Thursday, April 9, 2026 -The husband of the missing boater has been arrested in connection with her disappearance from a boat in the Bahamas after her concerned daughter raised an alarm.
Brian Hooker, 59, was taken into custody in Marsh Harbour,
Abaco, around 7:30 p.m Wednesday, April 8, in connection with his wife Lynette
Hooker’s disappearance four days after he claims she fell from an eight-foot
hard dinghy en route to their yacht in Elbow Cay.
Advardo Dames, the Assistant Commissioner of the Royal
Bahamas Police Force, said he had been “taken into custody as a suspect.”
Terrel Butler, Brian’s attorney, confirmed the arrest and
said he “categorically and unequivocally denies any wrongdoing,” CNN reported.
“He has been cooperating with the relevant authorities as
part of an ongoing investigation,” Butler said.
A US Coast Guard official confirmed that a criminal
investigation into Lynette’s disappearance has been opened, but refused to
share any further details, NBC News reported.
The search for Lynette is now a recovery mission, and her
mom, Darlene Hamlett, wants answers from Brian about the disappearance.
“I’m going to be interested in what he says, because I
haven’t heard from him in almost two days,” she said.
The development comes after Lynette’s heartbroken daughter,
Karli Aylesworth, said she believes “something might have happened”
involving her mom and her stepfather when the avid boaters vanished at sea
Saturday night.
“I do believe something might have happened to her,” she
told Fox News.
“There’s history of him choking her out and threatening to
throw her overboard. So the fact that this is actually happening makes me
believe there’s more to the story.”
Aylesworth also revealed that her stepdad didn’t tell her
that her mom was missing until around 24 hours after she vanished in the sea.
Brian denied the accusations in a statement to the Daily
Beast.
Police said an initial investigation revealed that Lynette,
55, was swept away by currents after falling into the sea from the dinghy she
was in with Brian while trying to reach their yacht, Soulmate.
During the couple’s excursion from Hope Town to Elbow Cay,
Lynette reportedly tumbled overboard with the boat’s keys — causing the
vessel’s engine to shut off, police said.
Brian told cops that he lost sight of his wife during the
rough surf and paddled the small boat back to shore, eventually arriving at
Marsh Harbour Boat Yard around 4 a.m. Sunday.
Upon arriving at the boat yard, he informed an individual of
the harrowing ordeal. That person then reported the incident to the police.
Authorities have since conducted extensive marine, land, and
aerial searches in hopes of finding Lynette.
Just hours before he was taken into custody, Brian broke his
silence in a Facebook post to say he was “heartbroken” over his wife’s
disappearance.
“I am heartbroken over the recent boat accident in
unpredictable seas and high winds that caused my beloved Lynette to fall from
our small dinghy near Elbow Cay in the Bahamas,” he wrote online.
“Despite desperate attempts to reach her, the winds and
currents drove us further apart. We continue to search for her, and that is my
sole focus.
The couple had been married for more than two decades and
lived in Onsted, Michigan.
0 Comments