Giovanni Pelletier’s Cause Of Death Released 3 Months After Body Was Found In Pond: Manatee Sheriff

MANATEE COUNTY, FL — The District Twelve Medical Examiner’s Office released the autopsy report for 18-year-old Giovanni Pelletier more than three months after his body was found in a retention pond off Interstate 75 in Manatee County.

The North Carolina teen’s cause of death is listed as drowning with the manner of death classified as accidental, the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.

A forensic anthropological examination found no evidence of trauma or injury, and toxicological testing of liver tissue showed a small amount of ethanol, which is consistent with decomposition, the sheriff’s office said.

The medical examiner also said that video footage of Pelletier active and alone in the area where he was found supports the idea that no other person caused his death.

Pelletier left Englewood, where he was staying with family, around 1:30 a.m. on Aug. 1 to visit other family members in Brevard County, the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office said.

His cousins told investigators that Pelletier “began to act erratically” while they were traveling north on I-75 before getting out of the vehicle and walking away near State Road 70 in Manatee County, the sheriff’s office said.

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His mother, Bridgette Pelletier, was asleep when her son left with his cousins. She told People that when she woke up after 6 a.m., she saw that she had missed calls and texts from her son, including one that simply read, “Mom help.”

One of the cousins he left with also tried calling her, and she learned later that her son called her sister and father for help, as well. Giovanni’s paternal grandfather also left her a voicemail saying that there had been an altercation between the teen and his cousins, who left him on the side of the road in Bradenton, she told People.

When she spoke to the cousin who tried calling her overnight, he told her that the group smoked marijuana after they picked up Giovanni, who panicked, cursed at them and pulled out a knife while they were on the side of the road, People reported. He allegedly ran off after they got the knife away from him.

His mother said that this doesn't sound like how her son would act.

She used the GPS data from his phone to track him down and found his backpack and phone on the side of the road.

“He wouldn’t have left that,” Bridgette said. “My son eats, sleeps, showers, breathes his phone.”

When she spoke to the cousin who tried calling her overnight, he told her that the group smoked marijuana after they picked up Giovanni, who panicked, cursed at them and pulled out a knife while they were on the side of the road, People said. He allegedly ran off after they got the knife away from him.

After searching for Giovanni for more than a week, a family friend found his body partially submerged in a retention pond off I-75 near State Road 70 on Aug. 8.