ENGLEWOOD, Fla. — Manatee County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) said detectives have preliminarily determined the body discovered in a pond along Interstate-75 on Friday, is missing 18-year-old, Giovanni Pelletier.

MCSO said an autopsy is scheduled for Sunday and the cause of death is unknown.

Watch report from Annette Gutierrez

Identification is pending, but evidence collected at the scene has led investigators to determine the body is Pelletier’s.

“It’s not the outcome that anybody wants…This is devastating,” said Shelley Croft, a Licensed Private Investigator with the organization, We Are the Essentials. “This family’s been through a lot the past week.”

We Are The Essentials, an organization of private investigators that helps search for missing people, took on the case and issued an alert earlier this week, when he went missing on August 1st.

Pelletier is from North Carolina and vanished while vacationing in Englewood with his family.

At the end of the trip, his mom said his cousins picked him up to take him to Brevard County on Florida’s east coast.

While traveling north, his aunt said Pelletier texted his mom saying, “Help me.”

During an argument, Pelletier reportedly exited a vehicle near SR-70 in Manatee County. His phone and backpack were found about a half mile away near Bradenton along I-75. Soon after a body was found in that area.

Saturday, the family along with the organization made a post that Pelletier is dead.

Croft said while the family has some sense of closure, this is not the outcome they wanted.

“That’s the last thing you want to do is have to bury your child,” said Croft. “But there are families out there that don’t have those answers that are still seeking those answers years later. So for it to come to an end within a week’s period of time. We’re grateful for that, because that not knowing is the hardest thing.”

Right now, the family is asking for privacy.

The investigation remains ongoing.