Months after a North Carolina teenager was found dead in Florida, his family is one step closer to understanding what led to his untimely death. Eighteen-year-old Giovanni Pelletier was simply visiting some family when he disappeared on Aug. 1.
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It wasn’t until a week later that his dead body was discovered by authorities, we previously told you. A GoFundMe made in his honor claimed Pelletier was “abandoned on the side of the road” by his cousins on his father’s side, who he was last seen alive with. Now, his cause of death has been determined.
The teen’s autopsy report confirmed he drowned in the retention pond where his body was discovered, PEOPLE reported. An alligator was reportedly scavenging his remains, with the medical examiner noting claw marks and other markings on his body. Pelletier’s death was ruled accidental, shutting down the months-long investigation into potential foul play.
“Although some autopsy findings may be obscured due to the advanced decomposition there was no evidence of significant antemortem trauma,” the medical examiner wrote. “No other person caused his death,” the report said referring to police video footage that showed some the teen’s last moments alive.
Video surveillance from a nearby Lowe’s showed the teenager running into an embankment which led to the pond his body was found. “There’s no one chasing him,” Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells said in August, according to 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.”
The autopsy also found that the 18-year-old had an “extremely rare congenital coronary artery abnormality… disproportionately associated with heart failure or sudden cardiac death, particularly during physical exertion.” The report pointed to this as the cause for his death.
“I’m living every parent’s worst nightmare, trying to find the strength to give him the goodbye he deserves,” his mother, Bridgette, said on social media following her son’s disappearance. Pelletier sent his mother a chilling text around 2 a.m. on the night he went missing. He wrote, “Mom help,” but she didn’t see the messages until she woke up hours later.
According to Pelletier’s cousins, the entire group went out, smoked marijuana and then the teen became paranoid. He allegedly pulled out a knife, prompting an altercation among the cousins. They claimed Pelletier then ran off, marking the last time he was seen alive. His mom later tracked down his bag and phone using GPS.
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