An 18-year-old from North Carolina has been missing for six days while visiting his estranged father’s family. Giovanni Peretier vanished shortly after sending a distressing text to his mother, asking for “Mama Help.”
He was last spotted on Friday, August 1st, around 1:30 AM, as reported by a media outlet.
Within half an hour, he managed to send two messages to his mother.
Giovanni called her at 1:56 AM and attempted to reach out via FaceTime just a minute later. When his attempts failed, he sought help from his aunt and grandfather.
However, his mother was asleep and missed those calls. She woke up to a concerning message from Giovanni at 6:20 AM, along with a missed call from her cousin, who had taken care of him.
Bridget Peretier shared that she had received a message from Giovanni’s paternal grandfather, noting that he had reportedly smoked marijuana and got into an altercation with his cousin, to the point of pulling a knife.
“He didn’t have all the details, but it’s frustrating to not have more information,” the worried mother explained.
Eventually, Bridget used GPS data to locate her son’s belongings on the roadside, then found his phone in his backpack.
Bridget stated, “It was his phone and his backpack; he wouldn’t just leave this behind. My son is always connected.” She expressed doubts about her cousin’s honesty and effort in helping to find Giovanni in the Charlotte and Brevard counties.
“They took the knife from him and claimed he ran away,” she revealed, tearfully recounting the situation.
She felt her cousin had only contacted her once and did little to assist in the search. “None of the kids with him reached out to see if I found him,” she noted.
She also criticized law enforcement for their lack of support in her search for her son.
The Brevard County Sheriff’s Office did not provide immediate comments on the case.
A spokesperson for the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office stated, “We have no updates on this investigation and encourage anyone with information to come forward.”
Bridget and Giovanni traveled to Florida in late July to see their estranged father, who lives nearby, alongside his four brothers and their fiancée Jeremy Brown, as they were visiting a relative undergoing chemotherapy.
A $10,000 reward is available for information leading to Giovanni’s discovery or resulting in an arrest and conviction.
