A man invited his daughter to a father-daughter lake trip before killing her and hiding her body under a rock.
Luciano Frattolin was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison for second-degree murder of his daughter Melina and one to three years for hiding her body.
Luciano had wanted to take his 9-year-old daughter back to his native Ethiopia. But Melina told her mother, who had full custody, she didn’t want to go.
Her mother eventually allowed Frattolin to take her to a lake in upstate New York on July 11, 2025. They were supposed to return to Montreal a week later but never showed up.
At about 5.30pm on July 19th, Melina was seen with her father on video surveillance in Saratoga Springs, NY.
Melina had not wanted to go on a vacation with her father
She spoke to her mother on the phone and did not indicate she was under any duress at 6.30pm.
Four hours later, Luciano told police in a frantic phone call that Melina had been kidnapped by two men in a van at Lake George.
Police launched an instant manhunt but found no evidence of such a van.
Melina’s body was found the next day hidden under a rock in a pond in Ticonderoga.
An autopsy revealed that her cause of death was asphyxia due to drowning and her manner of death was homicide, state police said.
Luciano was arrested the next day and charged with second-degree murder and concealment of a human corpse. He pleaded not guilty to the charges.
‘We will never know what happened on the evening of July 19, 2025,’ Judge Coffinger told Frattolin in Essex County Supreme Court, WNYT reports.
‘We do know that in a moment Melina needed her father the most, you failed to protect her.
‘Instead, Mr Frattolin you live in a world of self-made delusion, of wealth and image, when the greatest accomplishment of your life could have been to be a great father. It is not what you are going to be remembered for.’
Melina’s family said: ‘We continue to suffer deeply since the day Melina was brutally murdered. Nothing can bring Melina back, but we are relieved that this chapter is over.
‘We are sincerely grateful to everyone who worked on the case for your dedication and persistence. Your efforts helped bring a measure of justice for our family.’
Six games into the Premier League campaign Michael Carrick’s side has won just once and the loss in Madrid makes it five matches without a victory in all competitions.
The Argentina international was raging about the lack of new signings over the summer, feeling the squad is not strong enough to compete for the biggest titles.
‘I have to control myself a lot but sometimes it’s the reflection, the mirror of how are club is at the moment,’ Martinez told Amazon on United’s performance in Madrid.
‘We had a fantastic season last season and now we expect more from the top, from up, to bring more players to compete, because many teams bring many players as well. Today Atletico have an amazing team and deserve to win today.
‘I expect more. I expect more from our Technical Director, but I have to be honest we as players have to do more, but it’s important that we make a strong squad to be ready for this kind of night.
‘Last season we did everything to create a base to build an amazing base, but this is something to be honest and to prove something. It’s annoying, disappointing, to come here and I’m not seeing my team trying to get an amazing result here, it’s disappointing.’
Martinez said it was not his teammates or his manager that deserve criticism, but ‘other areas’ of the club.
‘Changing, changing, changing managers, but what about other areas? I can’t say more,’ he said. ‘Tonight it’s easy to say the coach, it’s easy to say the players but also we have to say other areas.’
Michael Carrick is struggling to get results this season (Picture: Getty Images)
ESPN report that senior figures at Old Trafford have been discussing the defender’s comments on Wednesday, when the players had a day off.
Martinez and his teammates will return to training on Thursday and the Argentine will learn his fate then, in terms of whether he will face punishment or not.
Carrick had not seen or heard the interview by the time of his post-match press conference on Wednesday, saying: ‘I’ll need to find out a bit more about it before I can say if and what is going to be done.’
The manager added, ahead of a trip to Elland Road to play Leeds on Sunday: ‘It’s important for us to move forward quickly, really, its a big game on Sunday and it’s really important that we move forward and stay focused on that. There’s disappointment with in the group, I’m bitterly disappointed in certain things and the boys are as well as a group of players.
