US officials are zeroing in on new areas in the Bahamas in the search for Lynette Hooker, an American woman who has been missing for two months. The renewed push comes at a sensitive moment in the case, after authorities indicated that evidence from the couple's own boat appears to be at odds with the version of events given by her husband on the night she vanished.
Lynette Hooker, a 55-year-old mother, has been missing since April 4. Her husband, Brian Hooker, has said that she fell off their dinghy. As part of the resumed effort, a US Coast Guard dive team has been working both the water and the beach at an area called Snake Creek, which sits just a quarter of a mile from the boatyard that Brian Hooker says he paddled to on the night his wife disappeared.
The trigger for the renewed search was a discrepancy in the physical evidence. US officials told ABC News that GPS data from the boat Lynette and Brian were on appears to contradict Brian's account of his whereabouts on the night she disappeared. That apparent inconsistency has reshaped the investigation and sent searchers back into the water around the area where the couple had been.
One of the locations now being examined is Lubbers Key, only about two minutes from where the Hookers' sailboat, the Soulmate, was anchored, and an area that had not previously been searched. Lynette's daughter, Carly Aylesworth, said she was hopeful the new developments would point investigators in the right direction, saying she was happy they had been able to establish Brian's location and identify fresh places to look for concrete proof of what happened.
According to the account he gave authorities, Brian Hooker said the couple had encountered bad weather while riding their dinghy back to their sailboat off Elbow Key. He claims that during that journey Lynette fell overboard, along with the keys to the boat. It is that sequence of events, set against the GPS evidence, that investigators are now working to reconcile.
Brian Hooker was taken into custody days after his wife disappeared and was held by authorities for five days, but he was ultimately let go without charges. During an interview he had promised to stay and keep looking for his wife, yet he left the Bahamas the following day. His Bahamian attorney said he had wanted to be with his terminally ill mother.
Two months on, Carly Aylesworth remains optimistic that her mother could still be found, even as she acknowledged her doubts given how much time has passed, saying she hoped to see her again. She added that she has not spoken with Brian since the day after her mother went missing. The US Coast Guard has said it will continue its search as officials press for answers in the case.