Teen Texts ‘Help’ 3 Times Before I-75 Disappearance (Body Found in Florida Retention Pond)

Giovanni Pelletier should have been settling into his freshman year of college. Instead, the 18-year-old recent high school graduate became the center of a haunting search that gripped two states and left his family demanding answers.

What began as a summer vacation to Florida in late July 2025 ended in tragedy when Pelletier’s body was discovered floating in a Manatee County retention pond on August 8. Between his disappearance in the early morning hours of August 1 and that grim discovery lay a week of frantic searching, unanswered questions, and a mother’s desperate attempt to piece together her son’s final moments.

Months later, medical examiner reports would reveal the official cause of death. But for Bridgette Pelletier, no autopsy findings could explain why her son sent her those desperate text messages before vanishing into the Florida night.

A Family Trip With Unexpected Plans

Pelletier traveled to Florida from his home in North Carolina with his mother, her fiancé Jeremy Brown, and his four siblings. Family members were visiting a relative undergoing chemotherapy in Englewood. But Giovanni had other plans too.

He wanted to reconnect with his estranged father’s side of the family. After reaching out and making arrangements, he planned to visit his paternal grandfather in Brevard County, roughly three hours away from where he was staying.

On the night of July 31, extending into the early morning of August 1, three people arrived to pick up Giovanni around 1:30 AM. Among them was a cousin from his biological father’s side, along with two of that cousin’s friends. Giovanni had never met these men in person before. He had only spoken to one cousin by phone.

His mother saw him leave. She had been studying for an upcoming pharmacy board exam and soon fell asleep, exhausted from her preparations.

Thirty Minutes to Disaster

By 1:55 AM, Giovanni’s phone began sending signals his mother wouldn’t see until morning. He texted her a single word at 1:55 AM. “Help.” One minute later came another message. “Help.” Then a third. “Me.”

He tried calling her at 1:56 AM. When she didn’t answer, he attempted a FaceTime call. Still no response from his sleeping mother. Giovanni then reached out to an aunt and his grandfather, seeking help from anyone who might see his messages.

Bridgette woke at 6:20 AM to find the eerie string of messages. She also discovered a missed call from one of the cousins who had picked up her son. When she finally connected with Giovanni’s paternal grandfather, she heard a story that made little sense to her.

According to the grandfather, Giovanni had gotten into an altercation with his cousins while they smoked marijuana in the car. He allegedly pulled a knife. In response, the cousins wrestled the weapon away from him and pulled over on I-75 near State Road 70. Giovanni then exited the vehicle and ran into traffic before disappearing.

A Mother’s Doubts Surface

Bridgette couldn’t reconcile what she heard with the son she knew. Speaking to People magazine, she said, “My son eats, sleeps, showers, breathes his phone.” Yet his backpack and phone had been abandoned by the roadside, left behind as the cousins continued their journey to Brevard County.

She used GPS data to locate the phone. A truck driver had spotted the backpack and phone on the side of the road, picked them up, and driven them to Tampa. When Tampa police recovered the items and returned them to Bridgette, they confirmed her worst fears. Giovanni was truly missing, separated from the one possession he never went anywhere without.

Law enforcement reports later filled in more details about what the cousins claimed happened that night. According to their account to Manatee County Sheriff’s Office investigators, Giovanni had texted about smoking weed earlier. He mentioned he hadn’t done so in a while because of pending court matters in North Carolina.

Once in the car, after smoking marijuana, Giovanni allegedly started “tripping.” Deputies said the group stopped along River Road before reaching I-75 so Giovanni could use the bathroom. When he returned to the vehicle, he was supposedly “raging.”

As they continued north on I-75, another person in the car told investigators that Giovanni had made threatening statements. Deputies said he claimed to be a demon who would wreck the car. He allegedly threatened to kill everyone in the vehicle. Then he opened the car door while the vehicle was still moving near State Road 70.

According to the driver, Giovanni got out after they pulled over and started running through the southbound lanes of I-75. He then crossed into the northbound lanes, nearly getting struck by a truck.

Search Spans Massive Territory

Charlotte and Brevard counties together cover approximately 1,700 square miles. For days, Bridgette and her family searched this vast area, growing frustrated with what they perceived as an insufficient law enforcement response.

At 6:50 AM on August 1, one of the cousins called Bridgette to explain what happened. At 7:13 AM, she contacted 911 requesting a wellness check near where Giovanni had exited the vehicle. The Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office opened a missing person case shortly before 9:30 AM.

