Defense Release: The Bahamas husband’s lawyer has gone public with 100+ pages aimed at clearing him, but his wife’s daughter says she doesn’t buy it

“He definitely denies causing her death, and he still asked about her and is hopeful that she will be recovered,” Brian Hooker’s lawyer said Friday.

MARSH HARBOUR, Bahamas — The husband of an American woman who has been missing since the couple was on a weekend boat ride was questioned by police Friday about potentially causing harm to his wife, his attorney said.

Attorney Terrel A. Butler said the line of questioning suggests authorities are looking into a possible murder charge against Brian Hooker, 58, in the disappearance of Lynette Hooker, 55.

For more than three hours at Central Police Station in Grand Bahama, Brian Hooker was asked about the couple’s relationship and personal life, and questioned “in relation to causing harm which resulted in her death,” Butler said.

Butler noted that thus far there is no evidence or information related to her death, as her body hasn’t been recovered. Brian Hooker has not been charged and has denied any wrongdoing.

The Royal Bahamas Police Force arrested Brian Hooker on Wednesday.

His arrest came days after the police said he told authorities that his wife fell overboard Saturday with the keys to the dinghy they were on that night near Elbow Cay. Police said he told them he had to paddle for hours to reach Marsh Harbour Boat Yard early Sunday, where he was able to alert someone, who then alerted police.
Lynette Hooker.via Facebook

During the police interview, Brian Hooker was “pretty upset and emotional, at one point even broke down into tears,” Butler said.

“He kept reiterating that ‘I need to know what’s happening,’ what is happening with the search of his wife,” she said. “He was uncertain as to why they were questioning him about causing harm or possible murder when they had not given him any information where she is, if they had recovered her.”

Butler said authorities would need to establish intent and the act of murder to justify that possible charge.

“He definitely denies causing her death, and he still asked about her and is hopeful that she will be recovered,” Butler added.

Brian Hooker’s detention was extended Friday until 7:20 p.m. local time Monday, his attorney said. His detention cannot be extended again and he must be charged to be held past that date, his attorney added. It’s unclear when he may have a court date.

Search efforts continue for Lynette Hooker between Marsh Harbour and Elbow Cay. Police are helping with the search using their own vessel, and officials are also using drone surveillance to aid the search.Courtesy Royal Bahama Defense Force

Disappearance nears one week

The search for Lynette Hooker is ongoing, Royal Bahamas Defense Force Cmdr. Origin Deleveaux told NBC News on Friday.

The U.S. Coast Guard opened a criminal investigation in the case, and a U.S. law enforcement source said Thursday that the Royal Bahamas Police Force had officially requested U.S. assistance.

Police are helping with the search using their own vessel, and officials are also using drone surveillance by air and underwater to aid the search, Deleveaux said.

The commander said there has been some “serious bad weather” as the search has unfolded. Resources were previously split to search multiple areas, but now efforts don’t need to be divided because one search has been completed.

The U.S. Coast Guard is no longer assisting the search.

In a statement earlier on Friday, Butler said Brian Hooker’s “primary concern and source of intense frustration is his inability to continue the search for his wife of 25 years.”

“The trauma of her disappearance, coupled with his current detention as a suspect, has left him in an extremely fragile state,” the statement said.

Brian Hooker recalled that night in call to friends

Friends of Brian Hooker posted to YouTube recordings of a phone call they said they had with him on Monday, in which he describes what happened the night his wife went missing.

Butler could not yet confirm whether the recording is of Hooker. NBC News has not independently verified whether the recording has been edited.

In the audio, purportedly of Hooker, he says he and his wife were anchored out at the south end of Aunt Pat’s Bay on Elbow Cay near Tahiti Beach, and they went out in a dinghy into the water Saturday night.

He said Lynette Hooker “basically just bounced off the dinghy” amid a blow of winds around 20 mph.

“We weren’t wearing life jackets. It was sundown, and the sun set like basically 10 minutes after she fell over,” he said.

“The wind blew us apart so fast that I think, I think she tried to swim back to the sailboat, back to our sailboat which was probably, I don’t know, 1,000 yards [away] or something. But the waves were three foot,” he said.

