Authorities in Florida have released new details surrounding the tragic death of 18-year-old Giovanni Pelletier, whose body was discovered in a pond one week after he went missing during a family trip. The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office shared fresh evidence this week, including video footage of the teen in his final moments, while stressing that no signs of foul play have been found.

According to Sheriff Rick Wells, Giovanni was picked up around 1:30 a.m. on August 1 by his paternal cousin and two of the cousin’s friends. Although Giovanni had spoken with his cousin by text, he had never met the two friends in person before that night. The group set off toward Brevard County, and during the ride, messages revealed Giovanni discussing smoking marijuana, mentioning that he “hadn’t had a smoke in a while because of court stuff” in North Carolina but was eager to take part.

Not long after, the three men told investigators that Giovanni began behaving erratically once they smoked in the car. They described him as “acting out and raging,” before he suddenly became agitated. Around 1:55 a.m., Giovanni sent his mother three desperate text messages in quick succession: “Help,” followed by “Help” and “Me.”

One of the friends told deputies that Giovanni declared: “I am a demon and I will wreck this car and kill you all,” while trying to open the door as the vehicle was still moving. Concerned, the group pulled over, noting that Giovanni carried a knife, . However, Sheriff Wells confirmed the blade was never drawn and remained in its sheath.

At that point, Giovanni bolted from the vehicle. Witnesses said he nearly ran into the path of an oncoming truck before disappearing into the darkness, leaving behind his backpack and phone. New surveillance video played at the press conference showed a truck swerving to avoid striking him on the highway. Additional footage from a nearby Lowe’s captured a figure—believed to be Giovanni—racing down a steep embankment in what Wells described as an “almost uncontrollable sprint.” The pond where his body would later be found lay just beyond that slope, out of the camera’s view.

“The important thing to understand is that Giovanni was alone,” Sheriff Wells told reporters. “No one was chasing him. No one was near him. When he ran down that embankment, the car was already two miles away.”

Giovanni’s backpack and phone were later recovered in Tampa after a truck driver who found them unknowingly took them from the scene. His body was ultimately discovered on August 8 by a private investigator hired by his family, per WFLA News.

The medical examiner has not yet determined a cause of death, pending toxicology results. Sheriff Wells emphasized that Giovanni showed no visible trauma; no gunshot wounds, no stabbings, no evidence of foul play. For now, his death remains classified as undetermined.

“This is a heartbreaking case,” Wells said. “What happened once Giovanni reached that pond, we simply don’t know.”

Featured image credit: Andrew Leyden / Getty Images.

The devastated parents of missing Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki have opened up about what they think has happened to their daughter.

Konanki, a pre-med student from Virginia, vanished in the early hours of March 6 after going for a late-night swim with 22-year-old Joshua Riibe, a fellow American vacationing in Punta Cana.

Surveillance footage from the RIU República Hotel & Resort captured Konanki and her friends drinking in the hotel lobby before heading to the beach around 4:15AM with two men.

By 4:55AM, her friends and one of the men returned to the hotel, leaving Konanki alone with Riibe.

According to Riibe’s statement to authorities, the two went into the ocean, but the water was rough, and they struggled to stay afloat.

Riibe claimed he managed to pull them both out of the water but passed out on the beach shortly after.

"When I woke up, she was gone," he told investigators.

Her body has never been recovered.

Though he has not been charged with a crime, Riibe has remained a person of interest in the case and was prevented from leaving the Dominican Republic, per NBC News.

His passport was confiscated, and he had been under police surveillance at his hotel since March 6.

On Monday, March 17, Riibe’s lawyer filed a legal request demanding that he be allowed to return to the U.S.

During a court hearing on Tuesday, Riibe testified in his own defense, saying: "I understand I’m here to help, but it’s been 10 days. I want to go home. I want to see my family."

He also revealed that he had met with Konanki’s mother, who hugged him and thanked him for saving her "the first time."

Despite his plea, a judge did not immediately rule on his release.

After 12 days of uncertainty and mounting speculation, her parents have formally requested that Dominican authorities declare her legally dead, per the New York Post.

"It is with deep sadness and a heavy heart that we are coming to terms with the fact our daughter has drowned," said her father, Subbarayudu Konanki, from the family home in Chantilly, Virginia.

Initially, Konanki’s family had pushed for authorities to expand their investigation, raising concerns over the possibility of foul play.

However, after consulting with officials from both the Dominican Republic and the United States, they are now convinced that Sudiksha drowned in the rough waters of the Caribbean.

