A boat found roughly 100 miles off the coast of Bermuda on March 18, has been confirmed as the single- engine, 19-foot boat that Florida teenagers Perry Cohen and Austin Stephanos were last seen on this past July. The discovery came nearly eight months after the teens were lost at sea.
Cohen, who was 14 at the time he went missing, is the stepson of art fair impresario and Art Miami founder Nick Korniloff, who is married to Cohen’s mother, Pamela Cohen, the company’s director of marketing. The group hosts art fairs in cities including Miami, New York, and the Hamptons in eastern Long Island.
Multi Purpose Supply Vessel Edda Fjord, while enroute to Norway, discovered a capsized small craft approximately 100 miles off the coast of Bermuda. The boat belonged to Austin Stephanos. Image: Courtesyy of Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
The boat was discovered by a Norwegian supply boat on its way to Norway, according to reports that cited the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission. An iPhone and a tackle box were found on the recovered boat, NBC News reported via the US Coast Guard. The iPhone belongs to Stephanos, reports said.
According to the report, authorities notified the families of Cohen and Stephanos about the boat’s discovery, but left it up to the families to publicly announce the news. Korniloff and Cohen notified the Palm Beach Post of the find over the past weekend.
The boat is set to arrive in the US mid-May. “Personal effects that were on-board the boat will be returned to the families of the victims, and subsequent information retrieval efforts from any of those items will be at their discretion,” Rob Klepper, a spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Commission, told NBC.
Multi Purpose Supply Vessel Edda Fjord, while en route to Norway, discovered a capsized small craft approximately 100 miles off the coast of Bermuda. The boat was subsequently confirmed to be the boat that belonged to Austin Stephanos. Image: Courtesy of Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
During a massive Coast Guard water search for the teens this past summer, the capsized boat was first found on July 26, off the coast of New Smyrna, Florida, north of where they were last seen two days before.
According to reports, including one on Weather.com, the Coast Guard explained that it was unable to secure the boat when they first spotted it. A data marker buoy was attached to the craft, but the water was too deep to use an anchor. When authorities returned to the location after searching for the boys, the boat had vanished, the Palm Beach Post reported.
In a prepared statement released April 23, Cohen and Korniloff said: “This is an open missing persons case, and we hope that FWC reopens their investigation and utilizes the expert resources of other government agencies as well as the private sector if necessary to extrapolate the data from the recovered iPhone.”
This past November, Perry’s parents launched the Perry J. Cohen Foundation in honor of their son. Its mission is to educate children about boating and water safety.
Recently, as reported by artnet News, it was announced that entrepreneur and “Shark Tank” judge Kevin “Mr. Wonderful” O’Leary will exhibit his photographs at the upcoming Art New York/Context fair that will open May 3 on Pier 94 on the far west side of Manhattan, part of New York’s annual Frieze Week.
All profits from sales of O’Leary’s photographs, which will be exhibited by Tansey Contemporary, will benefit the Perry J. Cohen Foundation.