Authorities in the Bahamas are intensifying their efforts to locate the remains of Lynette Hooker, a boater from Michigan, as a crucial deadline looms on Monday for potentially charging her husband with a crime.
Brian Hooker, 59, was apprehended on the island last Wednesday, four days after he reported that his wife disappeared overboard while they were navigating a small dinghy back to their yacht.
The Bahamian authorities have until 7:20 p.m. Eastern time on Monday to make a decision on whether to press charges against Brian regarding Lynette’s disappearance, or to release him, according to his lawyer, Terrel Butler.
Should the deadline pass without charges, Brian cannot be held any longer, although when he might next appear in court remains uncertain.
Brian was scheduled for another police interview on Monday following a three-hour interrogation at the Central Police Station in Grand Bahama on Friday, Butler reported.
Initially, Brian was asked to come in for questioning and was assured he wasn’t a suspect in the death of 55-year-old Lynette. He stated that she fell into the ocean on the night of April 4, taking the dinghy’s key with her, which compelled him to paddle back to shore.
“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.
“He definitely denies causing her death, and he still asked about her and is hopeful that she will be recovered,” Butler added.
The rescue mission to find Lynette was called off last Tuesday and has now become a recovery mission.
A flotation device believed to have been thrown to Lynette was found last week, but as of Monday, her body remains missing.
Authorities are continuing to search for the mom by air, land and sea, Royal Bahamas Defense Force Commander Origin Deleveaux told NBC News.
The initial search mission was hampered by “serious bad weather,” Deleveaux added, echoing Brian’s account of stormy seas on the night of his wife’s disappearance.
Brian has denied any wrongdoing in relation to his wife’s disappearance.
His stepdaughter, Karli Aylesworth, has questioned his account of the incident and accused him of previously “choking” Lynette and threatening to throw her overboard.
“I hope this was just a freak accident, but I just have a hard time believing it at the moment. I just want to know the truth,” Aylesworth said on Thursday.
“I feel like this was probably preplanned, if anything,” she said, adding that “it doesn’t seem like just some accident.”
Brian described the night his wife disappeared in a phone call to a friend, claiming that his wife “basically just bounced off the dinghy” amid 20-mph winds.
Court records in Michigan indicate that Brian was acquitted of child abuse charges in 2006 by a jury, although further details on the case were unavailable.
Lynette was arrested on charges of assault and battery/simple assault in 2015, although that warrant was denied due to “insufficient evidence as to who started the assault,” according to a Michigan arrest report.
