FLORIDA (WTVD) -- The Manatee County Sheriff's Office said Friday that a body had been found not far from where the backpack of 18-year-old Giovanni Pelletier was located. Manatee County is near Bradenton, Florida, along Interstate 75.

The body was found in a retention pond at the southbound off-ramp of Interstate 75 and SR 70.

Manatee County Sheriff Rick Wells said the body appears to be that of a man, but the identity of the person has not been confirmed.

ABC11 spoke with an FBI expert about the likely process of the investigation. Retired special agent Frank Brostrom said, unlike other missing persons cases, knowing who he was with and when he left gives investigators a good starting point.

"Normally in these kinds of investigations, you have somebody disappears, you have no lead

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