Update: August 21, 2025, 4:21 p.m. EST
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The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office is shedding new light in the disappearance and subsequent death of Giovanni Pelletier. During a press conference on Tuesday (Aug. 19), surveillance footage from a Lowe’s was showed of the teenager running into an embankment which leads to the pond his body was later discovered.
“There’s no one chasing him,” Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells said, per Fox 13. “He’s by himself. What we don’t know is what happened when he hit that pond. We don’t know. The death is undetermined.”
He added: “We know we don’t have anybody come down that embankment after him. He’s there, we believe, until he was located by that family friend on Friday, the 8th. We really don’t know what happened when he got into that pond.” The sheriff says they are still waiting for Pelletier’s toxicology reports, which could take up to two months, but have requested expedition.
Authorities, per Gulf Coast News, do not suspect foul play.
Original story: August 12, 2025, 1:56 p.m. EST
Giovanni Pelletier was excited to spend time with his paternal cousins, so when a trip to Florida — where the rest of his family lived– presented itself, he jumped at it. Newly 18 years old, Pelletier could not imagine it would be the last time he would ever see his family.
Now, his mother and the police have more questions about his death than answers.
It’s been almost two weeks since Pelletier went missing on Aug. 1. But on Saturday (Aug. 9), his family confirmed his death after a decomposing body turned up near the area where the teen was last seen, according to a statement from Pelletier’s family. His mother, Bridgette Pelletier, said a “desperate search by OUR FAMILY ALONE” resulted in heartbreaking discovery.
A GoFundMe created in his honor claims Pelletier was “abandoned on the side of the road” by his cousins on his father’s side, and the stories coming from them don’t quite add up to what authorities have gathered so far, according to the family.
Before leaving his home in North Carolina for the Florida trip, Pelletier joined a group chat with his relatives to plan out their festivities, PEOPLE reported. But soon after leaving his mother to hang out with family, Pelletier sent a chilling text message.
“Mom help,” he wrote around 2 a.m. late that night. Bridgette didn’t see either of the two texts or any of the missed calls from her son or one of his cousins until around 6 a.m. because she was sleeping. “He only called me that one time,” she said referring to the cousin. “And then no effort was made to communicate with me. No effort was made to come back to the house to let me know.”
That was the last time Pelletier was seen alive. From there, Bridgette led the charge to locate her son. After tracking down his abandoned phone and bag, the mother said she reached out to Pelletier’s paternal relatives to get some answers. “He wouldn’t have left that,” she told PEOPLE. “My son eats, sleeps, showers, breathes his phone.”
According to the cousins, Pelletier went out with, the group smoked marijuana and the teen became paranoid. He allegedly pulled out a knife, which prompted an altercation amongst the group. They then claimed Pelletier ran off.
“None of these kids that were with him have tried to call me and ask me if I found him, asked me if he’s okay, asked me anything,” Bridgette said.
An autopsy is now scheduled to determine Pelletier’s cause of death, according to WWSB. “I’m living every parent’s worst nightmare, trying to find the strength to give him the goodbye he deserves,” Bridgette said on social media.
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