In a courtroom in Essex County, a mother recounted the quiet signals she and her daughter had both read correctly — and the one moment they could not have anticipated. Kali Galanis testified that nine-year-old Melina had refused an overseas trip with her father months before prosecutors say he killed her during what was meant to be the safer alternative: a summer drive through the American Northeast. The case asks a jury to weigh a father's alleged violence against a backdrop of fractured family trust, international custody fears, and a child whose own voice, in the end, could not save her.
Mother testifies daughter feared overseas trip with father months before her death
A 9-year-old girl was killed by her father during a summer trip; her body was found partially submerged in a lake after he falsely reported her kidnapped.
I became uncomfortable. I was not ok with that anymore.
Mark
Why did the mother's concerns about international travel matter so much to the prosecution's case?
Mimi
Because it established a pattern. Melina didn't want to go overseas. Her mother listened and canceled. But Frattolin still wanted control over where his daughter went and what happened to her. When the overseas trip fell through, he pivoted to a domestic one—but the underlying dynamic didn't change.
Mark
What was the attorney's warning really about?
Mimi
Parental abduction. It's a real phenomenon—one parent takes a child across an international border and refuses to return them. Once you're in another country, the legal system that might protect you at home becomes useless. The mother's lawyer was essentially saying: be careful with someone you don't fully trust.
Mark
Did Melina's refusal to go to Ethiopia suggest she was afraid of her father?
Mimi
The testimony doesn't say she was afraid, exactly. She didn't want to go. Children have reasons for not wanting things—discomfort, separation from home, instinct. But her mother took it seriously enough to listen and act on it.
Mark
What does the remark about it being "easier" to kill her overseas tell us?
Mimi
It's damning. It suggests he was thinking about harm, and thinking about geography as a factor in whether he could get away with it. Overseas meant fewer witnesses, fewer authorities watching, fewer people who knew her. It's the kind of thing an innocent person wouldn't say.
Mark
Did the mother blame herself?
Mimi
The testimony doesn't reveal that. What it shows is a mother who made protective decisions based on legal advice and her daughter's own wishes. She said no to the Ethiopia trip. She allowed the U.S. trip. No one could have predicted what happened next.
Il Polso
- A nine-year-old girl told her mother she did not want to travel to Ethiopia with her father — and her mother believed her, canceling the trip over fears of parental abduction.
- When the overseas plan fell through, the father proposed a northeastern U.S. road trip instead, which seemed contained and safe by comparison.
- Melina never returned home to Quebec; on the day she was due back, her father reported her kidnapped by strangers in a white van, triggering an Amber Alert.
- Investigators found no evidence of abduction — only Melina's body, partially submerged near Eagle Lake in Ticonderoga, New York.
- At trial, a state police investigator testified that Frattolin remarked it would have been easier to kill his daughter overseas — a statement that now hangs over the entire proceeding.
- Frattolin has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder; the trial continues as prosecutors build a portrait of premeditation through the family's own history of fear.
In a courtroom in Essex County, a mother recounted the quiet signals she and her daughter had both read correctly — and the one moment they could not have anticipated. Kali Galanis testified that nine-year-old Melina had refused an overseas trip with her father months before prosecutors say he killed her during what was meant to be the safer alternative: a summer drive through the American Northeast. The case asks a jury to weigh a father's alleged violence against a backdrop of fractured family trust, international custody fears, and a child whose own voice, in the end, could not save her.
On Tuesday, Kali Galanis took the witness stand at Essex County Court and told jurors what her daughter had told her months before her death: Melina did not want to go to Ethiopia. Her ex-partner Luciano Frattolin had proposed a two-week trip to his native country in January 2025, but the nine-year-old refused — and her mother listened.
Galanis had her own reasons for unease. Since their 2019 separation, her attorney had warned her about the risk of international parental abduction. When Frattolin suggested extending the Ethiopia trip, those fears sharpened. Melina's clear reluctance became the deciding factor. Galanis canceled it. "I became uncomfortable," she testified. "I was not ok with that anymore."
Frattolin then proposed a different vacation — a road trip through Connecticut and New York. It seemed safer. Authorities confirmed the two did travel through the Northeast that summer, with Melina scheduled to return to Quebec when it ended. She never did.
On the day of her planned return, Frattolin reported to police that Melina had been taken by two men in a white van. An Amber Alert went out. But investigators found no evidence of abduction. Instead, they discovered Melina's body partially submerged in shallow water near Eagle Lake in Ticonderoga, New York.
Freattolin has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and concealment of a human corpse. The trial took a stark turn when New York State Police investigator Daniel Mauro testified that Frattolin, when asked whether he had any reason to harm his daughter, remarked that it would have been easier to do so overseas — in Italy or Ethiopia.
Galanis' testimony painted a picture of a mother who had heeded every warning, listened to her child, and chosen what she believed was the safer path. The portrait that emerged was of a family already fractured by distrust — and of a little girl whose refusal to cross an ocean could not protect her from what waited closer to home.
Kali Galanis sat in the witness box at Essex County Court on Tuesday and told jurors what her nine-year-old daughter had told her months earlier: she did not want to go to Ethiopia. The trip her ex-partner Luciano Frattolin had proposed for January 2025 would have taken Melina to his native country for two weeks. But the girl refused, and her mother listened.
Galanis testified that she had her own reasons for unease about the plan. After she and Frattolin separated in 2019, her attorney had warned her about a particular danger: estranged parents who take children across borders and simply do not return them. It was a real enough threat that it shaped her thinking about any international travel with her ex. When Frattolin later suggested extending the Ethiopia trip, Galanis said she became increasingly uncomfortable. The conversations she had with Melina about it—the child's clear reluctance—pushed her to a decision. She canceled the trip.
"I became uncomfortable," Galanis testified. "I was not ok with that anymore."
Instead, Frattolin proposed something different: a vacation through the northeastern United States. This seemed safer, more contained. Authorities have confirmed that Frattolin and Melina did travel through Connecticut and New York that summer. The plan was for the girl to return home to Quebec when the trip ended.
But she never made it home. On the day Melina was scheduled to leave, Frattolin reported to police that she had been abducted by two men in a white van. The report triggered an Amber Alert. Investigators moved quickly, but what they found was not a kidnapping. There was no evidence of abduction. Instead, Melina's body was discovered partially submerged in shallow water near Eagle Lake in Ticonderoga, New York.
Frattolin has pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and concealment of a human corpse. His trial continues in Essex County Court. During questioning by investigators, according to testimony from New York State Police investigator Daniel Mauro, Frattolin made a remark that hung in the courtroom: it would have been easier to kill his daughter overseas—in Italy or Ethiopia, he said. Mauro testified that this comment came after investigators asked whether Frattolin had any reason to harm his daughter.
Galanis' testimony offered the jury a window into the months before Melina's death—the family tensions over travel, the mother's growing alarm, the child's own resistance to leaving North America with her father. It was a portrait of a mother trying to protect her daughter, making decisions based on warnings about parental abduction, listening when her nine-year-old said no. And it was a portrait of what came after those decisions, when the safer option—a trip through the American Northeast—ended with a child dead in a lake and a false report of kidnapping.
Citazioni salienti
It would've been easier to kill his daughter overseas, including in Italy or Ethiopia— Luciano Frattolin, according to New York State Police investigator Daniel Mauro's testimony
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