Autopsy Released for Missing Teen Found in Florida Pond

We have been following 18-year-old. Giovanni Pelletier's disappearance for. months. The North Carolina teen who. vanished in Florida after sending his. mom a chilling text that read, "Mom, help." And in the hours after he was. picked up by relatives, reports emerged. of frantic, erratic behavior, and later, video captured him running along the. road that night, nearly getting hit by. traffic. And now, the autopsy report has. finally revealed how he died. We are. going to break it all down with a. homicide investigator. Welcome to. Sidebar, presented by Law & Crime. I'm.

Jesse Weber. Now, before we get into this more, if. you're into a content creation online, you may be wondering how we here at Law. & Crime Sidebar we share so many clips. from all of these stories so quickly. I'll give you a secret. It's called Opus. Clip. This is an all-in-one AI editor. that makes it so easy to cut, create, and upload videos across any platform. Through AI, Opus Clip generates b-roll, it reframes footage, and even cleans up. audio. It is so easy. You just visit. opus.pro/sidebar. You sign up, you upload, and in minutes,

you'll have perfectly edited clips ready. to go. So, for TikTok, Shorts, or Reels, Opus Clip is your one-stop shop. And. having a tool like Opus Clip means our. producers can get you viral courtroom. updates instantly. This is the most. powerful tool there is to help you share. ideas and edit like a pro. So, go to. opus.pro/sidebar. to create your videos today. And by the. way, for November only, you can get 65%. off of an annual plan. We have been. following this strange and heartbreaking. case of 18-year-old Giovanni Pelletier.

for months now. The North Carolina teen. who vanished in Florida after being. picked up by relatives, and whose last. text to his mom simply said, "Mom, help." His body was found a week later. in a retention pond, too decomposed for. immediate identification. And that. clearly left so many questions. unanswered. But now, we are back with a. new update, and it is an important. update. The autopsy report has finally. determined how Giovanni died. And while. some details remain murky, the findings.

reveal a tragic mix of accident and rare. health complications, and apparently no. evidence of foul play. I want to start. from the beginning. Giovanni Pelletier, 18-year-old from Raleigh, North. Carolina, the oldest of five kids. In. late July, he traveled to Florida with. his mom, Bridget, her fiance, and his. siblings. The reason? You see, Giovanni. wanted to reconnect with his dad's side. of the family. This is according to his. mother. She told the media that he'd. been born in Florida, lived there until. about age four, but grown up mostly in.

North Carolina with his mom. And she. said he was excited to get to know his. paternal relatives, you know, learn. about his roots, spend time with family. that he hadn't really seen for years. You fast forward to the early hours of. Friday, August 1st. And according to the. Manatee County Sheriff's Office, at. around 1:30 a.m., Giovanni was picked up. in Englewood, Florida by a cousin and. two of the cousin's friends. So, the. plan was to drive him about 3 hours to. his grandfather's home in Brevard. County. On paper, seems straightforward, right? Problem is, within just about. half hour, things started to go.

sideways. Giovanni apparently sent texts. to his mom, two in total, and even tried. calling her. The problem was she was. asleep. And one of those texts was. simple, but alarming. Quote, "Mom, help." Now, his mom, who was busy. studying for a pharmacy board exam, told. reporters that she didn't see the. messages until later that morning, at. around 6:20 a.m., along with a voicemail. from Giovanni's grandfather. The message. from the grandfather suggested that. there had been some sort of altercation. during the ride, and that Giovanni had.

been left on the side of the road in. Manatee County. Well, almost immediately. after he went missing, the family. launched a GoFundMe to aid in the search. efforts. The post, it captured the. desperation, the heartbreak that they. were feeling. Written by Giovanni's. aunt, it reads, "Our family is living a. nightmare. My 18-year-old nephew, Giovanni Pelletier, has gone missing. under deeply troubling and suspicious. circumstances. The last time anyone. heard from him, he sent a text to his. mom that simply said, 'Mom, help.'" So,

his mother immediately tried to contact. Giovanni, but by the time she reached. out, his phone and backpack had already. been abandoned on the roadside. According to what she was told by the. cousin who picked him up, the group had. apparently smoked marijuana together. after leaving Englewood, and Giovanni. reportedly began to act erratically, cursing, panicking, even allegedly. pulling out a knife at one point. Now, the cousin said that they wrestled the. knife away from him, and Giovanni ran. from the vehicle. Now, law enforcement. reports, however, tell the story. slightly differently. According to the.

Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, Giovanni had exited the car on his own. and started running along the. interstate. And in a groundbreaking. development that we previously covered, Sheriff Rick Wells said that deputies. were able to pinpoint Giovanni's. location on traffic cameras. And though. the footage is grainy, they say it shows. him moving along the road, and at one. point, almost getting hit by a truck. Point him out right here. He's coming. He's coming He's southbound walking back. westbound.

And there's a concrete barrier right. here. And down here is where the pond is. So, then we continue to check cameras, and we get lucky. at a Lowe's, which is located on the west side of. State Road 70. We have a camera that's. pointing. at the embankment. Now, that he that he. comes down at 2:19 a.m. Play that, Ben.

And I want you to stay focused right. here. Now, that's a steep embankment. He's coming down there almost un.

uncontrollable. sprint. If you ever go down a hill, you. know what I'm talking about. But the. pond is right here at the edge of that. embankment. I mean, the important thing that I want. you to see, there's no one chasing him, there's no one no one around him. In. fact, when he's coming down that. embankment, the vehicle. is. 2 miles away.

So, there's no one in this area with. Giovanni. There's no one that's chasing. him. He's by himself. Now, what we don't know. is what happened when he hit that pond. I don't know. I'm not going to speculate. The death is undetermined. So, we know that. we don't have anyone that that comes. down that embankment after him. They. don't.

They don't look for him. He He's there, we believe until he was located by the. family friend. on on Friday, the the 8th. And we really. don't know what happened once he got to. the pond. And once again, I think anything that I. say would be pure speculation. We're. still waiting for the ME to determine a. cause of death, and we're also still. waiting for the toxicology. So, we don't.

have all the answers. We know this is. the last sighting of him. that that night. So, while the cousin. described this altercation inside the. car, official investigators focused on. the moments after he left that vehicle. But I will tell you that even if these. accounts do differ, police did say. Giovanni's relatives were totally. cooperative throughout the. investigation. Now, meanwhile, his. family, law enforcement, they. coordinated searches across multiple. counties. I'm talking deputies, K9. units, drones, helicopters. They scoured.

the area. Family members, they launched. search parties of their own. And despite. these efforts, it took a week before a. family friend found Giovanni's body in a. retention pond near I-75 and State Road. 70. His condition was in such bad shape. that they had to rely on dental records. But authorities were eventually able to. confirm that it was, in fact, Giovanni. And now, after months of uncertainty, there is finally a new development in. Giovanni's case. The medical examiner.

has determined a cause of death and a. manner of death. But what does it really. mean? How do experts interpret all the. details from the autopsy, the toxicology. report, the other evidence? That's what. we want to talk about. Okay, so to help. us break it down and what the new. developments are, I want to bring on. somebody who can walk us through exactly. what all of this means from an. investigative standpoint. I'm joined. once again by homicide investigator. Chris McDonough. Chris, thank you so. much for taking the time. It's good to. see you. From your perspective, how.

unusual is it for a missing person case. to involve this many jurisdictions, this amount of overlapping. investigations? What are the advantages. of that? What are the complications of. that? You know, this is a really interesting. case, Jesse. I mean, the fact that you. do have so many agencies involved, you. have to now. nail down who's going to be the point. And typically, wherever the body is. found, then the coroner's office or the.

medical examiner's office will become. point of contact for that. And then, secondarily, wherever the victim. originated, meaning if it's a, you know, another jurisdiction, then they become. the investigative agency. And if there. are things like, you know, different. jurisdictions, then each person mean, each agency then plays a part, but. they're not necessarily the point or the. tip of the spear. And when I talk about. challenges, I I to mention that when you. hear that Giovanni's remains were found.