Martinez has not been in good form himself so far this season (Picture: Getty Images)
‘As a group I don’t doubt the togetherness or wanting to win or the willingness to do things to win, I really don’t doubt that.
‘I know results-wise it’s easy to look and think there’s something deeply wrong because we haven’t won enough games, but the players have been great.
‘They want to push, they’re very willing, they’re very disappointed we haven’t come out with something from the game because they’re desperate and we could have and maybe should have.’
‘I think it is very disrespectful, there are a lot of young players in that dressing room looking for some guidance from experienced players and that hasn’t helped,’ said the former striker.
‘The board have to look at that and probably have to take some action on that because that’s disrespecting the whole football club.’
Christopher Carroll filmed himself carrying out some of his lewd acts (Picture: Baltimore County)
A former paramedic has been jailed for 25 years after being caught on camera spreading his bodily fluids around the workplace.
Christopher Carroll, 36, was sentenced on Tuesday after pleading guilty to three counts of causing another person to ingest bodily fluids in three separate incidents.
The former Baltimore County paramedic had worked at both a county fire station and the fire department’s headquarters.
Fighting back tears in court, Carroll said he was ‘truly sorry to everyone involved’, according to local reports.
‘I’m just a dumb man who made a horrible decision,’ he said.
Carroll was arrested in February and originally charged with 20 counts of knowingly and wilfully causing another person to ingest bodily fluid, along with three counts of malicious destruction of property.
Ice machines, coffee creamer and keyboards
The investigation began in November 2025 after a string of allegations made between September and December that year.
Court records showed Carroll was accused of masturbating and urinating on work equipment and coworkers’ personal belongings at Baltimore County Fire Station 2 in Pikesville and at the Baltimore County Public Safety Building.
Prosecutors said he put semen into a coffee creamer then put it back into a communal fridge.
He also put it onto his female boss’s keyboard. Carroll was also accused of urinating inside an ice machine at the station.
A video posted to Carroll’s account on X, formerly Twitter, included the caption: ‘They always say don’t drink the yellow snow, but I’m just trying to make a slushie.’
In the five days between the contamination and its discovery, 16 people reportedly used the ice maker.
The court heard further allegations that bodily fluids had been placed inside an ambulance and in food cooked at a firehouse.
‘This was not a joke or a prank,’ the judge said.
‘These were perverted, repulsive, and disgusting acts that violated people physically and emotionally.’
Colleague’s horror
One colleague posted her reaction to the disturbing case, saying: ‘Today’s sentencing of Paramedic Christopher Carroll hits differently when you are one of the people who worked beside him.
‘It’s hard to put into words the hurt, anger, and betrayal that comes with knowing someone you worked alongside could do something like this.
‘We work in a profession where we depend on each other, trust each other, and sometimes put our lives in each other’s hands. Our coworkers become family, and the station becomes a second home.
‘Now, because of his actions, we are left questioning things we should never have to question.
‘Something as simple as eating food or getting ice at the station has become a concern. Think about that for a minute. We should be able to walk into our stations, eat our meals, and go about our shifts without worrying about whether we are safe.
‘We already deal with enough dangers in this profession. We should never have to fear the people we work beside. The trust that has been broken is something that will not be easy to get back.’
All three players missed Liverpool’s 3-0 defeat to Manchester City at Anfield on Sunday, with Hugo Ekitike also still sidelined.
The Frenchman remains a long-term injury issues, not expected back till December, but the Hungarian, Swede and Dutchman will be back much sooner.
None of the trio will be involved when the Reds go to LASK in the Champions League on Wednesday night but there is hope they could return on Saturday at Brentford.
If not, then the relentless schedule continues with the Reds hosting Villarreal in the Champions League on Tuesday October 20.
‘They are not bad but it’s difficult to tell right now,’ Iraola said on when Szoboszlai, Isak and Gakpo will return.
‘We are taking it day to day. Really the three of them, I don’t know if it’s going to be Brentford or Villarreal.’
