Dad who murdered frightened daughter, 9, during custody vacation rejects opportunity to apologize for heinous crime as he’s sentenced

A failed coffee CEO who murdered his young daughter on a vacation to New York City so he could stop paying child support refused to apologize for his heinous crime as he was sentenced to 25-years-to-life in prison. 

Luciano Frattolin, 46, was sentenced on Wednesday in Essex County Supreme Court in Elizabethtown, New York, for the July 2025 murder of his daughter Melina, nine. 

He refused to give any explanation or apology for the brutal murder, uttering only three words when asked if he wanted to make a statement: ‘No thank you.’ 

The father drowned Melina in a muddy swamp in Ticonderoga, New York, when they were returning from a trip together to New York City, and he claimed she was abducted by masked men in a van. 

Frattolin, the CEO of failed coffee company Gambella, was caught lying to investigators a number of times as his story unraveled. 

Prosecutors said he killed his daughter to enact revenge on Melina’s mother and to avoid paying child support for the nine-year-old, but Frattolin has never admitted to the gruesome murder.

At his sentencing hearing, Judge Tatiana Coffinger tore into Frattolin, telling him: ‘I hope at some point in your life you will realize what you have done.’

‘You live in a world of self-made delusion of wealth and image when the greatest accomplishment in your life could’ve been as a great father,’ Coffinger said. 

Frattolin was convicted in August on second-degree murder charges, and Coffinger said at his sentencing that he will also face deportation at the end of his sentence if he is ever paroled. 

The father, who is an Italian and Ethiopian citizen who was living in Canada at the time of the murder, stood in a rumpled gray suit and nervously shuffled as his sentence was being handed down, courtroom reporters noted. 

While prosecutors said Frattolin was motivated by money and revenge against Melina’s mother, his ex-wife Kali Galanis, Judge Coffinger said she was still at a loss over his actions. 

‘Everyone who has heard of this story, everyone wants to know why,’ the judge said. 

‘My own daughter asked me repeatedly why this happened,’ she said. ‘Even if we had an answer, that wouldn’t bring Melina back.’

The judge admonished Frattolin’s attempts to cover up the murder with a kidnapping hoax, saying it was ‘like a Hollywood script’ that led law enforcement on a large, needless search. 

‘The search area kept expanding and our entire area, the entire region held their collective breaths in the hopes that Melina would be found safe,’ the judge said. 

The young girl’s remains were then found on July 19, 2025 hidden under a log in a remote pond in the town of Ticonderoga. 

At Frattolin’s trial, medical examiners testified that they found her covered ‘in a large amount of mud’ in a knee-deep swamp, and said evidence showed she was drowned.

‘The lungs were just full of black material, basically mud and plant debris,’ medical examiner Dr Michael Sikirica said in the trial. 

‘It was obvious quickly that her lungs were hyper expanded,’ Sikirica testified, adding that her remains appeared to be weighted down by a stone in the water. 

Prosecutors also presented cell phone data that placed Frattolin near the lake where his daughter’s body was found, which he had told investigators he had not been near to.   

New York State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation Investigator Daniel Mauro testified that he interrogated Luciano for 13 hours after he reported his daughter was missing.

Mauro said the coffee CEO changed his story several times, including being caught in a lie about changing his clothes. At first he said he did not change, before admitting he changed his shirt because he ‘was sweaty.’

The investigator said inconsistencies in the story alerted cops, who believed Frattolin changed his clothes because he had been wading in the marsh.

Frattolin’s wet clothes were later found in a trash bag discarded along Interstate 87, the route where he had been driving Melina back to her mother in Montreal.

After Frattolin was sentenced this week, District Attorney Michael Langey read a statement on behalf of Melina’s family. 

‘We continue to suffer deeply since the day Melina was brutally murdered. Nothing can bring Melina back, but we are relieved that this chapter is over,’ he said. 

‘We are sincerely grateful to everyone who worked on the case, for your dedication and persistence. Your efforts helped bring a measure of justice for our family.’

Frattolin’s attorney Brian Pilatzke maintained his client’s innocence, and said that ‘what happened in that body of water in Ticonderoga is a mystery.’

‘Nobody knows what happened there,’ he said.