Boat belonging to missing Florida teens found capsized

Three aircrafts searched the waters through the night in a desperate attempt to locate a 19-foot white single engine center console vessel that was operated by Austin Stephanos, 14, and Perry Cohen, 14, the Coast Guard reported.

The teens were last seen on Friday around Jupiter, Florida, when they bought $110 worth of fuel before setting out on their trip.

Austin Stephanos and Perry Cohen, both 14, checked in with their parents at 11 a.m. and were Snapchatting photos of the boat and their fishing gear about an hour later, according to ABC news.

Petty Officer Steve Lehman said the boat was found capsized and neither boy was in or around the boat.

Coast Guard air and sea search-and-rescue crews have covered more than 5,300 square nautical miles, including waters as far north as Melbourne.

The Coast Guard expanded its search Sunday, although rough seas overnight made the search conditions hard.

A reward to find the missing boys has now reached $60,000 as their families are pleading for the public’s help to locate them. “Both boys have their boater’s certification”, said Perry’s mom, Pamela Cohen. “We are going to bring them home”, she said, speaking before the empty boat had been found. Their families told the Coast Guard that the young fishermen would not try to travel to the Bahamas alone and without permission. “We’ll do anything to get our children back”. They were believed to have been heading east, possibly to the Bahamas, based on a social media posting by the boys.

Cohen and Stephanos are both watermen and frequent fishers who have been growing up around boats.