Alleged killer dad Luciano Frattolin spotted in woods
Rebecca Kulickowski, a lifelong resident of Ticonderoga in upstate New York, told News10 that she submitted two police reports after seeing a man she now believes was Frattolin running away from his car on Saturday evening, when Melina Frattolin is thought to have been killed.
Kulickowski was driving through Ticonderoga toward Schroon Lake when she saw a Toyota Prius stopped in the road.
6 Police arrested Luciano Frattolin after he claimed his daughter had been abducted.
Instagram/Luciano Frattolin
'It only caught my eye because as I was driving past the car, I seen a skinny tall guy,' she told News10. 'And he was running up a hill that he was parked next to and there was a wooded area on the bottom of it,' she said.
'I just didn't feel right, there was something about him, I don't know, our eyes locked when I drove by, he looked at me,' she said.
Kulickowski did not see a child with the man at the time — but immediately contacted police when she got an Amber Alert about little Melina on Sunday.
'We got an alert and I was like, 'God no.' I can't even tell you what I felt in that moment, it was horrible,' she said.
6 Frattolin is being held at the Essex County Jail in upstate New York
Essex County Sheriff's Office
The alert was triggered by the girl's dad claiming she'd been kidnapped, which officials later said appeared to be a hoax. The alert was called off when Melina's body was discovered pinned under a log in Eagle Lake, between Ticonderoga and Schroon Lake, close to where Kulickowski saw the suspicious man.
6 The suspect lied that his daughter had been abducted, police said.
Wnyt13
6 Frattolin was arrested and charged with his daughter's murder.
Instagram/Luciano Frattolin
Frattolin, who had custody of his daughter for the week, was charged on Monday with second-degree murder and concealment of a human corpse.
He and Melina entered the US from Canada on July 11 and traveled around New York and Connecticut, visiting New York City before heading back upstate.
Follow The Post's coverage on Melina Frattolin
On Saturday at 5:30 p.m. the pair were spotted in Frattolin's Prius in Saratoga Springs, around 67 miles south of Ticonderoga.
Around an hour later at 6:30 p.m., Melina called her mother back home in Montreal and sounded well.
6 This map shows where Melina was found dead in upstate New York.
Merrill Sherman / NY Post Design
6 Melina was found dead near Lake George.
New York State Police
Frattolin then allegedly stopped answering his estranged partner's messages about when he would be bringing Melina back, as he was scheduled to do on Saturday.
He is alleged to have strangled his daughter to death around an hour after she spoke to her mother, and some two and a half hours before he called in a missing persons report at around 10 p.m. Saturday.
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Frattolin was arrested early on Monday morning and appeared in court later that day where he pleaded not guilty.
He is due back in court again on Friday.
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