after a week in a retention pond, how. does that complicate finding out what. happened? How does that complicate the. investigation from a forensic. standpoint? Well, you know, of course the. decomposition process depends on the. heat, the moisture, and a variety of. other factors that would play into it. The fact that there may be water in play. here, if the body had, let's say, gone. into that water, then the immediately. after death the body will sink. And. typically anywhere from 7 to 10 days.

that body will then resurface as it. expands, unfortunately, because of gases. and variety of other situations taking. place. So, in this case, uh you know, if the body was in the. water and had been under there for, let's say, 7 days hypothetically, then. of course you're going to have animal. activity potentially, you know, feeding. off of the body, unfortunately. And then. eventually as the body resurfaces, you. may have secondary problems with. animals, and that always complicates the.

forensic side of this thing, because you. could lose immediately any kind of. forensic evidence right off the bat once. the body hits the water. Uh and then you. add the animal activity, you add the. heat, you add the sun, uh it it becomes pretty rapid. A body. can decompose very quickly, uh probably. within 7 to 10 days uh in these types of. circumstances. There's an aspect to. this, and it's understandable. Look, in. every case, and there's a lot of. questions here, but in a lot in a lot of.

cases the family wants to know. immediately what happened here, rightfully so. Do family members, if. they're conducting parallel. investigations, um does that help law. enforcement? Do they work together? Um. is it a challenge in coordinating. information and resources? Um cuz I. look, I've seen before family members, the public, friends, they can sometimes. find things out that law enforcement. can. Yeah, absolutely, and that's the key, right, Josh? I mean, where they have to. be communicating with law enforcement so.

that there aren't parallel crossovers, uh because that then complicates an. investigation because of the. investigators, if they find some, let's. say, incriminating evidence, and the. family's just pushing and pushing and. pushing, you know, sometimes there's a. strategy that you want to utilize, you. know, without tipping off that you have. that information. So, as long as that. information is being shared. collectively, and the agencies that are. the point of the spear should have a. liaison with that family, so those lines.

don't get crossed and that communication. doesn't get, uh you know, get screwed. up. Okay, I want to talk about this new. update. So, months after Giovanni's body. was found in that retention pond, authorities finally have a medical. determination about how this teenager. died. The autopsy report that was. obtained by People confirms that the. cause of death was drowning, and the. manner of death was listed as. accidental. Quote, "Although some. autopsy findings may be obscured due to.

the advanced decomposition, there was no. evidence of significant antemortem. trauma." So, in other words, there were. no gunshot wounds, there was no stab. wounds, there were no other signs of a. violent attack. The examiner added that. video evidence supported that. conclusion. Quote, "No other person. caused his death." And the toxicology. results revealed a quote small amount of. ethanol in Giovanni's liver tissue, but. the examiner clarified that this was. consistent with decomposition. And the.

report also highlighted a serious. underlying medical condition, by the. way, that Giovanni had quote an. extremely rare congenital coronary. artery abnormality that is. disproportionately associated with heart. failure or sudden cardiac death, particularly during physical exertion. Now, while the medical examiner noted. that this condition contributed to the. death, quote "It cannot be completely. excluded." Drowning was determined to be. the primary cause. And also, I will say. that the wildlife, which we talked about. wildlife, also affected this scene as. well. The examiner wrote that when.

Giovanni's body was found, an alligator. was reportedly scavenging his remains. There were claw marks and other markings. that were found that were consistent. with alligator scavenging. It's a really. horrible thing to be thinking about. here, Chris, but your reaction to that, to this cause and manner of death. Yeah, I mean, this is a sad situation. where, you know, whenever you have uh a. young, vibrant life. who is just on the cusp of taking off, uh you know, and conquering the world.

for lack of a better term, and now all. of a sudden he's found in a retention. pond, you know, in off the freeway in. Florida, uh there's always going to be. those questions that a family is going. to ask in relationship to, you know, why. and how, right? And so, the whys become. really important here. And any kind of. evidence that the investigation uh would. reveal that showed that why, and when. you do get the autopsy report like.

