since been charged with second-degree murder and concealing a body.
    Timeline of events in the death of Melina Frattolin
Article content
Comments
You must be logged in to join the discussion or read more comments.
Join the Conversation

Postmedia is committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion. Please keep comments relevant and respectful. Comments may take up to an hour to appear on the site. You will receive an email if there is a reply to your comment, an update to a thread you follow or if a user you follow comments. Visit our Community Guidelines for more information.

Page was generated in 3.2169840335846