Authorities hold a briefing to update "recent findings and evidence regarding the investigation" of a missing 18-year-old who was found dead in Manatee County.

The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office has confirmed 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.

Even after finding his body, no one seems to know what really happened to an 18-year-old who went missing on a Florida vacation.

The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office said they have “preliminarily determined” a body found Friday belongs to 18-year-old Giovanni Pelletier, the teen who went missing from Charlotte County last week, according to a news release.

Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey addressed questions on Friday about the agency’s involvement in the search for 18-year-old Giovonni Pelletier who was last seen in Manatee County.

According to the sheriff’s office, Giovonni Pelletier was vacationing with his family in Englewood before leaving around 1:30 a.m. to visit relatives in Brevard County.

Orange County is the latest government agency to get audited by Florida’s Department of Government Efficiency. It requests DOGE access to whatever county facilities, data systems and personnel are needed to investigate a trove of information going back to 2019 on everything from contracting to personnel salaries to DEI and environment-related programs to homeless services.

The Manatee County government will get audited by Florida’s Department of Government Efficiency, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Thursday.

A couple of new Publix stores are set to open their doors in the Sunshine State on Saturday, according to the company.

According to detectives, the investigation linked him to burglaries in Broward, Hillsborough, and Manatee counties, among other areas of the state.

Surveillance video captures a violent road rage incident in Bradenton, all over a missing turn signal.

Deputies in one Florida county recently said they had to “expel” an unexpected visitor to a high school campus, but it may not be what you think.

Fred Piccolo, a former spokesperson for Gov. Ron DeSantis who also served in other government communication roles statewide, was arrested Tuesday on a warrant for exposure of sexual organs, Manatee County jail records show.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news conference near Palmetto.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis has signed an executive order directing state agencies including the Florida National Guard and Florida State Guard to be ready to “maintain order” at seaports amid potential impacts from the ongoing International Longshoreman’s Association strike.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis held a news conference at the FDOT Manatee Operations Center near Bradenton.

The “11 to Save” sites are historic spots across Florida that are at risk of being shut down or destroyed.

Manatee County deputies shot and killed a man overnight who was wanted in the deaths of three women.

Authorities say a Florida sheriff’s deputy has been shot and is in stable condition.

Florida’s homegrown supermarket chain is set to open up three new locations this month in the Sunshine State.

Officials say a seventh case of malaria has been documented in a southwest Florida county.

The Florida Department of Health has issued a statewide mosquito-borne illness advisory after four locally contracted cases of malaria were reported along the Gulf Coast south of Tampa.

Two Central Florida players won $3 million and $1 million in separate Mega Millions lottery draw games, officials announced Thursday.

Manatee County officials could soon decide whether to restore and replace the Confederate monument that stood for decades outside the historic courthouse in downtown Bradenton.

A man in Manatee County was seen fighting the wind and rain Wednesday night in the thick of Hurricane Ian to save the boat he poured three years and $50,000 into.

As of 8 p.m. Tuesday night the bridges leading to the barrier islands in Manatee County were closed.

A man who survived three days in the woods after losing his arm to an alligator earlier in the summer recently shared the story of his grueling ordeal.

Quienes residen en la Florida ahora podrán acercarse a alguno de los animales terrestres más grandes y ayudar a cuidar de ellos en Myakka Elephant Ranch (Myakka Rancho de Elefantes).

Floridians can get up close to the largest existing land animal and help care for them at the Myakka Elephant Ranch in Manatee County.

When 135-pound Bentley walked into the Dollar General, he wandered around for hours like he owned the place, body camera footage released by police shows.

An Amber alert activated by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for 7-year-old Ashley Ordaz was canceled Saturday night after the girl was found safe, according to FDLE and the Palmetto Police Department.

The city of Bradenton could find itself in the same seat as other local governments that have been accused of breaking federal law with repeated sewage spills.

The Orange County sheriff and detectives from the violent crimes unit will be holding a news conference Friday morning.

A manatee is in SeaWorld Orlando's care after it nearly drowned in Manatee County after eating seagrass contaminated with toxic red tide. Fortunately, people were there to help get results and save the sea cow.

Officials say a man walked into a Florida sheriff’s office and confessed to killing a woman a decade ago because he “found Jehovah and couldn’t live with the guilt anymore."

Environmental groups claim in a lawsuit that efforts to clean up a leaky Florida reservoir that dumped tens of millions of gallons of potentially hazardous gypsum wastewater into Tampa Bay must be overseen by a federal judge to guard against continued mismanagement.

A Florida county has shuttered its main administration building after several employees contracted COVID-19 and two people died.

