The trial of the Montreal man accused of killing his nine-year-old daughter and hiding her body in New York state has been delayed. Luciano Frattolin, 45, was scheduled to start his trial in early January 2026 — but it has now been pushed back to sometime early next year, possibly in March, according to the office of the Acting District Attorney for Essex County. The new date has not yet been fixed. Frattolin remains detained as he awaits trial on charges of second-degree murder and the concealing of a human corpse following the death of his daughter, Melina Frattolin. He entered a plea of not guilty in July. A grand jury ruled last summer that there was enough evidence to issue an indictment and to allow the case to move to trial. Frattolin’s daughter’s body was found in a shallow pond in Ticonderoga, N.Y., on July 20 after he had reported her missing, but police arrested him after alleging that he fabricated the story about her disappearance. Court documents alleged that he hid her body a day earlier under a rock in a wooded area “with the intent to prevent its production, use or discovery.” A preliminary autopsy concluded that Melina’s cause of death was asphyxia due to drowning and ruled her death a homicide. In New York State, murder in the second degree carries a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. Concealing a human body, a class E felony, carries a maximum sentence of four years in prison and a $5,000 fine.