Alexander Isak has rediscovered goal-scoring form this season (Picture: Shutterstock)
Milos Kerkez was also on media duty on Tuesday for the Reds and dropped an injury update of his own on his compatriot Szoboszlai.
‘I don’t know if he is fit for Saturday. You’ll have to ask the gaffer that,’ said the left-back.
‘I know Dom and he doesn’t like to be out long. Knowing him, he wants to play every game and will want to play Saturday.’
Andoni Iraola takes his team to Austria this week (Picture: EPA)
With the three stricken stars, and Ekitike out, there is more demand on the misfiring pair of Florian Wirtz and Bradley Barcola.
Wirtz has struggled to make any kind of impact since his move from Bayer Leverkusen in the summer of 2025, while Barcola only arrived this summer but has had a very slow start.
‘It’s true Cody, Alex and Dom are the top scorers in our system. We don’t have them, we didn’t have them against City and we need those players to give us those numbers,’ said Iraola.
‘We trust the players we have now to play in those positions. Injuries with national teams will happen to all the teams.It’s a matter of adapting to circumstances.
‘[Wirtz and Barcola] have had good games and bad games like anyone else and they will give us good games.’
A teenager has been jailed for five years after smirking at a CCTV camera before sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl.
After a five-day trial at Snaresbrook Crown Court, Tommi Harwood, 18, was found guilty of raping a girl he met at a train station two years ago.
A court heard how Harwood, then 16, had been messaging a girl on Snapchat on September 5, 2024, telling her his name was ‘Bobby’.
She had told him she was on a train, and he asked to meet at Romford Station. Just after 8pm, she arrived at the station and he met her on the platform.
In footage shared by police, Harwood can be seen standing on the platform wearing a black jacket and trousers, smiling at a camera.
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Once his victim arrived, he led her into a waiting room and repeatedly asked her to check if anyone was in the women’s toilets.
When she then went to use the toilets, Harwood followed her in and raped her.
Tommi Harwood was arrested for raping a girl at a train station (Picture: BTP)
When they returned to the platform, he reportedly told the girl, ‘if we see police, run across the tracks’.
She then reported what happened to British Transport Police (BTP), with its Major, Serious and Organised Crime (MSOC) team investigating.
A manhunt was launched but he was not found until October 25, when officers spotted him at Basildon station.
Harwood had been stopped for travelling without a valid ticket, arrested, and taken into custody to be interviewed.
Forensic evidence, CCTV footage, and the victim’s testimony meant the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) authorised the rape charge.
BTP Detective Constable Ross McAlpine said: ‘The young victim has shown tremendous courage, not only by speaking up and reporting what happened to her, but by supporting our enquiries and the court proceedings that followed.
‘She has been supported throughout our investigation by specialist officers, and I hope the fact her attacker is now behind bars brings her some sense of justice.’
He called the teenager’s attack ‘premeditated and frankly abhorrent’, adding that he ‘poses a very real threat to women and girls.’
Along with the five year imprisonment, Harwood was given an indefinite restraining order and an eight-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).
DC McAlpine added: ‘Tackling sexual offending is a top priority for us at BTP. I would urge anyone who experiences or witnesses this offending to report it to us by texting 61016 or dialling 999 in an emergency.
‘Just as we have in this case, we’ll stop at nothing to put dangerous sex offenders before the courts.’
Learn more about Rape Crisis England & Wales
Rape Crisis England & Wales is a charity working to end rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, child sexual abuse – and all other forms of sexual violence.
Whether it happened recently, or a long time ago; whether you know without a doubt that you experienced sexual violence, or aren't quite sure; whether it happened to you, or someone you know; Rape Crisis England & Wales will always believe you and listen to you, and they can offer you information and support.
You can find out more about Rape Crisis England & Wales here; and if you're aged 16 or over, you can call the charity's 24/7 support line for free on 0808 500 2222.
Despite the controversy surrounding Manchester City, they left Anfield with a resounding victory and kept up their perfect start to the Premier League season after six games.
