FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A South Florida father whose son disappeared last July during a fishing trip spoke to Local 10 News on Thursday after filing a motion demanding to have access to the information on an iPhone that was found on the boat.
"I can't sleep at times not knowing what happened," Philip Cohen said.
It's almost been a year since Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen, both 14, vanished after they went on a fishing trip off the coast of Jupiter. For Perry's father, just the thought of what happened that July 24 still stings.
"To not be able to say goodbye, to not be able to touch him and to hug him and to hold him, just even hear him, hear him laugh and talk -- there's just so much that I miss," he said.
The boat the boys were on was recently recovered off the coast of Bermuda, and so was Austin's iPhone.
Just last week, the iPhone was ordered by a judge to be turned over to Apple, where it will be analyzed.
Like all of the other parents, Cohen wants access to that information as well.
"I'm his father," Cohen said. "Nobody else is his father. I am Perry's father. I have every right to that information, just like anybody else does."
Cohen said he felt he was shut out and forced to take legal measures to get access to more information about his son's disappearance. He filed a lawsuit to intervene with Pamela Cohen's motion to obtain data on Austin's cellphone to ensure that he also receives the information.
"I think we all share the same interest," Philip Cohen’s attorney, Gary Farmer, said. "That is to get answers, to find out what happened to these boys."
Acknowledging that the information might not bring his boy back, Philip Cohen said he thinks the clues will provide closure.
"There's nothing that I wouldn't give to have him back," he said.