Crime Weekly - S3 Ep329: From Family Reunion to Fatal Mystery | The Death of Giovanni Pelletier

Episode Date: August 13, 2025

On August 8, a body believed to be 18-year-old Giovanni Pelletier was found in a Florida retention pond near where he had recently gone missing. Giovanni disappeared after sending his mother a text reading “Mom, help” during a visit with relatives. The remains showed no signs of foul play, though official identification and cause of death aren't yet known. Giovanni’s family is now demanding an investigation into the circumstances surrounding his death. We're coming to CrimeCon Denver! Use our code CRIMEWEEKLY for 10% off your tickets! https://www.crimecon.com/CC25 Try our coffee!! - www.CriminalCoffeeCo.com Become a Patreon member -- > https://www.patreon.com/CrimeWeekly Shop for your Crime Weekly gear here --> https://crimeweeklypodcast.com/shop Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/c/CrimeWeeklyPodcast Website: CrimeWeeklyPodcast.com Instagram: @CrimeWeeklyPod Twitter: @CrimeWeeklyPod Facebook: @CrimeWeeklyPod ADS: 1. https://www.OneSkin.co - Use code CWN for 15% off!

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Please play responsibly. If you have questions or concerns about your gambling or someone close to you, please contact Connix Ontario at 1866-531-2600 to speak to an advisor free of charge. But MGM operates pursuant to an operating agreement with Eye Gaming Ontario. Hey everyone. Welcome back to Crime Weekly News. I'm Derek Lavasar. And I'm Stephanie Harlow. And we're going to jump right into it today on CWN. We dive into the heartbreaking case of Giovanni Peltier, an 18-year-old boy who was tragically found dead in a retention pond in Florida just days after a disturbing series of events.

Giovanni, who had traveled to Florida to connect with relatives from his father's side, would never make it back home. What started as an innocent visit with family quickly spiraled into confusion and tragedy. Giovanni's last moments are shrouded in mystery with conflicting stories from those who were with him. What really happened to Giovanni on that faithful night and what role did his cousins play? Join us as we uncover the details of this devastating case and seek answers for a grieving mother who fears her son's death may have been

far from accidental. Yeah. So this is a crazy case. I've been following it on TikTok and you said you really didn't know a ton about it. Not a ton. Not a ton. I just read that little intro that you know, you had written up for me. So I'm going to be learning about it with everyone else. Yeah. So it's, it's crazy. And when I was following it, he was still missing. And just the, the series of events did not make any sense. And now that his body's been found, honestly, it makes even less sense. So let me go through the timeline with you. Yep. At the end of July 2025, Giovanni traveled with his mother, Brigitte Pelletier, her fiancee, Jeremy Brown, and his four younger siblings from North Carolina, where they live, to Inglewood, Florida. They were going to Florida because they were planning

to visit a relative who was undergoing chemotherapy. And while they were in Florida, Giovanni also expressed an interest in meeting relatives from his biological father's side of the family. Now, his biological father is incarcerated. Giovanni had never had any contact or met any of the people from his father's side of the family in Florida. He'd been born in Florida and he lived there until he was four. And his mother said that Giovanni was craving the culture and the background from his dad's side of the family. She couldn't give that to him. She wanted him to have those opportunities with his dad's side.

And a few days before they left for Florida, Giovanni was included. in a group chat with some of those relatives, and he arranged for three of his cousins on the paternal side to pick him up on August 1st from Englewood in Florida and then bring him to where they lived, which was about a 30-minute drive away from Englewood. So on August 1st at around 1.30 a.m., these three cousins, they picked a Giovanni up at 1.30 in the morning. Now, at that time, his mother, Brigitte, who was studying for an upcoming pharmacy board exam, she was asleep, but allegedly, reportedly, her fiancé, Jeremy saw Giovanni leave. Then, while Giovanni's mother is still asleep, at 151 a.m., just about 20 minutes after he left,

Giovanni sent his mother a text, and that text said, Mom, help. God, that's horrible. Yep, she was asleep. She didn't get it. Then between 151 and 157 a.m., Giovanni tried to reach his mother on FaceTime. He also messaged his sister and his grandfather on his mother's side, asking for, for help, everyone was asleep. Around 250 in the morning, one of the cousins that Giovanni was with attempted to call Giovanni's mother. She was asleep. She missed the call. At 6.20 a.m., Brigitte wakes up. She sees the miss messages. She sees the calls. She tries to call Giovanni. She can't

get a hold of him. Now, reportedly, Giovanni's paternal grandfather had left her a voicemail saying that there was some kind of altercation. And the cousins left Giovanni on the side of the road in Bradenton, which is in Manatee County. Eventually, The mother, Brigitte, used Giovanni's GPS location, and it brought her to a place on the side of the road where there's some reports say that she found his backpack and his cell phone. Other reports say a trucker driving by found his backpack and cell phone and turned into law enforcement. But either way, Giovanni's backpack and cell phone were on the side of the road. And Brigitte said, listen, Giovanni never goes anywhere without his phone. It was like an extension of him, she said.

