TICONDEROGA — A year after a nine-year-old girl from Montreal was found dead near a swamp in Upstate New York, local resident Bridgette Cruz says new road signs are keeping her memory alive. The reflective signs with yellow lettering are dedicated to “Friends of Melina Frattolin.” They are posted along a short stretch of Route 74 in the small lake town of Ticonderoga, N.Y. The road connects to the I-87 highway and is used by residents to get in and out of town. Cruz, who has lived in Ticonderoga her whole life, says she was behind the initiative to post the signs after Melina Frattolin’s body was found in July 2025. Though the girl was not known to the town of about 5,000 people, Cruz said the close-knit community was rocked by the killing. “We’re separated by a border, but she’s a child. It doesn’t matter,” she said in an interview. “It was just gut-wrenching,” Cruz added. “It really was a tragic thing that struck a lot of people … It was really hard for a lot of people to process the emotions.” The girl’s father, Luciano Frattolin, is on trial in the nearby hamlet of Elizabethtown, N.Y. He is charged with second-degree murder and concealment of a corpse in the death of his nine-year-old daughter. He pleaded not guilty to both charges and maintained that his daughter had been kidnapped while the two were on their way back to Montreal after a weeklong vacation. Cruz, a mother of three, said she vividly remembers when authorities sent out an Amber Alert for the missing girl — the panic she felt for the child and the heartbreak when her body was found. She helped organize a vigil for Montreal girl in the following days. But Cruz said the death continued to haunt her and she wanted a memorial that would last. She then reached out to the Department of Transportation, which runs a program for citizens to adopt a highway. Scott Cooke, a spokesperson for the department, said the program is open to anyone and can be used for memorials. Through the program, the department erects a highway sign acknowledging the “adopters,” who commit to cleaning litter off the road a few times a year for two years. The contract can then be renewed. The signs for Melina Frattolin went up in November, and Cruz said she plans to keep them in place as long as possible. The three-kilometre stretch she selected runs by the marsh where the girl was found drowned, with one sign on each end. “I want it to be a nice resting place for her,” said Cruz. “I don’t want it to be a sombre place, because it is a beautiful area.” When Cruz did her first cleaning in the spring, several troopers who had participated in the search for Melina joined her, she said. Heath Towne sits on the Ticonderoga town Board. He said murder is exceedingly rare in the area. He added that he wasn’t surprised a citizen chose to put up a sign in memorial as it’s common for people to place signs and crosses by the road to honour loved ones. “It was a very emotional thing. Any time you have something involving a child, it will stir up a lot of emotion. It’s that human instinct to protect children,” he said. He expects the trial, which is expected to conclude in August, to rekindle those emotions. This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 27, 2025. Erika Morris, The Canadian Press