you're talking about, and you could you. do a comparative analysis against the. why that you already know about, uh. sometimes that helps, but sometimes it. doesn't for families. Uh it's a very difficult, you know, transition. uh in acceptance that the reality. potentially could be what it is. Just to. be clear, though, should we feel. confident in this conclusion? In other. words, if there were signs that he was. attacked, beat up, stabbed, shot, something like.

that, it would be apparent, right? I. mean, I the question becomes how. confident can we be that there were no. signs of external trauma, that this was. a drowning, and that this was an. accident? Look, they I I don't. they talk about this there's other. aspects of this case, other evidence. that would help to make that. determination, but do you feel fairly. confident in that that is what has. happened? It's a tragedy, but at the end. of the day, if we're not looking at this. as a homicide investigation anymore, how.

confident are you in this finding? Well, you you don't want to, you know, um prescribe before you diagnose, right? A lot of sometimes, you know, you've. tried to fit circumstances to what you. think you're looking at. So, in this. situation, the fact that there's, you. know, alligator activity, okay, well, how will that complicate if there was. trauma to the body? Okay? And then you. add the dynamic of the body being under.

the water as long as it was. Uh and so, there you want to really press the last. individuals or the last uh pattern of. life of this young man. Um and you. really want those individuals that I. know there are three individuals in this. particular case, uh you want to go back and potentially, you know, have them walk you through a. recreation. You know, what did you see? How did you see it? How was he acting? What were you doing? Those kind of. things. And, you know, the fact that a. knife was brought up into the scenario,

uh you know, you really want to narrow. that down in this investigation. Uh and then you take those facts back to. the medical examiner's office and say, "Look, you know, we've dig we've dug a. little bit more here. Does this change. any of the findings that you've. discovered uh during the autopsy. process?" But in terms of anybody else's. responsibility, that's closed, right? That's closed at this point. Uh you know, it's never closed, right? A. death investigation's net they never.

close. I mean, officially they close, but if something else resurfaces that. shows, you know, that there was a. specific intent to hurt this kid, uh. then that case could be reopened. tomorrow. Um you know, there's other. factors here, the fact that he was. potentially smoking uh some type of. narcotics, but there's no indication, uh maybe, uh that uh it's in his system. Well, you. know, that can be explained also, the. fact that the body was under the water. again. It doesn't mean, you know, there.

wasn't something in that particular uh. product. So, you want to narrow that. down and really. uh find out what exactly he was doing. And and and it really just when I was. reading it, it paints a picture of how. terrifying his last moments. uh probably were, and you couple it with. this idea that they found this this. heart issue that may have contributed to. potentially an inability to prevent. drowning, an inability to fight the.

water. Um. And what might have happened, um. the fact that they've noted that, I. thought was pretty significant. Yeah, absolutely. In fact, I had a case. actually in 1991, believe it or not, where a kid was picked up and taken out. fishing, and only one of the two. fishermen came back, and he had a. medical issue uh as well, and and when. he surfaced uh after about 10 days uh in. a harbor,

uh where, you know, my old agency, uh. the autopsy came back inconclusive to. cause of death. But the more we we. investigated, the more we pressed, we. discovered that he was actually hit with. a fish hook uh out in the water during. an altercation with the suspect. And so, those are the kind of things where on. the surface it looks like everything is. cut and dry, but the the more you dig, you know, potentially there could be. some. uh you know, suspicious and/or dangerous.

activity taking place. So, I I'm really. bothered by the fact that there was a. knife that was presented in this. situation, and that there were narcotics. potentially involved, and that he was. just dropped off in the middle of the. freeway. Those are three indicators of. really suspicious activity. Mhm. I want. your opinion about uh something else. So, uh Giovanni's mom, Bridget, provided. a heartbreaking update on her Facebook. page saying that she couldn't process. this latest news in her own way because.

she was bombarded with information and. questions. She wrote, "Yesterday the. toxicology report came back. Before I. could collect myself enough to leave. work, strangers had already posted my. son's report online making decision to. share the most graphic and intimate. details before I even opened the email. It stole the chance for me to tell my. kids myself and the last moments of my. life before my brain chemistry changed. forever by what I was about to read. Instead, I found out through. screenshots, voicemails, and texts.