Now, especially the younger generation, they're all like that. I mean, I'm kind of like that too. She said, quote, my son eats, sleeps, showers, breathes his phone, end quote. And I totally get that. I bring my phone in the shower with me, right? We have to constantly be stimulated, and especially that generation, they're always in touch with their friends through the cell phone. Now, also, a cousin had talked to Giovanni's mother, and he said they had smoked weed, that Giovanni and these cousins had smoked weed, and that Giovanni in the car freaked out, was yelling and swearing at him while he drove the car. Giovanni pulled a knife on them, and then they had to wrestle the knife away from him, at which point he ran away. On August 2nd, the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office released a statement saying that Giovanni was reported to have been acting erratically. He was in a car with his cousins traveling north on Interstate 75, and he exited the car near SR70 in Manatee County and walked away.

They do not mention that his belongings were found on the side of the road, and reportedly there were conflicting stories, and one of the cousins gave the police a false name. is not mentioned either, him pulling a knife on the cousins, basically the story that the cousin told Giovanni's mother. That's not really reported. Now, family and volunteers began to search for Giovanni, but not the three cousins. Brigitte believes that these cousins know more than they're saying. She said, quote, none of these kids that were with him have tried to call me and ask me if I found him. Ask me if he was okay. Asked me anything. End quote. And sadly, this past Friday, Giovanni was found dead in a retention pond near the southbound off ramp of I-75 and State Road

So right around the location where his belongings were found, a family member, they had hired like a P.I. firm and there were searches out. And either a family member or one of the members of the P.I. group had been searching and they saw a body partially submerged at the end of the pond or at the edge of the pond. And law enforcement has said that they believe that the body had been in the pond for several days before floating to the surface because it was about a week between when he went missing and when he was found. And then Giovanni's mother, Brigitte, posted on Facebook, quote, My son was recently found after a desperate search by our family alone, and we are still facing an active investigation into his death. I am living every parent's worst nightmare trying to find the strength to give him the goodbye he deserves. End quote. Also reportedly the white Chevy Malibu that the cousins were driving in with Giovanni that night. It's reportedly been seized by the Brevard County Sheriff's Office.

Additionally, and this is interesting, we're going to talk about it. according to the Manatee County Sheriff's Office, the medical examiner has not made an official identification on Giovanni's body, although Giovanni's mother has publicly said that, you know, this is her son. And they also said, which I find very interesting, no foul play or trauma was found during the autopsy. Reportedly, additionally, law enforcement has interviewed Giovanni's father, who I said, remember, he's incarcerated. And the father said he wasn't even comfortable with Giovanni hanging out with these specific family members who remember Giovanni had never met. So this is a crazy case. There's a lot here. We have a lot to talk about. But first,

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they're going to ask you where you heard about them. Please support us by telling them that we sent you. Okay, we're back. So let's go through this and let me get your opinion on this. Giovanni is coming from North Carolina to Florida. He wants to connect with family members on his father's side who he's never met. Innocent enough, right? Yeah. Now they pick him up at 1.30 in the morning.

That's kind of weird. Yeah, that's interesting. Not something I would normally do, but people are different. So although questionable, I'm not. saying, oh, huge red flag at this point. All right. So he leaves around 1.30 in the morning. By 151, he's texting his mother, help.

So just about 21 minutes that they're driving away from Inglewood and towards the area where the cousins live, which is about 30 minutes away. He's saying help. Now, this is odd. He's not only texting his mom for help. He's trying to FaceTime her. He's texting his sister. He's texting his mother's father, his grandfather, help because he can't get a hold of his mother.

What do you make of this? I'm not going off exactly 1.30 because. that's the approximate time. The 151 and 157 for the face times and the text message are more accurate because it's obviously time stamped. So let's even say he was picked up at 120, 125. You're talking about 27 to 35 minutes somewhere in that range. And before I just give my initial gut reaction, you're someone who I think most people know dabbles in marijuana once in a while, right? And, you know, marijuana is a weird thing because although I was never a big weed smoker, I dealt with it a lot as a narcotics detective, but when you're just smoking regular weed, most of the time nothing happens. I had a bad experience many years ago with a cookie where I basically, like, greened out.

