The two Florida teens who went lost at sea last year sent an ominous Snapchat message to their friends.
As the weather turned bad, the teens, who were fishing together, wrote: “We’re f'd.”
Approximately 128 pages of social media posts, investigative reports, cell phone records, FBI emails, and interview notes were released by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) this week, reported People.
Perry Cohen and Austin Stephanos, 14, disappeared in July 2015 after leaving for a fishing trip from Jupiter. They haven’t been seen since, but their boat was found capsized last month. Perry had stayed the night with Austin and Austin’s mother, Carly Black. The boys grabbed $100 that was left out for them before they loaded the boat and headed off.
Austin’s iPhone was found on the boat, and the boys had also used Snapchat, according to the documents. Several friends reported getting the message, but it’s unclear when the post was sent out.
Multiple friends and classmates told investigators they got Instagram and Snapchat posts from Austin. His “austinfishkille” Snapchat featured four fishing rods with the words, “Peace out Jup,” referring to Jupiter, Fla.
Friends also said the boys were planning to fish “far off shore.”
At around 1:30 p.m. on the day of the teens’ disappearance, a storm hit the area, which included winds of 20-40 mph. That may have been enough to capsize the boat.
This week, an attorney for the family of Perry Cohen, Guy Rubin, questioned why the new FWC photos of the boat show the engine and battery turned off.
“Why would they turn the engine and battery off? Were they broken down? Maybe there was a third person aboard. Common sense tells us this new information means we need an impartial expert to examine the iPhone,” attorney Guy Rubin told WPXI-TV.
