ELIZABETHTOWN — Police found traces of blood on the jacket a nine-year-old Montreal girl was wearing when she died last summer in a rural area of New York. A forensic scientist from the New York State Police testified about the discovery on Tuesday during the trial of a man accused of killing his daughter last July. Luciano Frattolin is charged with second-degree murder and concealment of a human corpse in the death of 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. Kimberly Stoddard, a forensic scientist for the state police force, tested the items young Melina Frattolin was wearing when her body was found, looking for traces of blood. Most tests were inconclusive, she testified, attributing this to the dirt that covered them. When presented to the jury, the pinks and purples of the girl’s clothes were indeed covered by a layer of muck. Melina was found drowned to death in a marsh in rural New York, at the end of a trip with her father. One item tested positive for blood in multiple places — Melina’s jacket. Stoddard found traces of blood on a cuff and on the hood. “There was visible, reddish staining in that area,” she told the jury. Her tests also identified blood on a document police found in Frattolin’s car. The document is a three-page dialogue between Frattolin and the girl’s mother that a witness had read out to the jury last week. In it, Frattolin makes accusations and other disparaging remarks targeting the girl’s mother. It is unclear whether the dialogue is fictional or referred to a real conversation. Stoddard tested a red stain on the document, which was found next to its title, “Closure/Confession.” “The visible stain area is on the slash between those two words,” said Stoddard. After testing, Stoddard sent the items for DNA analysis. She did not specify in her testimony to whom the blood on the jacket and the document belonged. She also tested other items police found around the crime scene, such as a pair of white Adidas sneakers, clothes found in the car Frattolin was driving and clothes found in a white garbage bag in the area. These items, many of which were also visibly dirty, tested negative or inconclusive when it came to traces of blood. Frattolin has alleged that two men abducted his daughter and drove off in a white van. The prosecution has alleged he fabricated the allegations of a kidnapping. The case has provoked an outpouring of emotions on both sides of the Canada-U.S. border, including candlelight vigils and tributes for the girl from residents living around the New York region where she died. The trial is scheduled to resume on Wednesday. Marieke Glorieux-Stryckman, The Canadian Press
