Perry Cohen and Austin Stephanos, two longtime friends who both would have been 15-years-old, have been missing since July 24, 2015, when they took a fishing boat off the coast of Florida’s Jupiter Inlet. Their boat was found stranded 100 miles off the coast of Bermuda. Investigators are now uncovering clues that suggest that there may have been foul play involved in Cohen and Stephanos’ disappearance.
With the fishing boat’s discovery, Austin’s iPhone was recovered. Perry’s parents are now suing Austin’s parents for refusing to give the phone, which was heavily damaged by salt water, over to third-party investigators to see if any information can be recovered from Stephanos’ last phone interactions.
Cohen’s phone was broken before the boys had left, so they agreed to share Stephanos’ phone while on the boat. Cohen’s mother argues that because of that agreement, the phone is half hers. She believes that she will “continue to suffer irreparable harm if the iPhone is not properly handled as material evidence in a possible maritime crime or homicide.”
Several of Cohen and Stephanos’ friends reported that they received Snapchats from the two boys of the Jupiter coast with the words “We’re F’d” on them. It is currently unclear as to what time the snaps were sent.
The two boys also reportedly sent “I love you” and “Just checking in” texts to their parents respectively when they were on the boat that morning.
Cell phone records indicate that Stephanos’ phone was within inshore waters at 12:2 p.m. that day. At 1:30 p.m., a storm with winds up to 40 miles an hour hit the Jupiter area. According to WPBF, investigators noticed that the boat’s battery had been switched off as the boat was being packed up to be sent back to Florida.
“We do know for sure that boat was disabled intentionally because the battery switch, which is very difficult to get to, was in the off position,” Cohen’s lawyer, Guy Rubin, told WPBF. “That can’t be maneuvered by the passage of time, the current or other events. If the storm came and capsized the boat, the battery switch and the key would not be in those positions.”
It is possible that the boys may have turned the boat off to conserve battery if they knew they were in trouble with the storm, but it also suggests that someone may have tampered with the boat before they left.
An emergency hearing scheduled for May 5 will determine whether the Stephanos family will have to make public the content of Austin’s iPhone. Austin’s father has posted continuously on social media, writing that they have “been working with the phone’s manufacturer who seems willing to help us try to get the phone operational again.”
A pilot believes that he may have seen one of the boys floating on his back to the east of St. Marys, Georgia, two days after the two boys went missing. The Coast Guard has not yet confirmed the sighting or any other reports about Cohen or Stephanos.
