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Nate Coppick's family is suing the company that installed the gas pumps at Hobbs Westport Marina.
Eyewitness News, The Gazette's news partner, was in the courtroom for the emotional testimony in Lincolnton.
A powerful note was entered into evidence on Tuesday. The morning that Coppick died he wrote a note to his father, saying “I love you, I was accepted to engineering school, let's talk about it later.”
At the bottom his father wrote a response saying good job.
They never did get to talk about it.
Richard Coppick was most emotional when he testified about the day investigators asked him to view his son's body.
"They asked me to come identify the body, and I refused. I told them, I couldn't live with that image," he said.
Coppick then needed a moment to collect himself.
He said his 19-year-old son loved working at the
The teenager was refueling a boat at the marina that day when a spark ignited gas fumes and the boat exploded.
Richard Coppick recalled getting a call that Nate was missing.
"I knew Nate was gone right from the beginning," he said.
Coppick drove to the marina right away and said that he watched the burning boat for a while. Once the divers suspended the search he went home to his wife and daughter.
"We collapsed on the kitchen floor and just cried together," he said.
He told jurors he just wanted to know what caused the explosion.
"I was in shock for a while. I kept waiting for somebody to contact me and tell me what happened. Nobody ever contacted me. Nobody said anything," he said.
Coppick said it took a lawsuit to learn the nozzle on the marina gas tank was banned by the state.
The owner of Petroleum Equipment and Services, the company that installed the tanks, sat in the courtroom on Tuesday as Coppick testified.
"It's like you lost a part of yourself," said Coppick.
There was no cross examination.