MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — A new report from the District Twelve Medical Examiner finds that 18-year-old Giovanni Pelletier, whose body was found in a Manatee County retention pond in August, died from drowning.

The medical examiner lists the death as accidental. There are still questions though about why he ended up in the pond in the first place.

Back in August, the sheriff held a press conference to go over the investigation. He said Pelletier’s cousins, who were in a car with the teen, said they were all smoking marijuana when he started acting erratic, and that’s why he wanted to get out of the car.

“He says he will kill them all as he was trying to open up the door,” Sheriff Rick Wells said in that press conference. “Focus right now is to see what comes back on the toxicology. Is th

See Full Page