Liverpool manager Iraola was disappointed with the first booking Gravenberch received, which was for a foul on Elliot Anderson, which he felt was not a booking.
‘The first one is not a yellow,’ Iraola told Sky Sports. ‘Anderson carries on a couple of steps; he wasn’t even going to give a foul. I’ve no idea why he gives a yellow card. We have like nine players behind the ball.
Ryan Gravenberch’s dismissal proved to be the turning point (Picture: Getty Images)
‘It’s already difficult to press them when it’s 11 v 11, but with one less, it becomes a different game and then we concede straight away before making a substitution. You have to play differently when you’re 1-0 down.’
On commentary, Carragher agreed, saying: ‘It feels really harsh when you think of the two challenges.
‘The first challenge was not a card and the referee was far too quick to get the card out.’
The Reds legend added after the game: ‘It’s such a poor decision by the referee and the thing that frustrates me is that he wasn’t going to give a yellow card. He thinks Anderson’s hurt, as soon as he thinks Anderson’s got a bad injury, he gives him a yellow card. It’s barely a foul, it’s a shocking decision.’
Iraola had praise for Gravenberch and the rest of his players, despite the faltering end to the game as they fell to defeat.
‘He [Gravenberch] played really well today. He was carrying the ball very well and defending very well,’ said the manager.
"That is SOFT… how is that a yellow card?!" "It's NEVER BEEN a yellow."
‘I feel very proud of the players today. It was not easy. They have been at the level in terms of intensity and winning duels.
‘The supporters today have been top-level. Exemplary from the beginning when we arrive. The red card was in our best moment. Even after, they valued the effort of the players.’
The opinion on the first Gravenberch yellow card was not solely held by those with a Liverpool bias as former Manchester City defender Micah Richards agreed.
‘We talk about the yellow card. That is soft! How is that a yellow card? I don’t understand,’ said the former full-back.
Tonight, the Big Brother host and his professional dance partner took to the dancefloor to perform a stunning Waltz to With You I’m Born Again by Billy Preston & Syreeta.
Their performance was full of emotion, and one of the dances that fans were raving about the most while tweeting about the live show. It scored a 25 from the judges, which some felt was lower than warranted.
However, some viewers claimed that they could be at a disadvantage due to how early they’ve been performing each week in comparison to their competitors, given the fact that the public vote opens at the end of the episode.
In week one, Will, 41, and Dianne, 37, were the first to perform, while in week two, they were in the middle of the schedule. They then performed second in week three and in week four.
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‘Why are Will and Dianne going early every week?’ Strictly fan xSuziBethx asked on X, while Carlee3091 quipped: ‘Will and Dianne in the death slot? Oh of course!!’
Fans think Dianne and Will going early could disadvantage them when the public vote opens at the end of the episode (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire)
Do you think that Will and Dianne have a chance of winning Strictly? Share your thoughts!Comment Now
Another X user called Strictlylmx claimed that Will and Dianne had been ‘slated for the last two weeks and are still getting a death slot Waltz this show’.
The pair landed around the middle of the leaderboard tonight, prompting several people to declare that they should have scored higher for their emotive routine.
‘This was honestly Will’s best dance [so] far. The way he led Dianne, the beautiful quality of dancing I saw tonight,’ kamor_ian0121 remarked.
‘Aawww I loved that from Will and Dianne and their chemistry is so beautiful,’ Margot shared, while Jade added: ‘Did Dianne just turn Will into an actual dancer with that Waltz?! Holy moly! He’s actually got the talent when he’s not leaning into being the joke act. He needs to lock in cos he’s got bags of potential.’
Will said it was an ‘absolute dream’ to take part in Strictly (Picture: Guy Levy/BBC/PA Wire)
Will has an extremely busy schedule at the moment, juggling competing on Strictly with hosting the latest series of Big Brother with former Strictly star AJ Odudu.
After he was announced as the sixth star to be competing on this year’s series, he described it as an ‘absolute dream’ for him, despite also being ‘pretty terrifying’.
