The mother of Perry Cohen, one of the two Tequesta teens who went missing at sea last year, said she will ask prosecutors to intervene in a growing feud over the other boy's cellphone, which was recovered in March.
The extreme step, announced in a press release Sunday, is needed because Austin Stephanos’ father, Blu, hasn’t given Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission investigators consent to search the iPhone, Pamela Cohen said.
Austin's phone was recovered last month, after the boys' boat was found at sea with the phone on board. It could hold clues to the boys' disappearance.
The boat's recovery was announced Friday.
Investigators have the phone, but because Stephanos hasn’t allowed them to search it, they’re set to return it to him on Monday, Cohen said in the statement.
“The fact that since mid-March and as of today, April 24th, the Stephanos family has not provided consent to FWC to have the iPhone remain in the custody of law enforcement for data retrieval is not only incomprehensible to us as parents, it is also an insult to our community,” Cohen said in the statement.
“We have no choice but to reach out to State Attorney Dave Aronberg’s office who can simply issue a warrant which would allow FWC to turn over the phone to proper investigating authorities so the phone can be evaluated by experts.”
Blu Stephanos has not commented publicly about the phone.
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