Prosecutors wrapped up their case Friday in the murder trial of Luciano Frattolin, 46, accused of killing his nine-year-old daughter Melina during a New York trip last summer.
Prosecutors wrapped their case Friday in the murder trial of Luciano Frattolin in Elizabethtown, N.Y., who faces charges of second-degree murder and concealment of a human corpse in the July death of his daughter Melina Frattolin, who lived in Montreal.
The 46-year-old man has pleaded not guilty to both charges and has been held without bail since his arrest in July 2025.
On Friday, the jury watched a video recreating the route of Frattolin based on data from his phone and car’s location, which lasted close to five hours.
On Thursday, the jury saw a video the girl sent her mother on the afternoon of July 19, less than six hours before she was reported missing, and heard testimony that her phone was last used an hour after she sent the video.
The defense faces mounting pressure as the prosecution rested.
Frattolin is represented by public defenders Eric Weyand and Brian Pilatzke.
During opening statements, Pilatzke alleged that police had failed to investigate evidence about a kidnapping after assuming Frattolin was guilty, and argued that New York police couldn’t properly understand Frattolin as English is his third language.
Pilatzke said Frattolin had suffered a head injury in the past, which would explain inconsistencies in his retelling of the events.
Defense attorneys told jurors Frattolin deeply loved his daughter and planned the weeklong vacation to show her New York City and other destinations throughout the Northeast, maintaining Melina was kidnapped and that Frattolin immediately provided investigators with descriptions of the alleged abductors and their vehicle.
Earlier at a pretrial hearing, attorneys argued over whether statements Frattolin made to police and data obtained from his cellphone should be suppressed, with Deputy Public Defender Eric Weyand arguing that some statements were made before Frattolin was read his Miranda rights during a two-and-a-half-hour car ride with investigators.
The defense also challenged the search of Frattolin’s cellphone, arguing that his consent to search the device was not knowing or voluntary.
Prosecutors have built their case on digital evidence and statements.
Prosecutors say cellphone data puts Frattolin at the scene where the girl’s body was found.
Police also found his muddy clothes in a garbage bag off the Northway.
Witnesses from the New York State Computer Forensics Lab detailed how data was retrieved from the 2024 Toyota Prius he was driving, and jurors saw an animation of the vehicle’s movement along State Route 74 from the area where Melina’s body was found to the Warren County Sheriff’s Office parking lot.
The defense questioned an hour-long gap in the data.
Jurors saw pictures of the crime scene and Melina’s body in the water with a large rock on her torso.
A jury heard a three-hour recording captured in a police cruiser as officers drove Frattolin up and down an interstate highway searching for his missing daughter, covering a period that began a few hours after he called police and told them his daughter had been kidnapped by two men in a white van.
The recording revealed how investigators expressed skepticism about Frattolin’s version of events, repeatedly asking the father to show them where his daughter went missing.
In the viral moment that sparked the investigation, Frattolin reported his daughter missing from a rest area near Lake George on July 19, claiming two men had taken her from a white van.
New York State Police issued an Amber Alert after Frattolin reported his daughter had been abducted.
According to investigators, Frattolin called 911 the night before claiming men driving a white van kidnapped Melina after the two stopped at a rest area near Lake George while traveling back to Montreal following a vacation in upstate New York.
The trial began exactly one year to the day Melina’s body was discovered submerged in a shallow pond in Ticonderoga, where investigators allege her father left her after drowning her.
Prosecutors say Frattolin drowned 9-year-old Melina and hid her body in Ticonderoga.
Frattolin has said his daughter was abducted by two men in a white van.
In pretrial motions, the defense referenced an anonymous call made to State Police dispatch on July 25, where the caller confessed to Melina’s killing, describing it as “fun,” stating “I killed Melina Frattolin,” and when dispatch asked “for what reason,” the caller responded saying “Because I enjoyed it” and asked dispatch “do you know what true pleasure feels like, visceral pleasure?”
Defense case arguments are expected to begin next week.