‘I’ve been lucky to do lots of live telly before, but absolutely nothing like this. And I cannot wait! I have no idea if I can actually dance, but bring on the sequins, bring on the quicksteps, bring on the dance floor! I’m going to try to enjoy every minute of it,’ he said.
Dianne’s had a strong run on Strictly, earning second place with her now-partner Joe Sugg, ending as the runner-up with Bobby Brazier, and then finally winning with the wonderful Chris McCausland in 2024.
Let’s see if she and Will can make it all the way to the end in the hopes of lifting the Glitterball Trophy this year.
Strictly Come Dancing airs on Saturday nights on BBC One and BBC iPlayer.
‘He’s picked up a shoulder injury so we’ll see how he is in the next few days.’
Elsewhere, Jannik Schuster was withdrawn at half-time, with Andrews explaining that the centre-back was managing an injury picked up in training.
‘Jannik picked up a knock during the week,’ Andrews added. ‘He didn’t quite look amazing in training yesterday, how he was moving.
Kristoffer Ajer rescued a point for Brentford (Picture: PA)
‘It felt similar today in the warm-up. There was just a little incident with his ankle, so I thought it was the right decision just to take him out of the firing line.’
On his side’s performance more generally, the Brentford boss said: ‘I liked a lot today – spirit, grit, determination.
‘There was evidence of rustiness which is understandable but I don’t like to use that as an excuse but the boys have been away for three weeks so it’s trying to find the balance.
‘Then we had Kevin’s [Schade] injury, Jannik [Schuster] wasn’t right and came off at half time, so we got tested today.
‘But we’re also up against a team who I thought were just starting to click before the international break. But the fact that we’re disappointed coming away from home to a Champions League team who spend big money tells you a lot.’
Brentford are back in action next Saturday at home to Liverpool.
Hitler Mussolini Simeon Flores was elected mayor of Queropalca (Picture: Peruvian electoral authority)
A man named Hitler Mussolini Simeon Flores has been elected as mayor of a town in Peru.
The candidate, who stood for the centre-left Ahora Nación party, won 34% of the vote in Queropalca, a remote district in the Peruvian Andes.
In total, 229 residents out of 700 voted for the 45-year-old, with local media reporting that the top three candidates were separated by just 42 votes.
The newly elected mayor, whose unusual forenames are those of two notorious fascist dictators, was born in the central department of Huánuco, 224 miles from the capital, Lima, according to his candidate profile.
In 2018, another Peruvian politician called Hitler won a mayoral election in the district of Yúngar, beating a candidate named Lenin.
Hitler Guesclin Alba Sánchez defeated Lenin Vladimir Rodríguez Valverde in the contest.
Alba told broadcasters during his campaing ‘I’m the good Hitler,’ according to local media.
From L to R: Kye Arthur, 35, Neil Jones, 48, Tobiasz Kozlowski, 38, and Kevin Wooden, 46, (Picture: West Midlands Police)
Four men who killed a dad-of-two by pouring petrol on him and setting him on fire have been jailed.
Tomasz Samel, 45, was kidnapped in March 2019 in Birmingham by three men claiming to be from Interpol.
The 45-year-old was working for an organised crime group, who wanted to ‘teach him a lesson’ over the loss of cigarettes worth £1 million.
The men claimed they were from Interpol, and drove him around the Liverpool area before torturing him.
Mr Samel was dumped in a remote location by the group after being set on fire ‘naked and outnumbered’. He managed to walk to a nearby house where he was given a glass of water and taken to hospital.
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He died in hospital three months later.
Mr Samel’s killing was linked to the seizure of illicit and counterfeit cigarettes which had been smuggled into the UK from Poland.
Tomasz Samel, dad-of-two, who died after being set on fire (Picture: West Midlands Police/PA Wire)
The victim had a unit in Elkington Street, Aston, Birmingham, the court heard, where HM Revenue and Customs had seized cigarettes on February 22 2019.