Yeah, because I eat one part of the cookie and it just destroyed me. But, and again, it's anecdotal, but like even if they started smoking as soon as they got in the car, which is reasonable to me, that is something you would do. you get in the car. Hey, let's light up. We're going to be driving for a half hour. If Giovanni wasn't someone who smoked frequently, is there any possibility that he could have had a bad reaction to this? Of course, there's always a possibility. I don't want to say there's not. I would say you're more likely to have a bad reaction to edibles. That's where you usually see people having, yeah. I can attest to that one. Because you can accidentally and easily. Never had a bad experience with smoking, but definitely that one time with the edible, not good. You can accidentally and easily

take more than you intended to because most people who are using edibles like your cookie are homemade, the dosing is not evenly dispersed. Who knows where it is in the cookie? You know, it's an adventure every time because you don't know what's going to happen. Rulet with your health.

With your edibles, it's Russian roulette if they're not, you know, gotten from like a legitimate dispensary. Even sometimes with a legitimate dispensary, you never know. It's all about how you're going to metabolize it with just smoking weed less likely unless he had never smoked before, never smoked weed before, and he developed some sort of psychosis from smoking weed,

now could there have been something else in the weed? Yeah. Right. Yeah, I've seen that a bunch. That's really more likely. Yeah. So that's my initial reaction to where it's like, one, what was in the weed? I'd want to know from the cousins, was it laced with anything else?

Maybe there's someone who smokes a lot and they try to enhance that a little bit by throwing something else in there. I also want to know Giovanni's background. Was he someone who smoked weed on the regular? Was this one of his first times? We also need to learn about his mental history, right? We need to go back and look at his medical records and talk to family members and friends. I mean, he's only 18 years old.

He just graduated from high school, according to his mother, no issues. So that according to his mom, great. That's a start. I'd want to, as the detective, go back and make sure that he hasn't had any issues with mental health in the past that could have potentially been triggered by the smoking of this marijuana, especially if it was laced with something else. So that's the first couple steps you have to do is look into the possibility that he did have a negative reaction

to whatever he was smoking. Because if he started smoking when he got into the car and then he had a bad reaction, which triggered some type of episode, he could have been in the car texting her mom help while he's still in the car. And that's possible, right? We can't rule it out.

The thing that would be in the hat of this was a tragic accident when he had a reaction is the autopsy results that do not suggest any stuff. signs of foul play. They could be still waiting for toxicology. Taxicology does take longer. That does take longer. They probably do not have that yet. And depending on the state of his body, how decomposed it was, Derek, right? It wouldn't be too, too bad. I mean, yes, you're right. I mean, with elements, it could be pretty bad. I shouldn't say that. It could be. We're talking about Florida. Yeah, we're talking about Florida. There also could be other things in play if there's any type of

muggies, alligator activity, some type of predation. So all that's a factor. And you want to wait for those toxicology results, but if that comes back negative and the pathologist who conducted the autopsy report is saying, hey, there's zero signs of strangulation, blunt force trauma, there's nothing here. This pathologist has no incentive to lie. So unless the perfect murder was conducted or this is exactly the way it looks. On the surface, just hearing the story like you're telling it, it sounds shady as shit. Let's just call it what it is. But there's a lot of issues with this when you start to step back and you think about what would the motive be, although you don't need that as an element for a crime? What would the motive be here? He's coming down. He wants to learn more

about his family. This is usually a happy time where family members are reuniting. What could have happened in that span of time where it went from a joyous occasion to, we're going to kill this kid? If it was premeditated, what would be the motive there? He's just coming down to learn more about his father and learn more about his family. What would be their reasoning for taking him out, knowing that they're going to be the ones that are looked at them most closely because they were the last ones with him. I have no idea. The only thing I will say is sometimes it could be in the middle, right?

There could be no foul play here. However, there could have been something in the weed or something they did where they know there's some culpability there. And so because of that, they're not telling the complete truth because they know when the talks come back or something like that, it could hold them with some level of liability. Maybe not full-blown murder, but something else a little less severe. So there's a gradient. I was thinking like maybe they were like,

we'll give him some laced weed, mess with our little cousin, you know, give him a real like hazing ritual into what our family's like kind of thing and it backfired. Or they said right out, hey, listen,

we got a little something extra here and Giovanni who, you know, 18 years old wants to fit in, wants to be part of the, you know, his new family says, yeah,

I can do that. I've done it before. No problem. I've definitely done that. But yeah, have you? I remember a time. Like with harder,

if they were like, there's like, there's like PCP in here. No, no, not PCP. It was Coke. I'll be honest with you. I was 17 years old. Yep, it was Coke.