"Both sides of the authorities have shown us how high the ocean waves were at the time of the incident, and both sides of the authorities have clarified the person of interest was not a suspect from the beginning," her father explained.

The family has also expressed trust in the investigation and acknowledged that legal steps must be followed to obtain a declaration of death.

For Sudiksha Konanki’s grieving family, the media attention surrounding her disappearance has made their loss even more difficult.

"We still have two young children to care for, and they’re at a very tender age," her father said.

"In light of this, we respectfully request some space, time, and privacy to focus on healing and helping our children recover as we try to move forward with our lives."

Featured image credit: Facebook

The dad of a missing 17-year-old boy who was spotted on an influencer’s livestream has revealed what happened to his son.

As previously reported, Troy Coleman was reported missing by his family after he was last seen in Mt. Morris Township, Michigan, on May 17.

The teen's loved ones were granted good news after he was reportedly seen 1,200 miles away on a content creator named FaZe Lacy's livestream.

Lacy shared a post on X (formerly Twitter) about the missing boy, writing: “Yesterday on stream he came up to me and Clix and now his family knows he is alive and in Miami. I wasn’t sure if I should make this public but I'm hoping somehow this helps him be found for his family."

Watch the moment below:

A video of the stream was shared online and showed the moment Troy, who was shirtless and donning green shorts, talked to the influencer while they ate al fresco at a restaurant.

Lacy revealed in the post that Troy's brother, Trent Coleman, reportedly sent him an email stating that he believed that his brother popped up randomly in the clip.

"Hello, my name is Trent Coleman and my missing little brother from Michigan was on Clix and Lacy's stream in Miami," the email read.

"He was wearing green shorts and they were making fun of him, he is not on drugs he is schizophrenic and he is 17 years old if someone can contact me about this I would be so thankful he has been missing for 3 months and his case was put on homicide in Michigan," they added.

For about six weeks, Troy's father Weston Coleman was constantly out on the road looking for his son.

According to PEOPLE, the dad revealed that on the day of his disappearance, his son was sleeping at his grandfather’s house. The teen then told his grandfather that he was going to the store.

Unfortunately, Troy never returned from the store, his dad said, adding: “I came back two hours later and he wasn't here, and I've been keeping a tight eye on him, so I was like, where'd he go?

“My dad said, ‘Oh, he went to the store.’ He didn't think anything was wrong. Then I immediately knew that something was wrong because I couldn't find him in the neighborhood. So I called the police, the police came over here, made a report, and he didn't come home that night," he shared.

Surveillance footage revealed that the boy got on a public bus and then rode another one that took him to a local mall where he hung out all day.

Then on the following day, he went on a Greyhound bus bound for Atlanta and didn't enter his name into the system when he paid his fare, which is why his family lost track of his whereabouts. 

Coleman went through his son's belongings and found that he made searches about about Key West, Florida. So he drove there with a friend to look for Troy and alerted the police about their distressing situation. However, after seven days, they came up with nothing and left.

The family feared that the teen was dead as he had never run away from home before. “I drove around for so many days and so many nights looking for him," Weston said. "I looked for him so hard, I couldn't understand how he could have lived through it with nothing.

“I was up and down like a rollercoaster,” he continued. “Sometimes you think he's alive, sometimes you think he's dead. It was horrible.”

About 50 days after Troy vanished, an unnamed individual came across Lacy's livestream and notified the teen's older brother. The family then informed the Miami Beach Police Department who "went on the hunt for him".

On July 4, Weston "woke up that afternoon to Flint Township [police] pounding on my door saying that they found him".

Since returning to Michigan, the teenager has been recovering in hospitals both in Florida and his hometown. The family is hopeful that Troy will be better by his 18th birthday, in August. 

Upon seeing the live stream featuring his son, Weston said he was "upset that people were kind of making fun of him, but I was glad that they found him, and that's the most important thing".

"And I just didn't think those kids understood what he was going through. I wish they would've been a little nicer to him, but at the same time, they helped find him and didn't even know it," he added.

The teen turned up in Miami Beach, Florida. Credit: Cliff Hawkins/Getty Images

He also shared that his son may have run away to Florida because he had developed an urge to go to find celebrities. 

“[My dad and I] went and picked him up, brought him home, and I said, ‘Troy, why are you searching up how to get to Florida?’" Weston recalled. "And he just simply said, ‘I just never been there before.’ And then when I was talking to him, I said, ‘Troy, why'd you go down to Florida?’ He said, ‘Dad, I was looking for famous people.’”

Featured image credit: SOPA Images / Getty