BRADENTON, Fla. (WFLA) — Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells said no foul play was involved in the death of 18-year-old Giovanni Pelletier, who went missing a week before his body was found in a retention pond.
Wells held a press conference Tuesday morning to share additional information about the investigation.
A family friend located the body of 18-year-old Giovanni Pelletier a week after he went missing on August 1. The advanced state of decomposition required an autopsy and additional testing to positively identify the body.
Pelletier was last seen near the intersection of I-75 and SR-70 in Manatee County after running from the car he was in with his cousins. His cousins later told police that, during their trip from Englewood to Brevard County, he began acting erratically before leaving the vehicle.
Wells said Pelletier had been in contact with one of the cousins before they met up, and the two discussed smoking weed, which Pelletier said he hadn’t done in a while.
Shortly after being picked up by his cousins, the group starts smoking while headed to Brevard County. In interviews with police, the cousins said Pelletier started “tripping” after they smoked.
At around 1:55 a.m., Pelletier sent his mother a text that said, “Mom help me.”
The cousins said Pelletier started talking about how he was a demon, how he had a knife, and he was going to wreck the car. They told police Pelletier was trying to open the car doors while the vehicle was still moving.
The driver pulled the car over, and Pelletier ran out onto I-75, almost getting struck by a truck. He left his backpack and cellphone in the car, so the cousins left the items on the side of the road where he got out. That was the last time any of them saw him.
One of them called their grandfather to tell him what happened and then attempted to call Pelletier’s mother at around 2:27 a.m., but she didn’t pick up. Wells said that phone location data shows that all three eventually made it back to Brevard County.
The following morning, one of them calls Pelletier’s mother again, she answers, and he tells her what happened. At that point, she calls the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, which began the investigation.
In the 911 call, his mother tells the dispatcher that the cousin told her Pelletier started freaking out after smoking, and while they tried to get him to calm down and stay in the car, he eventually ran off.
A passing truck driver sees the backpack on the side of the road and takes it with him as he travels to Tampa. Pelletier’s mother sees that the phone is moving, but at that time isn’t aware that it’s in the possession of the truck driver, not her son. Tampa PD responds and recovers the cell phone and backpack from the driver.
The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office took the lead in interviewing the cousins who were in the car with Pelletier. His cousins voluntarily turned the vehicle over and cooperated throughout the investigation, Wells said. The sheriff said the three cousins also agreed to come back to Manatee County to help detectives pinpoint exactly where Pelletier got out of the car.
Investigators began reviewing traffic cameras in the surrounding areas and saw Giovanni on I-75 at around 2:18 a.m. when he was captured by the 44th Ave. camera, which is around 1.2 miles north of SR-70. Pelletier can be seen running across the highway toward a concrete barrier, which Wells said is where the retention pond is.
A camera outside of a Lowes captured Pelletier a minute later, running down an embankment at an almost uncontrollable pace, Wells said. At the bottom of the embankment is the pond where his body was found. Wells pointed out that in all of the camera footage of Pelletier from that night, no one is seen following or chasing him, and no one comes down the embankment after him.
A family friend found his body over a week after he went missing, and the advanced state of decomposition required additional testing to positively identify the body as Pelletier.
The medical examiner did not find any evidence of foul play, Wells said. Pelletier did not have any trauma to his body, and there were no gunshot or stab wounds or anything else that would point to a cause of death. A dive team searched the pond after his body was located and did not find any other evidence.
No charges have been filed in the case, Wells said.
Now, the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office is waiting for the results of a toxicology analysis, which they said could take weeks. The sheriff’s office is hoping the results of that report will lead them to a cause of death.