I was 17 years old. I don't even know if I should be saying that, but it's true. Listen, I'm by no means an angel. And I was with my cousins and they were the older cousins and they were like, you know, the cool guys. And I wanted to be cool. And they were like, yeah, have you ever done any of this before? And I'm like, yeah, of course.

Obviously, who hasn't, right? And I remember just like standing on a step for like. an hour just looking at the grass not knowing what I was doing and I was like I'm so dumb and you know granted I was with my cousins who protected me and made sure I was okay and I was fine but it was only a very very very small amount. Yeah but they protected you right because you knew them you probably grew up with them. Yeah I was I wanted to be cool they were my older cousins it was my first time really hanging out with them they were driving I wasn't really driving yet and I was like okay these guys are I look up to them yeah I could see a similar situation here where you have peer

pressure and all that. So where I sit right now, it's very possible. Yeah, I could see that as well, but Derek, you said your cousins looked out for you, made sure you're okay. They dropped his ass off on the side of the road. Okay, and I know I'm playing devil's advocate, but if you want to protect him and you're like, hey, Giovanni, calm down. It's going to be our right, man. And he pulls out a knife and he's like, back to, you know, I think he pulled a knife out on them. This little 18 year old, just graduated from high school, no criminal history. He's so sweet. You say he's so sweet, but we don't know him. Everyone who knew him said, I know, but like. Oh, everybody who knew him said he was sweet. Yeah.

You can still be sweet and carry a knife. I have a knife. You know, I carry a knife on me every single day. I'm a sweetie. I know, but like, but why didn't they tell the police that he pulled a knife on them? I mean, unless they did. They did. Well, he just says, the police just said he was acting erratically.

So you're saying that the police just failed to mention this knife pulling incident. Who mentioned the knife then? They said the knife on the voicemail. The cousin said it to Giovanni's mother. And what I find interesting is if that's the case, if like, if he pulled a knife on you, then you'd think that was kind of important information. Like, was this knife, this alleged knife found in his backpack? Yeah.

Right? Or was the knife found out? Yeah, was the knife found in the pond? Yeah. Did you give him something that made him act that way and you weren't expecting it? And then you were like, oh, this is not our problem. We don't even know this kid. You dropped him off.

And him pulling a knife on you was a convenient reason of why you didn't look out for him and why you left him on his own. It goes back to the truth could be somewhere in the middle, right? The truth could be somewhere in the middle where a couple of these things are embellished to soften the landing a little bit. But no, I agree with you. I think overall, where we sit right now is detectives have to take everyone's statements. They have to look into Giovanni's past, his history to see what type of kid he was, outside of what his mom even might have known, right? And then they have to look at the actual evidence they have, which is

going to be the autopsy or rapport, any forensics they have, the pond where he was located in relation to where he was dropped off, any witness testimony that they find, his backpack, all of that good stuff. Look at the car. It looks like they're doing that. Do you analyze that as well? They have the backpack. They have the Chevy Malibu. So they're probably going to be looking into that. I'm sure they will take the electronics, right, hopefully, of these cousins. Look at the group chat. See if it kind of matches. Where was their GPS at the time that Giovanni was making these calls and texts?

Were there any texts exchanged afterwards between the cousins where it was like, oh, we got to figure this out kind of thing. Like they're going to look into that. Yeah. You got to get to dot your eyes and cross your teas, right? But if at the end of the day, they look into everything and everything aligns with the idea that it's an accident, even though there still could be some truth that the cousins aren't telling you exactly what happened because they just don't want to be held responsible for anything, unfortunately, that's all you have to go off of. The big deciding factor here will be the autopsy report and the toxicology report. Now, even if the toxicology report comes back with something other than weed, is there a crime that they could be charged? with there? Absolutely. Maybe there's something that they can charge him with, but are they going to be hit with murder? No, more than likely not. Is it possible for you? This wasn't an accident

because I genuinely, it's a very small possibility that, like, he smoked weed that has nothing in it and he develops some psychosis. Once again, yes, of course it's possible. But it's so unlikely. Well, that's why the story's interesting, though, right? Because it's very unlikely, but it's not impossible. That's very unlikely. If they put something in there and he had a bad reaction, more likely, but then the cousins are kind of responsible for introducing this substance into his body that caused him to act that way and then leaving him on his own where he what, wandered into the pond and drowned,

