Father Asks Apple to Unlock His Dead Son’s Phone

2 minute read
TO GO WITH AFP STORY BY ELLA IDE A handout picture released by the Fabbretti family on March 31, 2016, shows architect Leonardo Fabbretti (R) posing with his adopted son Dama in an undefined location. Fabbretti, a grieving father in Italy, has written to Apple's chief executive Tim Cook to beg him to unblock his dead son's iPhone so he can retrieve the photographs stored on it. If the US tech giant fails, he said he will turn to the elite of the hacking world -- Apple's nemesis in the San Bernardino case, which saw the FBI turn to outside help after it failed to force the Silicon valley company to crack a killer's iPhone. Dama, who was adopted from Ethiopia in 2007, was diagnosed with bone cancer in 2013 after a skiing accident and died in September aged 13 after a series of operations and chemotherapy sessions failed to cure him. / AFP PHOTO / FAMILY HANDOUT / Handout / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / FAMILY HANDOUT" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS HANDOUT/AFP/Getty Images
Architect Leonardo Fabbretti (right) posing with his adopted son Dama in a picture released by the Fabbretti family on March 31, 2016.AFP/Getty Images
By Tessa Berenson Rogers

A grieving father is begging Apple to allow him access to the photos stored on his dead son’s iPhone.

Leonardo Fabbretti’s adopted son Dama died at age 13 of bone cancer in September, the Guardian reports. Now Fabbretti has written a letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook pleading to unlock Dama’s phone so he can see the photos of his son.

“Don’t deny me the memories of my son,” Fabbretti wrote in the March 21 letter. “I cannot give up. Having lost my Dama, I will fight to have the last two months of photos, thoughts and words which are held hostage in his phone.”

According to CNN, Fabbretti, who lives in Italy, first contacted Apple back in the fall in the month his son passed away. Apple staff attempted to get the photographs off of iCloud, but Dama had not backed up the device. so the company said there is no way to retrieve them without the passcode.

“I think what’s happened should make you think about the privacy policy adopted by your company,” Fabbretti wrote in his new letter. “Although I share your philosophy in general, I think Apple should offer solutions for exceptional cases like mine.”

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Write to Tessa Berenson Rogers at tessa.Rogers@time.com