HUNTER: Canadian dad tells cops 'would've been easier' to kill child overseas
· Toronto Sun
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Give Lucian Frattolin marks for honesty even though his frankness is bone-chilling.
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The 46-year-old wannabe Montreal coffee kingpin is on trial in Elizabethtown, N.Y., for the horrifying drowning death of his 9-year-old daughter in Lake George last July.
In July 2025, Frattolin and his daughter Melina embarked on a 10-day U.S. vacation with plans to hit the Big Apple and Connecticut. But as the pair drove north for home, the situation imploded.
Dad made kidnap claims
On July 19, Frattolin called cops claiming his daughter had been kidnapped by men in a white van. An Amber Alert was issued, but the little girl was later found drowned in a pond.
And Frattolin? He is now facing the barrel of life in a U.S. prison.
On Monday, court heard the frightening comment Frattolin — who was reportedly facing financial ruin — made to New York State Police homicide investigator Daniel Mauro. After hours of being grilled by the veteran detective, Frattolin’s tall tale imploded.
Mauro asked if there could be any reason why the impresario would want to kill his daughter? Bizarrely, Frattolin pooh-poohed murdering his daughter in the U.S.
“It would have been a lot easier,” he said, to murder in his native Ethiopia or Italy — where he had dual citizenship.
Frattolin separated from Melina’s mom, Kali Galanis, in 2019, and she had sole custody but allowed her ex to have visits with the girl. But during his interview with Mauro, he claimed that Galanis was abusive to the girl.
‘Whole thing is so complicated’
“The whole thing is so complicated. Kali was not supposed to be a mother,” Frattolin told detectives in an audio recording of the interrogation, adding that he split from the girl’s mom because she was abusive.
Galanis, he stated, is a schizophrenic. He told increasingly skeptical detectives that he worried his Galanis would “lose custody” if he went to cops in Montreal. Besides, Mauro testified, Frattolin did not want sole custody.
In two days of testimony, what’s become clear is that Lucian Frattolin was a bitter, jealous man who nursed a vendetta against his ex-wife.
“If she is behind this, she does this to make me look like a bad person,” Frattolin told detectives.
Prosecutors noted from their opening remarks that the father from hell has changed his story multiple times. Questions about the alleged kidnapping made Frattolin uncomfortable and nervous, Mauro testified.
In addition, the dirtbag dad believed Melina suffered from mental illness with prosecutors saying Frattolin had wanted to kill his daughter since at least early 2025. His reasons are unclear.
Frattolin suddenly clammed up
At the crime scene, Frattolin appeared almost jubilant in videos. In them, he chats light-heartedly with detectives. And then there were the obvious questions like whether or not the Interstate has cameras. Would an Amber Alert reach Canada?
New York State Police Investigator David Mosher testified Monday that Frattolin suddenly clammed up when detectives revealed they were going to check a nearby phone tower’s pings.
“His demeanour changed. He had a shoulder shudder about him,” Mosher testified.
During the car ride, three loud bangs were heard on the audiotape. It was Frattolin slamming his body into the door of the cruiser, Mosher explained.
Frattolin is charged with murder in the second degree and concealment of a human corpse. He has pleaded not guilty to all counts. If convicted, he faces life in prison.
Lucian Frattolin: Father of the year.