Horrific end for 9-year-old Greek-Canadian in New York: Her father drowned her to get revenge on his ex-wife

Frattolin, who is a businessman in the coffee industry, killed little Melina in July 2025 while they were on vacation together, then hid her body under a rock.

He then made up the story that Melina had been kidnapped, prompting the issuance of an Amber Alert and a major police operation to locate the 9-year-old.

Little Melina’s father now faces a life sentence for second-degree murder and concealment of a body.

Horrific end for 9-year-old Greek-Canadian in New York: Her father drowned her to get revenge on his ex-wife
Little Melina with her father who was convicted of her murder

“Melina’s short life came to a violent end,” Essex County District Attorney Michael Lange said during his sentencing hearing on Monday, looking at Frattolin, who avoided his gaze. “Everything was covered in mud. Her long black hair, which she had just taken out of her braids, was covered in dirt and grass,” the prosecutor added, with the jury taking just an hour to reach their verdict.

Melina’s mother, Kali Galanis, had full custody of her daughter after ending her long-distance relationship with Frattolin in 2019. In recent years, however, she has allowed Melina to travel with her father.

Jury finds Luciano Frattolin guilty of killing his daughter

“She had begged not to go on the trip”
Testifying in court a few days ago, the 9-year-old’s mother said that the little girl did not want to travel abroad, specifically to Ethiopia, with her father. “She did not want to go,” Galanis testified, adding that she herself began to feel increasingly anxious about the specific trip as, as she said, she had reservations about allowing a trip abroad after being warned by her lawyer about cases in which divorced parents took their children abroad and then refused to return them.

Galanis also testified that Frattolin later suggested extending the duration of the trip to Ethiopia. As he said, the conversations he had with Melina about the trip finally convinced her to cancel it. “I felt uncomfortable. I was no longer okay with it,” he said of the trip in question.

It was then that instead of Ethiopia, Frattolin suggested taking Melina on the fateful trip to Connecticut and New York, as on the day they were scheduled to return to Quebec, where the 9-year-old’s father lived, he killed her and then claimed to have been kidnapped to cover his tracks.

Luciano Frattolin faces life in prison for the murder of his 9-year-old daughter