It was his family who first publicly confirmed the death of 18-year-old Giovanni Pelletier. It was one of his mother’s friends who made the gruesome discovery of his body in a Bradenton, Florida, retention pond a week after the Mims native was reported missing on Aug. 1.
Now family members from Brevard and from North Carolina, where the teen lived, are calling for the FBI to step in and investigate the questions surrounding the young man’s death and what they call a lack of urgency by law enforcement.
Giovanni Pelletier went missing after he left Bradenton — with cousins he did not know before the family arrived in Florida — to travel to Mims and meet relatives. For eight days, his family and volunteers searched roadsides in both Manatee and Brevard counties, before his body was located Aug. 8.
Nearly 48 hours after it was posted, an online petition at Change.org requesting that federal investigators review a case that crosses several Florida jurisdictions had garnered more than 9,000 signatures.
“This case spans multiple counties, involves suspected gang affiliations, and may include interstate elements — all reasons why the FBI should be involved. Without proper investigation, key evidence may be lost forever, and those responsible may never be held accountable,” the petition states.
The family also plans to have an independent autopsy conducted and has hired a private investigator to trace the last hours of a young man described as “kind-hearted” by those who knew him.
The hope is that the FBI could review the case, search through traffic videos to spot the car he was in and obtain phone records, said the teen’s aunt, Joan Pelletier.
“We can’t stop,” said Pelletier, a Cocoa resident, of the push to widen the investigation into her nephew’s death.
“We want justice for Giovanni.”
Manatee County sheriff’s investigators have not commented on the case. An autopsy was expected to offer a preliminary glimpse of how the teen may have died but no official word has been released as of Wednesday, Aug. 13. Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells told the New York Post on Aug. 11 that “no foul play or trauma was found during the autopsy” and that “the cause and manner of death are pending toxicology.” The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office did not respond to several calls from FLORIDA TODAY.
A grieving family searches for answers
Giovanni Pelletier was born in Brevard and lived in Mims until he was about 4 years old, his aunt said, adding that his mother, Bridgette Pelletier, moved to North Carolina to escape abuse she had faced in an unspecified relationship. The teen’s father, Antwyon Williams, is in state prison until 2053.
The case of Giovanni’s death — which involves three Florida jurisdictions and has garnered media attention from as far away as the Netherlands — centers on an arranged trip that the teen was going to make to Mims to meet his father’s relatives.
“Giovanni felt like he was missing something, He was lacking the connections with the African-American side of his family,” said Joan Pelletier, whose family has Sicilian and French roots.
His mother, who gave birth to Giovanni at 15, had kept him away from East Mims — a mostly rural community where the quiet is occasionally shattered by gun violence — for much of his life, his aunt said.
“She basically grew up with him. She kept that baby away from that place; she did not like it,” Pelletier said.
The opportunity came to visit Mims after Giovanni’s mother brought her children to Englewood, Florida, for a visit. Earlier in the year, Giovanni — who graduated from Fuquay-Varina High School in Durham, North Carolina — visited his maternal grandmother in Mississippi and was baptized, family members said.
The trip to Florida was a chance to get to know his father’s people: “He had been planning to see them for years,” his aunt said.
Giovanni was picked up about 1:30 a.m. on Aug. 1 by two of his paternal cousins from Mims along with a friend of theirs, Charlotte County sheriff’s investigators said.
By 1:51 a.m., the teen began reaching out to several relatives. He sent a text to his mother that read, “Mom Help.” Other texts were sent to his grandfather and another aunt. All were asleep. Giovanni also tried to call and FaceTime those he reached out to, but there were no answers.
Bridgette attempted to call her son back in the morning on Aug. 1, but received no answers. The mother then tracked her son’s location to State Road 70, where his book bag and cell phone were located along the roadside and on-ramps.
The mother also reported a 2:37 a.m. phone call from Giovanni’s paternal grandfather in Mims, who said in a voicemail that there was some type of “altercation” and that Giovanni’s cousins left him along the road, family members said.
Those same cousins arrived in Mims that morning and later told Charlotte County sheriff’s investigators that the teen had been acting erratically during the car ride and that he got out of the vehicle.
“Our detectives have collaborated with multiple agencies, including law enforcement and civilian non-profits, to search areas where Giovanni could be. These locations came from investigative efforts and other leads provided by countless individuals,” Charlotte County Sheriff’s agents said in a news release on Aug. 9, a day after the body was pulled from the pond in Manatee County.
There were no statements on the body being discovered, despite the case getting widespread attention. The department in the release instead said it partnered with several other agencies, using live-scent and cadaver dogs, drones and aviation units in its search.
Even before the tragic discovery, relatives of the teen formed search parties and scoured the woods in East Mims, not far from where Giovanni’s cousins lived.
Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey later said that there was no indication that Giovanni ever made it to Mims.
“There has absolutely no evidence or indication that Giovanni Pelletier ever came to Brevard County!! In fact, just the opposite, as all current evidence in the case demonstrates Giovanni never left the west coast of Florida,” Ivey said in a social media post hours before Giovanni’s body was found.
Family, friends and other volunteers also continued to search in Manatee County with what they said was “little assistance” from law enforcement.
Then, on Aug. 8, searchers gathered along I-75 near State Road 70 — not far from several hotels and restaurants — to continue their ongoing search beneath the hot Florida sun. It was then that a family friend from North Carolina spotted a badly decomposed body floating partially in the water of a nearby pond, some 126 feet from where the teen’s backpack and cellphone were located, said Pelletier.
The grim task of identifying the remains of her nephew, who had known how to swim since he was 2 years old, was made by looking at one of his feet, she said.
“It would have been good if we had one cop out there. They did not find him. Not one,” she said, adding that the family is stricken with grief and frustration.
Funeral arrangements have not yet been made, Pelletier said. The family has also raised $30,000 through a GoFundMe account. The money will be used to cover funeral costs, his aunt said.
“He was a great nephew,” she said.
“We must get justice for Giovanni.”
J.D. Gallop is a criminal justice/breaking news reporter at FLORIDA TODAY. Contact Gallop at 321-917-4641 or jgallop@floridatoday.com. X, or Twitter: @JDGallop.
This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Family of Mims native Giovanni Pelletier calls for FBI investigation into teen’s death
Reporting by J.D. Gallop, Florida Today / Florida Today
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