Friday will be two weeks since Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen were last seen in Jupiter, and the only definite link to the 14-year-olds that has been found is the 19-foot boat the boys were on.
But there’s a chance there is more.
A white cushion and a couple of life jackets have been recovered, and the families have a trainer and dog working to determine if they belong to the boys, The Palm Beach Post reported.
It’s a “challenge,” a family spokesperson said. The jackets and the cushion match or resemble the items that were on Austin’s boat, but it’s not as easy to make a definitive link as it would have been if the items were labeled or had a specific number on them. The cushion was found in Wassaw Sound on the coast of Georgia near Savannah and the jackets were found south of that, near St. Catherines.
“It’s not a process that can be performed quickly,” the spokesperson said.
In order to make a link, the canine team needed personal items belonging to the boys, such as clothing. And thanks to a volunteer named Heather Holden of Stuart, that was possible.
Holden, a stay-at-home mother of three, is one of hundreds who have wanted to be a part of the family’s search for the teens, a large group of people the families are “eternally indebted” to, the family spokesperson said. She drove to Jupiter to pick up some clothes, and then drove to Gainesville to pass them on, the family spokesperson said.
When Holden first heard about missing teens Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen, she thought of her own children Ella, Maxwell and Kate.
“It immediately tugged at my heart as a mother,” she told The Palm Beach Post on Thursday.
Holden, 32, decided to get involved. Now, she’s one of 10 volunteers behind the Find Austin and Perry SC and NC Facebook page. The page is a place for volunteers to gather and get up-to-date information on the private search for the boys. People contact the page and say where and when they’d like to search. The volunteers are given a list of items the boys had on the boat, and are given instructions on what to do if they are found.
Holden said the group has now created Facebook pages for Florida and Georgia, to plan search efforts there.
The boys’ families are grateful for volunteers like Holden, but she doesn’t see her efforts as anything out of the ordinary.
“It’s not anything special or spectacular. I would hope if it were my child people would be willing to step up,” Holden said.
Holden is encouraging the public to get involved too, even if it is just sharing the Facebook page or walking a nearby beach.
“We can make a difference,” she said.
On Wednesday, there was a claim that a development occurred and the boys tried swimming to shore. But the family spokesperson said the families have no idea if that’s true, and no way of knowing.
“We are blessed with an incredible social media apparatus and infrastructure and it does enormous good, but like any other tool you have to apply a level of confidence to the reports,” the spokesperson said. “It’s not infallible.”
Donations for the search came in quickly, as well. About two weeks ago, when Austin’s and Perry’s families set out to launch a private search, they calculated they would need $550,000. That changed based on fuel costs, volunteer offers, and prices of flying per hour to $475,000.
That’s what they hoped to raise though a GoFundMe campaign, and it was reached. On Wednesday, the family thanked the public for their contributions. The families reached their goal, so there wasn’t a need for more donations to come in, a family spokesperson said.
“We have an understanding of the cost of executing a fully funded or fully sourced search effort,” the spokesperson said. “Our focus is on finding Perry and Austin. This is a search-and-rescue fund.”
The money is going to costs such as airplanes and helicopters, ships and boats and fuel.
The search spans from Jupiter to Wilmington, N.C., but the families are trying to narrow it down. That includes looking where the Gulfstream could send out items into natural collection areas.
Austin’s father Blu Stephanos was in the air Thursday searching off the coast of south Georgia, and Perry’s stepfather, Nick Korniloff, has been heading the “operations center,” and working with contractors to fly planes, a family spokesperson said.
The families are “incredibly grateful” for the outpouring of love and support, the spokesperson said.
“It’s a lot of inspiration,” he said. “Even in the midst of tragedy, there’s a lot of inspiration.”
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