The day after his wife disappeared during a nighttime boat ride in the Bahamas, Brian Hooker told a friend that she tried to swim back to their sailboat but strong winds pushed them apart “pretty quickly,” according to messages reviewed by CBS News.
Lynette Hooker, a Michigan resident, has been missing since Sunday. Bahamian officials arrested her husband Wednesday night and are holding him for questioning, though he has not been charged, attorney Terrel Butler said. Hooker can be held for 48 hours before authorities must charge or release him; that period can be extended to 96 hours if necessary.
Hooker has denied wrongdoing. He told authorities his wife fell from a dinghy Saturday night while the couple sailed from Hope Town to Elbow Cay. He said powerful currents swept her away along with the keys to their boat, cutting power to its engine and preventing him from reaching her.
In messages to Daniel Danforth, a friend since 2023, Hooker relayed a similar account. Danforth said he reached out after seeing news coverage of Lynette’s disappearance. In response, Hooker wrote: “The wind blew me away from her and she swam towards the sailboat and we lost sight of each other pretty quickly as it was just about sundown. I drifted and tried to paddle with one oar for the next 7 hours until I washed up behind the shore of the next Island over and was able to get some help finally.”
Bahamian police said Hooker arrived at the Marsh Harbor Boat Yard on Abaco at 4 a.m. Sunday after paddling the dinghy to shore. They said he told someone his wife was missing and that person notified authorities.
In his messages to Danforth, Hooker said his family was “in hell” as search crews failed to locate Lynette. When Danforth checked in the next morning, Hooker said he had moved his boat to Marsh Harbor and had been sleeping there but planned to relocate “for a night or two” to stay with his sister and brother-in-law, who were flying in. He told Danforth he planned to “head back out to the site” and continue searching. He added that he would “most likely definitely need help in the future” and that he was “trying to take it a day at a time and keep the faith.”
Danforth, who met the Hookers three years ago while sailing near New Orleans, said a Facebook notification that Brian liked over the weekend initially reminded him of the couple, and that seeing Brian active on social media as Lynette was missing raised questions. “You know, my wife’s missing, Facebook’s the last thing I’m worried about,” Danforth told CBS News.
Danforth also said some details in Brian’s messages differed from emerging media reports and from how Danforth envisioned events. While police have said Hooker recalled his wife being swept overboard and out to sea, the messages Danforth received described Lynette “casually swimming back toward the sailboat.” Danforth questioned how strong winds and currents could separate a small dinghy and a swimmer so rapidly, and if Lynette had been swimming toward the dinghy, why Hooker did not try to retrieve her.
Danforth also noted that the Hookers “always had their phones with them” and frequently posted videos, so he wondered why phones were not available or working that night. He raised questions about the missing boat key, saying Hookers’ on-deck pictures and videos never showed either of them with a key on a lanyard. He conceded it was possible Lynette might have grabbed the key in desperation as she fell.
Lynette’s daughter, Karli Aylesworth, told CBS News she doubts Brian Hooker’s account. Aylesworth said her mother and Hooker had broken up and reconciled over recent years and she is seeking answers about the circumstances of the disappearance. “For one, I don’t understand how she got the key,” Aylesworth said. “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 attorney, denied Aylesworth’s allegations and said Hooker has been cooperating with authorities and focused on continuing the search. “That’s all he’s been talking about,” Butler said. “Yesterday… he made arrangements to go back out and search for her.”
Butler also said that in their first in-person meeting late Thursday, Hooker told him he almost drowned after falling into the water while police were taking him into custody. Butler said officers had taken Hooker to his vessel for a search, handcuffed him and asked him to disembark; Hooker fell overboard and had to be rescued by officers.
Nicole Sganga, Kiki Intarasuwan and Anna Schecter contributed to this report.