Florida authorities this week released video they’d found in their investigation of the death of Giovanni Pelletier.
Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells recapped the teen’s texts and travels in the time before his disappearance.
Eighteen-year-old Pelletier vanished on August 1, after exiting a car operated by a cousin on Interstate 75 close to State Road 70 in Manatee County, as reported by CrimeOnline. A week later, his decomposed remains were discovered in a nearby retention pond.
Originally from North Carolina, Pelletier and his family were in Florida visiting relatives. At the time of his disappearance, his cousin and some friends were taking him to see additional family members.
Wells revealed that through texts and interviews, it was discovered that Pelletier and others in the vehicle had smoked marijuana. According to the cousin and friends, this caused Pelletier to start “tripping.” They made a short stop but then resumed their journey. During the drive, Pelletier sent his mother text messages saying, “Help,” and repeated “Help” followed by “Me.”
The cousin recalled Pelletier’s increasingly erratic behavior, mentioning claims that he was a “demon” and threatening statements like “I will wreck this car” and “he will kill them all” while attempting to open the door of the moving car.
After Pelletier reportedly brought up a knife, the driver pulled over onto the interstate shoulder, and Pelletier exited the vehicle, running southward on the southbound lanes of I-75.
The cousin and friends left Pelletier’s cell phone and backpack beside the road and notified family members about the incident. They then continued to their originally planned destination.
Pelletier’s mother reported him missing at about 7:30 a.m.
Deputies respond to the area but see no signs of Pelletier. A trucker picks up Pelletier’s backpack and cell phone, carrying it to Tampa, where it was ultimately recovered after his mother tracked it there.
After days of searching, a friend of the family found the body and called police. An autopsy found no signs of trauma or foul play, but said the cause of death has not yet been determined.
Detectives used Department of Transportation cameras to pinpoint where Pelletier got out of the car on I-75 and then surveillance footage from a nearby Lowe’s that shows a figure believed to be Pelletier running alone toward the retention pond where the body was found.
“There is no one chasing him, no one around him,” Wells said. At the time he was seen running toward the pond, the vehicle he had been travelling in was in was two miles away.
“We know we don’t have anyone that comes down that embankment after him,” he said, noting that the only thing they can’t see on the camera is exactly “what happened once he hit the bottom.”
Investigators are still awaiting final autopsy results and toxicology results. Wells said the cousin and friends who were in the vehicle with Pelletier prior to his disappearance have been cooperating with investigators.
