ENGLEWOOD, Fla. — Manatee County Sheriff's Office (MCSO) said detectives have preliminarily determined the body discovered in a pond along Interstate I-75 is missing 18-year-old, Giovanni Pelletier.
MCSO said an autopsy is scheduled for Sunday and the cause of death is unknown.
Watch report from Annette Gutierrez
Identification is pending, but evidence collected at the scene has led investigators to determine the body is Pelletier's.
A nonprofit issued an alert for a Critical Missing Person case after an 18-year-old traveling to Englewood disappeared.
We Are The Essentials said Giovanni Pelletier was last spotted on Aug. 1. He went missing while traveling with his family to Mims, Florida.
During an argument, Pelletier reportedly exited a vehicle near SR-70 in Manatee County. His phone and backpack were found about a half mile away near Bradenton along I-75.
The investigation remains ongoing.
"He just never showed up"
What started as a project to make a bathroom more accessible for 80-year-old Sharon Shomaker turned into a family paying for a job without seeing any work and discovering the plumber they hired had no business taking the job.