forgot how to swim, wandered, he's so erratic and so out of his mind that he walks into a pond and is just like, I'll drown now. That doesn't even make sense. his death being an accident, how did he get in that pond? How did he, you know, was he not conscious, is what I'm thinking. That seems to me, maybe he went unconscious. Maybe they thought he died. And they were like, let's put his body in the pond. And then he drowned. That's also possible. What's more possible that he has some weird reaction from marijuana walks into a pond and drowns, or that he maybe passes out and they think this isn't good for us. And they try to get rid of the

evidence, thinking that the gators and, you know, just the, in general, the weirdness of Florida takes care of it for that. I concede that one is more likely than the other, but that's why these cases get interesting because even though one is more likely than the other, it doesn't mean that the rarity is what actually occurred. And so that's why you have to go with the evidence. Or you mean it doesn't mean that the thing that's more likely is what occurred. Exactly. The rarity didn't happen, right? The anomaly didn't actually take place here. So you have to go with the forensics, right?

I think overall what it's going to come down to is the autopsy report, the cause of death, the manner of death, the toxicology report. That is going to be the deciding factor here. Yes, he was in the water. You didn't say the exact date. You said July 2025. We're looking in August right now. So he potentially was in the water for four.

It was August 1st, when August 1st at 1.30 in the morning when his cousins picked him up. So it would have been August 1st, allegedly, that he went into the water. Okay. So I got that wrong. So July was when they went down to Florida. The end of July is when they went down. Okay, so he was only in the water for less than a week. So he would have been in the water.

August 1st, he's found on Friday exactly a week. So listen. Unless it's, in my experience, one week isn't going to do that much. It's going to still cause some, the gases to expand and all that. But the body still should be pretty well intact, especially if it was on the surface. If there was no issues with wildlife. No issues with wildlife, et cetera. So I think they're going to be able to do a pretty good autopsy report here.

definitely be able to pull a toxicology that a lot of the times that's from the eyes. So I think we're going to be good here. I think we're going to get a really good result back from this and they're going to be able to tell with a high degree of certainty if there was any indications of foul play. And then you go from there, you reverse engineer it from there. If he has something in his system, they probably go back to the cousins and say, hey, here's what we have. Maybe they admit to it. Maybe they don't. But even from a legal perspective, if they don't admit to it and say exactly who provided it, I don't know what you can really do.

It's going to be, you know, three or four cousins in the car. How do you charge one person with anything? They're definitely not going to be able to charge them if the autopsy comes back clean with, like, manslaughter or anything like that. It's not going to happen. If the autopsy comes back clean with no substances, you mean, if the toxicology comes back with no substances. Even if it comes back with a substance, you have to pinpoint it on one of the cousins, the one who provided it. So you would have to have them turn on each other. And I think there's, you know, from a legal perspective, now you have to prove that what

provided was what actually caused the episode and it wasn't something that Giovanni had brought with him. It just, it's a whole can of worms. Now, I think we can all deduce what more than likely happened. We just talked about it, but it's not what you know. It's what you can prove. So I think you have to wait for the toxicology result and then go from there. If there's nothing there, this case is going to be closed. But it's, it's weird. It's really weird. It's a weird case, which is why we're covering it. If it was straightforward, you wouldn't be going over it and people wouldn't be curious about it. Yeah, the medical examiner said, hey, it doesn't look like there's foul play, doesn't look like there's any signs of trauma. But, okay, if he drowned, you can usually

tell if somebody drowned when they were conscious or unconscious. There's ways that you can tell. And I think that that's going to be something that I'd be interested in hearing. Like, we should see the full Emmys report at this point because that doesn't make sense. No foul play. Like, what exactly did they say, they said no foul play or trauma was found during the autopsy. So he just drowned. He just walked into a pond in a state where he doesn't live and drowned. It doesn't make any sense. There's no, there's no like context behind that. And I think that we need context. And, you know, honestly, Giovanni's mother and his family, they don't feel like the police response has been as kind of urgent as it needed to be due to his age, due to the fact that he had just turned 18.

I think he turned 18 in April. So, you know, they're out there obviously trying to get awareness for his case, and that's what we're doing right now. So let us know what you think about this in the comments. There's an update. We'll let you guys know for sure. Yeah, absolutely. Leave a comment down below.

If you're listening to on audio, leave a review with your comments. Let us know what you think. Do we have something here? Is this a tragic accident? If there's any update in the case, that's significant, we will absolutely let you guys know. Until then, everyone stay safe out there. We'll see you later this week with Amy Bradley Part 3,

both on audio and video. Have a good night. Take care. Bye.