What followed was a “cascade of failures and it’s something I’m never going to forgive myself for,” Hooker said on the call. Those failures included one of the pins of his oars breaking, anchoring issues and setting off flares to no response, he said.

He recalled anchoring the dinghy, yelling for his wife, and throwing out a flotation cushion to her right after she fell in, but he couldn’t tell if she grabbed it or not.

By the time he got the anchor set, he said, he was about a quarter to half a mile away from her, and the tide carried him out. He ended up drifting for hours until he landed on marshland about 4 miles away, he said in the audio.

He said he alerted police and the search began around 4:30 a.m., and by then she had been in the water for eight hours.

The video of the recording was posted by Blaine Stevenson, who told NBC News he and his wife, Marnette, spoke to Brian Hooker on Monday. Blaine Stevenson said he posted the audio so people can continue to search for Lynette Hooker and to release Brian Hooker’s account of the incident since he is detained.

The couple met the Hookers in late 2023 while anchored near each other in Bradenton, Florida, Blaine said, and they have sailed with the couple before.

Rough waters

Butler said in the Friday statement that Brian Hooker had fallen overboard the night he was arrested amid rough waters, causing an injury to his knee that has caused a limp and an abrasion.

The incident occurred after he was escorted to the Hookers’ boat, the Soul Mate, by police boat so officials could search his property during his arrest, Butler said.

Butler said Brian Hooker was holding a bundle of clothing in his “restricted hands” and was trying to maintain his balance amid “choppy and dangerous sea conditions“ when he lost his footing and fell overboard.

“He was submerged in the cold water and took in a significant amount of seawater before his life jacket brought him to the surface,” Butler wrote in the statement. “He had to be rescued from the water by the police.”

He received medical treatment and a prescription for his injury, Butler said.

Rapeepan Cash and her husband, Johnnie J. Cash, a Marsh Harbour couple, said the waters were also rough the night Lynette Hooker went missing and that even an experienced swimmer would have had trouble against the currents.

The couple, who spoke Thursday from their store, ABACO Asian Market, said that on a calm day someone could have made it back to shore, but stressed that the waters were not calm Saturday night.

‘I just want to know the truth’

Lynette Hooker’s daughter, Karli Aylesworth, questioned her stepfather’s account of what happened Saturday night.

“I hope this was just a freak accident, but I just have a hard time believing it at the moment,” Aylesworth said Thursday. “I just want to know the truth.”

Asked whether she thinks her mother’s disappearance was an accident, Aylesworth said she didn’t think so.

“I feel like this was probably preplanned, if anything, like, it doesn’t seem like just some accident,” she said.

In a statement Thursday, Butler said Brian Hooker “categorically and unequivocally denies any wrongdoing and in particular the allegations recently made by Karli Aylesworth.”

According to Aylesworth, the couple had “a history of not getting along, especially when they drink.” She also said her mother and stepfather were both experienced on the water and had been sailing for more than a decade. They started in a small, two-person sailboat and eventually upgraded to a larger vessel purchased in Texas.

Members of the Royal Bahama Defense Force aboard a boat during the search for Lynette Hooker between Marsh Harbour and Elbow Cay.Courtesy Royal Bahama Defense Force

Both Brian Hooker and Lynette Hooker have had prior run-ins with the law.

Lynette Hooker was arrested on charges of assault and battery/simple assault in 2015, though the warrant was denied after “insufficient evidence as to who started the assault.” According to a Michigan police report from that night, both she and her husband accused each other of assault.

Court records in Michigan indicate that a jury acquitted Brian Hooker of a child abuse charge in 2006. Details on the case were not available Friday.

Darlene Hamlett, Lynette Hooker’s mother, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that she was “glad to hear” about her son-in-law’s arrest and that she hadn’t heard from him in days.

“I’m going to be interested in what he says, because I haven’t heard from him in almost two days,” she said. The AP noted that Hamlett has plans to travel to the Bahamas to aid in the search.

“Our family grew up on water and so Lynette her whole life has been near lakes, on boats, sailing and swimming,” Hamlett said. “It would be a miracle if [she’s rescued], but I’m still counting on one.”

Jesse Kirsch and Carlos Catire reported from Marsh Harbour, Marlene Lenthang from Los Angeles and Rebecca Cohen from New York City.