MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. – The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office confirmed Thursday that a body recently found along Interstate 75 was that of Giovanni Pelletier, a missing 18-year-old who had last been seen Aug. 1.
The body was preliminary identified as Pelletier last week, what the sheriff’s office said it determined based on evidence collected at the scene.
Dental records and further forensic testing was needed to reach Thursday’s conclusion, the sheriff’s office said in a news release. The cause of Pelletier’s death is still undetermined pending toxicology results, the release states, adding it could take several weeks for those to come down.
Detectives are pursuing leads and there remain no signs of foul play, investigators said.
News of Pelletier’s disappearance reached Central Florida because it was initially reported that he was vacationing with his family in Englewood in Charlotte County before leaving to visit relatives in Brevard County at the time of his disappearance.
[MORE: 18-year-old disappears while traveling to visit family in Brevard County]
Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey held a news conference in the coming days to address questions about the case, telling listeners there was no evidence the 18-year-old was ever in his jurisdiction and that Brevard’s only connection to the case was being the home county of several people Pelletier was allegedly with at the time of his disappearance.
Ivey would go on to say that Pelletier allegedly began acting erratically while traveling north on I-75 with his cousins before exiting the vehicle and walking away near State Road 70 in Manatee County.
[WATCH: ‘No evidence’ missing 18-year-old was in Brevard County, sheriff says]