followed by reporters asking me about. details I hadn't even seen yet. Even. though that violation and cruelty, I'm. reminded why we fight to keep Giovanni's. story alive because through that fight. came blessings and reminders of the. power of Giovanni's impact on this. world. From the generous donations that. covered his autopsy, cremation, and a. beautiful celebration of life to the. community that came to walk beside me to. search for him, the strangers who became. family, broken relationships being. healed, and a powerful outpouring of.

love that helped hold us up. I've stayed. quiet about the death threats, the. harassment, the lies, and the endless. reminders of how much I failed as a. mother. Grief is already heavy enough. Watching people forget there are real. humans on the other side of the screen. has been devastating. There are no words. for what it feels like to grieve a child. while the world watches or how violated. I feel from those actions. Thankfully, there are words for the gratitude I feel. for every message, call, and post from. those who continue to lift us up during. the darkest chapter of our lives. When I.

find the strength to carry this pain, I'll be back. So, just let me say here, our thoughts, our prayers are with. Giovanni's family during this incredibly. difficult time. We hope that these. latest answers are going to provide some. clarity, some comfort as now they're. grieving a young man who is gone too. soon. Chris, the pain never goes away, right? But they now have answers to some. degree, but you also hear how the. real-life impact this has on someone's. family and how they have to navigate.

this and it is unfair. It is unfortunate. that all this information comes out and. not even time to process it. Um not even. a time to respond and that they didn't. they weren't first informed of this. Is. that something you see where. law enforcement doesn't contact the. family first and say, "Listen, before we. release anything, we're going to contact. you first so you're aware." Is that. strange to you? Uh the fact that the public had it. before the family is never a good thing.

Yeah. Uh I mean, and when we hear what. mom is saying here, the you know, she's. talking about her her whole senses and. her whole life being rewired and the. chemicals change within side of her. body. Unfortunately, uh I can speak with authenticity. I. understand where that mother's coming. from. Uh my wife and I lost a child in. 2003. He was 20 years old in an. accident. So, I know exactly the depth.

of pain that she's describing there and. projecting to the world. And to your. point, Jesse, it is a responsibility. uh of not only law enforcement, but all. the authorities involved in this to make. sure that that family is taken care of. first. Everything else will fall into. place, you know, after that. And so, if. they hadn't done that, then yeah, she. she has every right in the world to. question, "Why in the world does the. world know about this and we don't?".

And, you know, sometimes, you know, through the healing process, you know, we're you know, not to interject myself. into this such conversation, but I've. been where this family is. My wife and I. have been there. And I thought I. understood what that pain felt like, you. know, working homicide, you know, as. long as I have, and I didn't. I I. thought I did, but I did not. And until. it happened to our family. And so, I. have a lot of empathy for families.

going, you know, it changed my life to. help see through the lens that perhaps. they're seeing through. Uh and I think. it is it helped me. to be more empathetic to families that. potentially don't have the right answers. or maybe the answers are there and then. guide them through why we came to that. conclusion as an investigation. Well, first of all, Chris, I I I didn't know. about that. I am so sorry. >> I don't talk about it very often and I.

apologize for dropping it on you, but. No, first of all, I'm so sorry. Um but. second of all, appreciate you sharing that. And and I. And if Giovanni's family's listening, I. I have to imagine they're going to. appreciate you sharing that as well. Um. So, that is a very important message. Um. I will also say when you hear that, when. you hear what his mother had to say, the. idea of this harassment, these threats, just all of this coming out, it is so. sad and disturbing to say the least. So,

let me just wrap this up by saying this. is a tragic situation. We may never have. all the answers as to what exactly. happened, but at least there is some. part of this story that they can close. the book on. And we're wishing them the. best. Chris McDonough, I'm wishing you. and your family the best. Um and thank. you for taking the time to talk about. this. Really appreciate it. Thank you so much, Jesse. And that's all. we have for you right now here on. Sidebar. Everybody, thank you so much. for joining us and as always, please. subscribe on YouTube, Apple Podcast, Spotify, wherever you should get your.

podcasts. You can follow me on X or. Instagram. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak. to you next time. [Music].