As days passed without answers, family members raised money for a reward. Initially set at $10,000, it eventually grew to $25,000 for information leading to Giovanni’s discovery or to an arrest and conviction in connection with his disappearance.

Private Search Yields Tragic Result

On August 8, a private investigator hired by the family discovered a retention pond near I-75 and State Road 70. A body floated to the surface in an area that authorities claimed they had already searched.

According to family members, a friend of Bridgette’s who lived in North Carolina had traveled to Florida to support her. He joined the search effort and found Giovanni’s remains. Law enforcement was not actively searching the area at the time of discovery.

When deputies arrived, they found the body in an advanced state of decomposition. An alligator was reportedly scavenging on the remains. Initial identification proved impossible due to decomposition, though authorities preliminarily determined the body belonged to Giovanni.

Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells held a news conference in August where he showed surveillance footage from the area. Video captured Giovanni walking down a steep embankment toward the retention pond where his body would later be found. Wells made a point of what the footage showed and what it didn’t.

No one was chasing Giovanni in the video. No one appeared near him at all. He moved through the area alone.

Autopsy Reveals Unexpected Findings

Formal identification came days later. An autopsy was scheduled for August 11. But final results determining cause and manner of death wouldn’t arrive until November, when the District Twelve Medical Examiner released its findings.

Giovanni died from drowning. Medical examiners classified the manner of death as accidental. He drowned in the retention pond where his body was discovered.

Forensic anthropological examination found no evidence of perimortem trauma. No injuries occurred around the time of death. Toxicology testing of liver tissue showed only a small amount of ethanol, consistent with decomposition rather than alcohol consumption.

Examiners found Giovanni wearing a white t-shirt, black sweatpants, black underwear, and one black sock on his left foot. He had no shoes. His body showed moderate to advanced decompositional changes from spending approximately one week in the Florida swamp during the summer heat.

Alligator activity left its mark on Giovanni’s remains. Forensic experts documented conical depressions and longitudinal scratches consistent with alligator scavenging. Claw marks appeared on portions of his skull. Hands and feet showed damage from postmortem animal activity.

But the autopsy revealed something else entirely. Giovanni had an anomalous left main coronary artery arising from the non-coronary cusp. Medical examiners described this congenital abnormality as extremely rare, comprising less than 1% of all coronary anomalies.

People with this condition face a disproportionate risk of heart failure or sudden cardiac death, particularly during physical exertion. Most who die from this abnormality are younger than 30 years old. Up to 50% show symptoms before death occurs.

Medical examiners noted in their report that video evidence of Giovanni active and alone in the area where he was found supported their conclusion that no other person caused his death.

Family Demands Federal Involvement

Bridgette and her extended family remained unsatisfied with the local law enforcement response. They launched an online petition calling for FBI involvement in the investigation. Within days, thousands signed the petition.

Family spokesperson Morgan Hall, Giovanni’s cousin, told media outlets that the family worried about what they perceived as a lack of urgency from Florida authorities. Hall noted that no law enforcement personnel were actively searching when Giovanni’s body was found.

Bridgette expressed her anguish on Facebook days after the discovery. She wrote that she was “living every parent’s worst nightmare, trying to find the strength to give him the goodbye he deserves.”

Her frustration extended to the cousins who drove Giovanni that night. She told People magazine they made no effort to help search for him. One called to ask if he had been found or if he was safe. She found their silence deafening.

She also questioned their account of events. According to Bridgette, the behavior they described seemed completely out of character for Giovanni. He was a strong swimmer, according to family members. He had just graduated from Fuquay-Varina High School and was looking forward to his future.

Questions Without Clear Answers

The medical examiner reports closed the official investigation. Drowning was the cause. The accident was the manner. But gaps remain in understanding what happened between Giovanni exiting that vehicle on I-75 and entering the retention pond where he died.

Did the rare heart condition play a role? Could physical exertion from running through traffic and down an embankment have triggered a cardiac event? Did panic from the marijuana experience cause him to seek water? Medical examiners acknowledged they couldn’t completely exclude the coronary artery abnormality as a contributing factor.

Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office told the media they had no updates and continued asking anyone with information to come forward. Brevard County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to requests for comment during the initial investigation.

Giovanni’s body was eventually returned to North Carolina. His family held services, though details remained private. Bridgette continued advocating for answers about what happened to her son during those crucial hours when he needed help and she couldn’t respond.

For her, the final medical examiner’s determination brought no peace. Only more questions about a night that stole her 18-year-old son and left a family shattered across two states.