Neil Jones, 48, and Tobiasz Kozlowski, 38, who were among the main organisers behind the abduction and death of Mr Samel were jailed at Birmingham Crown Court for life today.
Kevin Wooden, 46, and 35-year-old Kye Arthur, were cleared of murder and conspiracy to cause grievous bodily harm but were found guilty of manslaughter.
They were sentenced to 23 years and 22 years respectively.
They drove around Liverpool before torturing Mr Samel (Picture: West Midlands Police)
They had admitted conspiracy to kidnap and conspiracy to falsely imprison.
Kozlowski’s wife, Sandra Kozlowska, 38, also of Crosland Road, Kirkby, was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment, suspended, after she was found guilty of assisting an offender.
In his sentencing remarks, Judge Mr Justice Wall told the defendants they had all chosen to involve themselves in a ‘truly horrific series of events’.
He said: ‘You played different parts in what happened. I am sure that you, Kozlowski and Jones, were organisers of these events.
‘You both had a financial stake in the cigarettes that went missing and had a motive to punish the man whom you considered had lost them.
‘You both went to Poland after they went missing. I am sure that this was part of the planning process.’
He added: ‘I am sure that the two of you intended that Mr Samel would die.
‘If you had intended anything short of death, you would have made some arrangement for his being returned to Birmingham after he was assaulted.
‘Rather, you disposed of the van he was brought to Liverpool in and sent the kidnappers away without asking them to wait to take Tomasz Samel home.
‘Your chosen method of inflicting violence was fire. Fire is self-evidently not a weapon which can be controlled to a nicety allowing for the infliction of serious injury rather than death.
‘In any event, even if your intention had been that he should not be killed but be really seriously injured, this affords you no mitigation for an attack carried out as it was.
‘The distinction between an intention to kill and one to cause grievous bodily harm when someone is set alight with petrol is paper thin if it exists at all.’
The judge said life imprisonment was ‘richly deserved’ for Kozlowski and Jones.
He said: ‘There was a very high degree of mental and physical suffering inflicted on Tomasz Samel before he died – both in the period where he was being held hostage and the period of three months while he was in hospital.
‘Your victim was vulnerable at the time he was set alight – he was naked and outnumbered.’
Of Wooden and Arthur, the judge said he accepted that the pair had been recruited to the plan and paid to act as Amazon delivery men and then law enforcement officers to kidnap Mr Samel.
He said: ‘The jury’s verdicts of guilty of manslaughter make clear that you knew that violence was to be meted out to Mr Samel after you had delivered him.’
He added: ‘The kidnapping was committed in the victim’s own home… This was a highly planned activity in which you did not become involved at the last moment.’
Addressing Kozlowska, the judge said her efforts to assist her husband were ‘persistent and varied and they allowed (him) to evade justice for some time’.
A six-week trial was told Mr Samel, who was the subject of an international arrest warrant, was dumped in a remote location in Lancashire after he was set on fire.
He managed to walk to a house and was given water after knocking at the door of a property near Bickerstaffe at 11.10pm on March 27.
He was taken to Whiston Hospital in Prescot but died on June 21 2019 as a result of his injuries.
The police investigation into Mr Samel’s killing saw wider inquiries carried out in Poland, Greece, the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Colombia, France, Scotland and Wales, where the gang had operations or had fled to in the aftermath of the kidnap.
The CPS said Wooden was arrested in the Dominican Republic under a false name and had to be extradited before the trial.
Hannah Sidaway, roving liaison prosecutor at the CPS, said: ‘This case shows what can be achieved when prosecutors and law enforcement work together across borders.
‘Support from our partners in Poland, Greece and the Dominican Republic, together with Eurojust, was instrumental in securing evidence, progressing inquiries across jurisdictions, and ensuring those responsible faced justice in the UK.
‘The CPS is grateful to all our partners, and our thoughts remain with Mr Samel’s family.’
