Giovanni Pelletier, a teen who went missing in Florida earlier this month, has been confirmed dead. His family confirmed his death to ABC 11 on Saturday, Aug. 9, one day after a decomposing body was discovered near the area where the teenager was last seen.

On Saturday, Pelletier's mother Bridgette confirmed her son's death in a devastating social media post in which she asked the public for grace and privacy as the family deals with

According to the MCSO, detectives have "preliminarily determined" the body as that of the missing Pelletier, though additional testing is still needed.