Heartbroken Southampton Parents Whose Son Was Lost on a Florida Fishing Trip Seek Answers in Found Cellphone

SOUTHAMPTON, NY - For Art Southampton founders Nick Kornilof and Pamela Cohen, the months since their son, 14, was reported missing in July after taking a fishing trip in Florida with a friend have been filled with heartache.

Eight months later, the boys' boat was found off the Bermuda coast in March, according to CNN.com, which reported that a marine supply store sticker and engine serial number helped to identify the vessel.

There was no sign of the boys, Perry Cohen and Austin Stephanos, who were lost on July 24 during bad weather.

The U.S. Coast Guard and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission confirmed that the boat was found.

Also recovered was an iPhone belonging to Stephanos, which became the center of a legal battle this week. According to wbpf.com, Pamela Cohen and her husband filed a lawsuit Sunday to keep the phone from being released back to Stephanos' parents.

According to the report, Cohen's son was using his friend's phone, and she believes the phone might hold a clue to those fateful moments before he was lost.

The last text Cohen received from her son has been revealed: "“Mom, it’s Perry. My iPad is dead, I’ll text you in a little. Love you,” Cohen wrote to his heartbroken mom on July 24, according to CBS Miami.

The iPhone has been submerged for eight months and is not functioning, but on Monday, Blu Stephanos issued a statement to the Palm Beach Post saying he will share information with law enforcement as well as the Cohens, who agreed to drop the suit as long as the phone can be examined impartially.

Stephanos, in the report, said due to damage, he was unclear about how much could be recovered, "but I am not giving up hope."

In July, Cohen, who is a partial resident of Southampton, and Stephanos filled up their boat with $110 of gasoline purchased in the Jupiter area.

They have not been seen since.

The Coast Guard completed a total of 39 search patterns in its hunt for the two boys. Coast Guard crews with support from the U.S. Navy, U.S. Air Force, Customs and Border Protection, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office covered nearly 31,000 square nautical miles, spanning from Jupiter, Fla., to Charleston, S.C., with no luck locating the boys.

A Coast Guard crew out of Clearwater initially found the boys’ 19-foot boat capsized about 67 nautical miles off the coast of Ponce Inlet — but it was later lost, as it had not been secured, according to sun-sentinel.com.

A single life jacket was found floating in the water.

With no clues, the families held onto hope during the darkest of hours last July.

“They are extremely athletic and knowledgeable about the water and we know that they are doing everything that they possibly can to stay afloat and wait for us to come and get them,” WESH.com quoted Cohen, Perry’s mother, as saying.

The families offered a $100,000 reward for the safe return of their sons.

NFL Hall of Famer Joe Namath even issued a plea to raise awareness about the boys’ disappearance. The teens, he said during a news conference, are experienced boaters. Namath is Cohen’s neighbor.

Photos of Perry Cohen (photo 1) and Austin Stephanos courtesy of the U.S. Coast Guard