THE body of missing teenager Giovanni Pelletier has been pulled from a pond in Florida, his family has confirmed.
An 18-year-old from North Carolina was last spotted on August 1 in Englewood, Florida. He sent a distressing final message to his mother seeking assistance before his family uncovered the shocking reality.
His mother, Bridgette Pelletier, revealed the sorrowful news on Saturday via a Facebook post, emphasizing that it was the family, not the police, who made the heart-wrenching discovery.
“My son was recently found after a desperate search by OUR FAMILY ALONE, and we are still facing an active investigation into his death,” she wrote.
“I am living every parent’s worst nightmare, trying to find the strength to give him the goodbye he deserves.
“We ask that you please respect our privacy at this time as we try to nevigate this for his 4 younger siblings” [sic].
Giovanni’s body was located on Friday near where his cellphone last pinged, his family said.
The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office confirmed a body was pulled from a retention pond off Interstate 75 and State Route 70.
FAMILY FURY
Both the family and members of We Are the Essentials, a group formed by former military personnel and law enforcement officials, have openly criticized the police’s handling of the case.
The group’s president Billy Lane told WRAL News how it and the family led the search for days culminating in the discovery of Giovanni.
“It’s horrible. And even for those people who aren’t trained and haven’t dealt with death before, this is traumatic, ” he said.
“And this shouldn’t have happened. They should not have been the ones to have to locate their loved one.”
“THE POLICE DIDN’T FIND MY BABY. THE INVESTIGATORS DIDN’T FIND MY BABY. THE DOGS DIDN’T. THE HELICOPTERS DIDN’T,” Bridgette expressed passionately in a Facebook update.
“STOP. SPREADING. LIES. YOU. HAVE. NO. IDEA. WE FOUND MY BABY. AND I WILL NEVER EVER BE THE SAME.”
At the same time, Giovanni’s grandmother voiced her disgust in a post, condemning law enforcement officials who “have the audacity to act like you searched”.
“Yall show up after he dies days after how dare yall go on news and act like you cared about my grandson,” she fumed.
“No law officials ever came on the highway not one…our family found my grandson.”
Lane shared with WRAL News that although the family and team occasionally observed officers on the hunt for Giovanni, they frequently noted a severe shortage of resources.
This left his organization and the family to “work up form the house, try GPS to see what path they could have taken, and identify an area with roads they would have traveled,” which led to finding Giovanni’s body.
An autopsy is scheduled for Sunday with a cause of death currently unknown.
UNANSWERED QUESTIONS
The family has been vocal about suspecting foul play after the teen was last seen with his three cousins who he had never met before, around 1:30am where a dispute allegedly led to a knife being pulled.
They relatives from his estranged father’s side of the family.
Just 30 minutes after they picked him up from the town of Mims, his family received a torrent of messages from him begging for help – none of which were received until they woke up later that morning.
One simply read: “Mom, help.”
“He’s a good kid. The words were so jumbled up together; it was like he was trying to quickly get that text out. He wanted help,” Giovanni’s aunt Desiree previously told The U.S. Sun.
His mother Bridgette woke up at 6:20 am to find the harrowing texts and a missed call from one of the cousins who was in the car with her son before he vanished.
There was also a voicemail from Giovanni’s paternal grandfather describing an alleged dispute between the group which led to a knife being pulled and the teen running away into the darkness.
When she was unable to contact her son, Bridgette tracked his phone and followed it to his last known location where she found his belongings.
On the roadside she found his backpack and phone.
One of the cousins allegedly told her how they had smoked marijuana together before events escalated.
There have also been reports of a confrontation at the side of the road.
“When that happened, they said they wrestled the knife from him, and then my son took off running,” Bridgette previously told People.
But a statement from the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office on August 2, claimed Giovanni “suddenly began to act erratically before exiting the vehicle and walking away near SR70” in Manatee County.
An investigation is ongoing as the family beg for answers and claim that the cousins who last saw him alive have been changing their stories.
“We are really confused about what exactly happened,” Desiree said tearfully in her interview with The U.S. Sun.
A GoFundMe page was set up by the family to help search efforts.
It has so far raised over $24,100 with funds now expected to go towards funeral, medical, and legal costs.
“Giovanni is smart, kind, and full of life. He didn’t deserve this. Our family is devastated,” the family wrote.
The U.S. Sun has reached out to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office for comment.
