Teen Sent Mom 'Chilling' Text, Then Vanished, Shortly After Cousins Picked Him Up

18-year-old Giovanni Pelletier had been staying in Englewood, Florida with his family, including mom Bridgette and his four siblings, visiting a relative who was receiving chemotherapy. While there, he hoped to meet up with family members from his father's side, after growing up in the state before he and his mother moved to North Carolina when he was four.

After making plans to do just that, three of his paternal cousins picked him up around 1:30AM on August 1, with Bridgette's fiancé seeing him off, Bridgette told PEOPLE. It was the last time anyone on her side of the family would see him again.

While Bridgette was asleep, Giovanni allegedly began to frantically reach out to her -- texting her "Mom help," calling her at 1:56am and attempting a FaceTime a minute after that. He also reportedly texted his sister and her dad asking for help. Bridgette, however, didn't see any of this until hours later, when she woke up, noticing she also missed a call from one of the cousins ... as well as a voicemail from Giovanni's paternal grandfather that something had happen between the four men on the drive.

The Charlotte County Sheriff's Office said the cousins told authorities "Giovanni suddenly began to act erratically before exiting the vehicle and walking away." Per Bridgette, the cousin who attempted to call her later told her that the group had smoked marijuana together, before Giovanni began panicking, caused a scene and even pulled out a knife.

"When that happened, they said they wrestled the knife from him, and then my son took off running," Bridgette told PEOPLE. "None of these kids that were with him have tried to call me and ask me if I found him, asked me if he's okay, asked me anything."

She also finds it suspicious that she was able to find his backpack and phone abandoned on the side of the road after tracking the GPS, saying her son "eats, sleeps, showers, breathes his phone." She added that "the thing that tells me that something is wrong is my son knows my number by heart," and he would "never run away and text me, 'help me,' because he knows that I would burn this world down to find him and that I wouldn't be scared of anything or anybody, and I'm not."

In a GoFundMe started by Brigette's sister, she says Giovanni has "missing under deeply troubling and suspicious circumstances," calling the text her sister received "chilling."

"Giovanni is smart, kind, and full of life. He didn’t deserve this," she continued. "Our family is devastated, terrified, and doing everything in our power to bring him home — but we're receiving very little help from officials, and we are being forced to search on our own."

They're asking for help raising funds for their search, vowing, "We won't stop searching until we bring him home."

As of Thursday morning, there were no updates from the Charlotte County Sheriff's Office, who are still looking for tips -- while adding the've been "receiving many, many tips that unfortunately turn out to be inaccurate, which takes time away from the investigation."

Anyone with information is asked to call (941) 639-2101.