A breakthrough might be coming in the Giovanni Pelletier case. The North Carolina teen vanished when vacationing with his family on August 1.
Now, the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office said on Friday that a body had been found not far from where the missing teen’s backpack was located.
Here is all you need to know about the new discovery.
Giovanni Pelletier missing case update
The body was found in a retention pond at the southbound off-ramp of Interstate 75 and SR 70, ABC News reported.
Manatee County is near Bradenton, Florida, along Interstate 75.
Pelletier was with his family in Englewood, before his disappearance.
Notably, cops have not confirmed if the body is of the missing teen’s. Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells said that the body appears to belong to a man, but noted that the person’s identity has not been confirmed.
Frank Brostrom, a retired FBI special agent, shared expert insights into missing persons case investigations with ABC11. “Normally in these kinds of investigations, you have somebody disappears, you have no leads, you don’t know who was with them last, you don’t know where they were last, and you’re kind of starting from scratch,” he said.
Investigators have already spoken with the cousins Giovanni was with, so whatever is unearthed later will be compared to their narrative accounts by the authorities, he explained.
“They’re going to do phone work on everybody involved, talk to any witnesses, and they’ve got some great leads,” the agent further said.
Gio’s father also spoke with ABC11, explaining how they had initial reservations about Giovanni going out with cousins he’d never met, but their son seemed excited.
The retired FBI agent, however, pointed out that part of the cousins’ story didn’t add up. They said Gio was showing erratic behavior and had pulled a knife on them. Brostrom said this was hard to reconcile with the fact that it was Gio who had texted for help.
