During a court session on Thursday, a New York State Police investigator revealed to the jury that they had gathered over 200,000 location data points from a phone as part of their inquiry into the tragic death of a nine-year-old girl from Montreal last summer.
Ryan Munks, the investigator, detailed how the data was extracted from apps like Google Maps on Luciano Frattolin’s phone, the accused facing charges of second-degree murder and concealing a human corpse in the case.
Munks emphasized the significance of the vast amount of data points spanning a week, describing it as one of the largest datasets he had ever encountered in an investigation.
The victim, Melina Frattolin, was found drowned in a rural New York marsh at the conclusion of a trip with her father. Luciano Frattolin, who denies the charges, has been in custody since his arrest in July, claiming that his daughter was taken by two men in a white van.
Munks also highlighted that the data analysis revealed the girl’s attempt to contact her mother before she went missing to reach out to a friend and that she was scheduled to return to Montreal that evening.
Furthermore, the investigation disclosed that Luciano’s phone was stationary by a country road for an hour before he reported his daughter missing to the authorities.
In later testimonies, the court learned about the tracking of a silver Prius rented by Frattolin for the trip. State police analyst Andrew Munson shared how data from license-plate cameras tracked the vehicle’s movements, indicating its presence on the I-87 highway in both directions on the evening in question.
Despite efforts to analyze images of white vans using AI technology, no incriminating evidence was found, according to Munson.
During questioning, defense attorneys raised concerns about the accuracy of the AI tool and whether license plate readers could be evaded by altering or concealing the plates, to which Munson confirmed it was indeed possible.
The court scheduled additional testimony for later in the day.