Environmentalists are worried that a recent discharge of wastewater into Tampa Bay could exacerbate a new outbreak of the dreaded red tide algal blooms.

The state expects to put more than $115 million toward closing the site of a former phosphate plant where a reservoir leak set off a wastewater crisis in Manatee County.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis will hold a news conference in Manatee County to provide an update on wastewater discharges from the old Piney Point fertilizer plant.

A Florida state agency says dam safety experts consider the risk of a possible second breach in a leaking wastewater reservoir to be “unsubstantiated.”.

A mandatory evacuation order near a leaking Florida wastewater reservoir that affected more than 300 homes and additional businesses has been lifted.

A mandatory evacuation order near a leaking Florida wastewater reservoir that affected more than 300 homes and additional businesses has been lifted.

Florida Gov_ Ron DeSantis says crews are working to prevent the collapse of a large wastewater pond to avoid a “catastrophic flood."

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says crews are working to prevent the collapse of a large wastewater pond to avoid a “catastrophic flood."

Florida's governor has declared a state of emergency after a significant leak at a large storage pond of wastewater threatened to flood roads and burst a system that stores polluted waters.

MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. – When Nicholas Lynch went fishing Tuesday off the coast of St. Petersburg, he thought he might come home with some grouper and snapper. He did, however, he also came home with a rare once-in-a-lifetime story with video to share. “I was like, ‘Guys I think it’s a whale,’ and they were like ‘What, a whale?’” he said. Today, humpback whales can be found in all major oceans feeding on krill and small fish. Experts say it’s rare for the whales to swim into the northern waters of the Gulf of Mexico.

Ron DeSantis said Florida will get previously delayed shipments of coronavirus vaccine before the weekend. Florida’s Division of Emergency Management confirmed Tuesday that weather conditions across the U.S. are also impacting the state’s shipment of Moderna vaccine. Typically, the state receives its shipments of Moderna on Tuesday or Wednesday, but 200,000 doses have yet made their way to Florida. As the state makes plans to quickly distribute the 209,000 doses of the delayed vaccine, DeSantis said Florida can only plan to receive them and not necessarily how they make it to the state. “We are going to get the Moderna but it is not here when it would normally be here,” he said.

This brush truck belonging to the Bayshore Fire Rescue was found about 80 miles away in Manatee County. NORTH FORT MYERS, Fla. – A firetruck was stolen from a Florida fire station while the crew was responding to a call Sunday. The Bayshore Fire Rescue department returned from the call to find a brush truck was missing. Several people posted sightings of the truck, which was eventually found about 80 miles away in Manatee County. “Thank you, thank you, thank you.”The truck wasn’t damaged.

MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. – A woman faces multiple charges after she slammed a stolen car into a Manatee County deputy, according to the sheriff. The sheriff’s aviation unit managed to find the car again, parked near a car stereo business near South Bradenton and deputies moved in to make an arrest. A deputy in an unmarked cruiser blocked the stolen car and Vanfossen put the vehicle into reverse, backing away from the deputy, according to the sheriff’s office. The deputy then got out of her car and gave commands to Vanfossen, according to investigators, but the driver hit the gas, slamming into the deputy and her cruiser. Records show Vanfossen then got out of the stolen car and was quickly arrested.

SEMINOLE COUNTY, Fla. – Seminole County’s Supervisor of Elections Chris Anderson said they have systems in place to catch voter fraud. News 6 asked Anderson specifically about what checks happen if someone tries to vote for a deceased relative. But if they were to receive a fraudulent ballot, Anderson said, there’s only one check point in place -- the signature check. “Oh, very confident, like I said, it is not easy to forge someone’s signature, folks, it’s going to catch it, it will catch it,” Anderson said. Anderson also said that supervisor of elections are constantly looking at their processes to make sure all of the proper checks are in place.

MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. – A Florida man who requested a mail-in ballot for his wife who died in 2018 said he just "wanted to test the system,” according to the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office. A search was conducted that showed the woman’s address was the same as her husband’s, Larry Wiggins, and he, too, had requested a mail-in ballot and the signature on his form matched the signature on his late wife’s form, according to authorities. [TRENDING: DeSantis to lift restaurant limits in Fla. | Here’s how to track your mail-in ballot | How can I tell difference between flu and COVID-19?] Deputies said they went to Wiggins' home in Sarasota and Wiggins said he had seen recent reports on TV about voter fraud with mail-in ballots and he “wanted to test the system.”Records show Wiggins admitted to filling out the mail-in ballot request form for his wife. “I heard so much about ballots being sent in and people just having found them in different places,” Wiggins told the TV station.