TEQUESTA, Fla. — Just hours before a pair of Florida teens set off on a fishing trip never to return, video recently released by Florida Fish and Wildlife shows the pair embarking on their journey.
The surveillance footage shows 14-year-olds Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen heading out toward the Jupiter Inlet on Stephanos’ boat on July 24 as they passed near the Alternate A1A railroad bridge.
The boat was seen on July 26 about 70 miles off the coast of Daytona Beach, but went missing again until March 18 when it was found by a Norwegian ship bobbing about 100 miles from Bermuda, officials said.
Along with the 19-foot boat, the Norwegian crew also found Stephanos’ iPhone, which has been sent to forensic experts at Apple to see if any data can be recovered.
The teens were apparently caught in a storm, and while a pilot said he saw someone clinging to debris after they went missing, neither was ever seen again.
“I could actually see all five fingers on both hands as he raised his arms up,” pilot Bobby Smith said.
He lost track of the person, who may have been one of the missing teens, as he flew to cruising altitude to contact the U.S. Coast Guard, Smith said.
“We had no way to assist him,” Smith said. “By the time the helicopter got there, they weren’t actually able to find what we saw.”
Smith’s news comes as reports were released that two friends of the missing teens saw a Snapchat from both of them around the day they disappeared.
The video was released by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission as part of its investigation into the teens’ disappearance.
The investigation is ongoing and the teens’ boat is expected to arrive in South Florida in about two weeks.
Cox Media Group
