The day after his wife vanished during a nighttime dinghy trip in the Bahamas, Brian Hooker sent a friend messages saying strong winds separated them and that she tried to swim back toward their sailboat but they lost sight of each other quickly, according to messages reviewed by CBS News.
Lynette Hooker, who lives in Michigan, has been missing since Sunday. Bahamian authorities arrested her husband Wednesday night and are holding him for questioning, attorney Terrel Butler said; he has not been charged. Hooker can be detained for 48 hours before police must charge or release him, a period that can be extended to 96 hours if necessary.
Hooker has denied any wrongdoing. He told investigators his wife fell from a dinghy late Saturday as the couple sailed from Hope Town to Elbow Cay. He said powerful currents carried her away along with the boat key, which he said disabled the engine and prevented him from reaching her.
In texts to Daniel Danforth, a friend who met the Hookers while sailing, Hooker gave a similar account. Danforth said he messaged after seeing news reports, and Hooker replied that the wind separated them as the sun set and that he had drifted, paddling with one oar for about seven hours before washing up behind the shore of a neighboring island and getting help.
Bahamian police said Hooker reached the Marsh Harbour boat yard on Abaco at about 4 a.m. Sunday after paddling the dinghy to shore. Officials said a person at the yard reported to authorities that Hooker said his wife was missing.
In his messages to Danforth, Hooker described his family as being ‘in hell’ as search teams failed to find Lynette. He told Danforth he had moved his boat to Marsh Harbour and slept there, but planned to stay briefly with his sister and brother-in-law, who were flying in. He said he intended to return to the area to continue searching, that he would ‘most likely definitely need help in the future,’ and that he was trying to take things day by day and ‘keep the faith.’
Danforth said he was struck by Hooker’s social-media activity during the search. A Facebook notification that Hooker had liked a post over the weekend initially drew his attention, and Danforth told CBS News seeing someone active online while their spouse was missing seemed odd. He also pointed out differences between Hooker’s messages and initial police accounts: while authorities said Lynette was swept overboard and out to sea, the messages Danforth received described her as casually swimming back toward the sailboat before they lost sight of each other.
Danforth questioned how wind and current could separate a small dinghy and a swimmer so quickly and why Hooker would not have attempted to retrieve her if she was moving toward the boat. He also noted the couple frequently carried phones and posted videos, raising questions about why devices were not available or functioning that night. On the missing key, Danforth noted photos and videos shared by the couple rarely showed either person wearing a key on a lanyard; he allowed it was possible Lynette seized the key while falling.
Lynette’s adult daughter, Karli Aylesworth, told CBS News she is skeptical of Brian Hooker’s version of events. Aylesworth said her mother and Hooker had broken up and reconciled multiple times and that she wants answers about what happened. She questioned how Lynette would have had the key, saying, ‘Brian’s always driving. So he basically is in charge of the key. So the fact that my mom had it doesn’t make any sense.’
Butler, Hooker’s lawyer, rejected Aylesworth’s suggestions and said Hooker has been cooperating with investigators and focused on searching for his wife. ‘That’s all he’s been talking about,’ Butler said, adding that Hooker had arranged to return to the search area.
Butler also said that in their first in-person meeting late Thursday, Hooker told him he nearly drowned after falling into the water while being taken into custody. Butler said officers had boarded Hooker’s vessel to conduct a search, handcuffed him and asked him to step down; Hooker then fell overboard and was rescued by officers.
Nicole Sganga, Kiki Intarasuwan and Anna Schecter contributed to this report.