The two Florida teens lost at sea last summer may have been abducted, a lawyer suggested, as friends of the missing boys said they recovered a chilling message from the pair around the time they vanished: “We’re f’d.”
The boat Perry Cohen and Austin Stephanos, both 14, disappeared in July was disabled before a monster storm hit off the coast of Jupiter — leading investigators to suspect foul play, Cohen family attorney Guy Rubin said.
“Maybe the most logical explanation is the storm, but maybe they were abducted. Or maybe there was foul play because they had thousands of dollars’ worth of reels,” he told WPBF.
FLORIDA TEEN LOST AT SEA SENT HEARTFELT FINAL TEXT TO MOM
The pair’s capsized boat was recovered last month near Bermuda, about 1,000 miles from where they set sail in Florida.
The dinghy’s battery and its ignition were both turned off — but they are in a “very difficult-to-get-to” spot in the boat and couldn’t be maneuvered by wind, currents or other natural forces, Rubin said, suggesting someone intentionally switched them off.
“If the storm came and capsized the boat, the battery switch and the key would not be in those positions,” he said. “We now know the boat was disabled before the storm hit. So we don’t know whether foul play was involved or not.”
The teens — both experienced boaters who had grown up on the water — were last seen buying boat fuel in town on July 24. They set sail on a fishing trip just before a storm passed through the coast and Jupiter Inlet.
Friends of the teens said one of the boys sent Snapchat messages just before and possibly during their sea expedition.
“Bahamas bound with my boy,” one of the teens wrote the day before their disappearance, according to a Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission report released this week and obtained by the Sun Sentinel reported.
Two friends also said they got a message from Stephanos that declared “we’re f’d” around the same time — but investigators said the pals who reported the message couldn’t confirm the exact day it came though. Snapchat messages self-delete after a certain length of time.
Before the boat capsized, Cohen sent a “love you” text message to his mom — but the message cut off before he could say where he was.
“Mom, it’s Perry. My iPad is dead, I’ll text you in a little. Love you,” he wrote.
Then, he added, “I was going to sleep at,,,” without completing the message.
