Luciano Frattolin gets 25 years to life for murdering his nine-year-old daughter

Luciano Frattolin’s cellphone location history led investigators to the marsh where his nine-year-old daughter’s body was found. He had told police that two men in a white van had taken her. ^{9 19}

On October 14, 2026, Essex County Judge Tatiana Coffinger sentenced the Montreal father to 25 years to life for murdering Melina Galanis Frattolin. The sentence, imposed in Essex County Court in Elizabethtown, New York, followed a jury’s convictions for second-degree murder and concealment of a human corpse. ^{3 16}

Syracuse.com also reports a consecutive one-to-three-year sentence for concealing Melina’s body. That additional punishment matters: the murder sentence alone does not settle the precise minimum he must serve before parole consideration. No authoritative calculation of his combined parole threshold has been established in the available reporting. ³

Coffinger’s words at sentencing addressed the responsibility at the center of the case:

Melina and her father were nearing the end of a trip to the United States. She was expected home in Montreal. Instead, on July 19, 2025, Frattolin reported that two men in a white van had abducted her at a Northway rest stop in the Lake George area. That was his account—not an established kidnapping. An Amber Alert followed very early the next morning. ^{10 19 22}

Just before 11 a.m. on July 20, investigators found Melina’s body at a pond in a marshy area off State Route 74 in Ticonderoga, Essex County. That is the established discovery date and approximate recovery time; it does not establish when she died. The available evidence does not pin down the exact date or time of the killing. ²²

Accounts of how her body was concealed contain details that have not been reconciled. WNYT’s July 21, 2025, report, based on court documents, described her beneath a log. The Times Union’s sentencing account described her as pinned down under a rock. Both could be true, but the reporting does not explain how the descriptions relate. The jury’s subsequent concealment conviction is established without resolving that physical detail. ^{22 19 2}

Digital records helped investigators get beyond Frattolin’s disappearance account. CBC’s trial reporting says police located Melina’s body after reviewing his cellphone location history. CityNews separately reported police testimony that the rental car’s location data matched the place where her body was found. ^{9 25}

At trial, jurors heard evidence involving cellphone data, rental-car GPS records and a video timeline as prosecutors reconstructed Melina’s final hours. Those records were part of the prosecution’s case, not a publicly available, independently reconstructed account of every movement. The underlying coordinates, timestamps and complete route are not established in the material available for this report. ²⁴

The distinction matters without weakening the verdict: a jury’s finding of guilt is not an itemized finding that every detail of a prosecution reconstruction occurred exactly as argued. What the jury decided is clear. On August 10, 2026, after a three-week trial, it convicted Frattolin of murder and concealment of a human corpse. ^{21 2}

Dr. Michael Sikirica performed the autopsy at Glens Falls Hospital on July 21, 2025. In an update issued the following day at 3 p.m., New York State Police identified the preliminary cause of death as “Asphyxia due to drowning” and the manner of death as “Homicide.” ²⁰

The same announcement expressly said the final determination and report were pending further laboratory testing. A final autopsy report, or later confirmation of its exact conclusions, was not available for this account. The murder conviction is established; the preliminary medical announcement should still be described as preliminary, rather than silently promoted into a final report. ²⁰

The central sentencing outcome is corroborated across WAMC, WNYT and CBC: Frattolin received 25 years to life for murder. Syracuse.com supplies the additional detail that the concealment sentence is one to three years, consecutive to the murder term. Other retrieved sentencing excerpts omit that detail rather than expressly contradicting it. ^{16 17 2 3}

Adding the two reported minimum terms gives 26 years. But arithmetic is not an official sentence calculation. Without a sentencing judgment, an individual corrections calculation or an authoritative legal determination applying to these terms, it would be premature to label the combined sentence “26 years to life” or give a calendar date for parole eligibility. ³

Nor does reaching the required minimum mean release. It permits consideration for parole; it does not promise that parole will be granted. The life sentence leaves open the possibility that Frattolin will remain imprisoned for the rest of his life.

The available accounts do not establish a sentencing statement from Frattolin, a filed notice of appeal, a pending appeal or a next court date. Those gaps should not be mistaken for proof that he remained silent or will not appeal. The completed legal event is the sentencing: a life term for killing Melina, with a further consecutive term reported for hiding her body. ^{3 16 18}