Coast Guard divers resume search for missing Michigan woman

U.S. Coast Guard divers have arrived in the Bahamas to renew the search for Lynette Hooker, a 55-year-old Michigan woman who disappeared in April after her husband said she fell from a dinghy near Elbow Cay.

The case is being investigated as a “possible foreign murder of a U.S. national,” a U.S. official told CBS News. The official said that posture has been in place for weeks and should not be viewed as a new development or shift in the investigation. No charges have been filed.

The 154-foot Coast Guard cutter Margaret Norvell arrived Tuesday in Marsh Harbour carrying a team of specialized divers, CBS News reported. NBC News, citing a U.S. official familiar with the matter, reported that the divers arrived in Hopetown and that the search was expected to begin Tuesday evening.

The Bahamian government granted the Coast Guard permission last week to send divers to canvass areas that had not previously been searched, according to CBS News. Investigators are looking for new evidence, including Hooker’s body, using GPS data gathered from an electronic device. They have also visited the Abaco Inn, the last place Hooker was seen alive.

Hooker disappeared April 4. Her husband, Brian Hooker, 59, told authorities that the couple were traveling by dinghy back to their sailboat, the Soulmate, when rough water knocked Lynette into the sea and left him drifting for several hours. He told local authorities she was last seen near Aunt Pat’s Bay, near Elbow Cay and Hope Town.

Brian Hooker has also said his wife had the keys to the engine when she went overboard, and that he paddled the boat to shore and told someone what happened. That person then contacted police, authorities said, according to NBC News.

CBS News reported that new digital forensic evidence appears to undercut Brian Hooker’s account. A U.S. official previously told the network that GPS data from one of Brian Hooker’s devices showed movements that did not align with what he told investigators. The data showed the device going out on the water, stopping in the Sea of Abaco and returning, the official said, giving investigators a more precise area to search.

Brian Hooker was arrested by the Royal Bahamas Police Force on April 8, several days after his wife disappeared, and was released five days later without being charged. He has returned to the United States and has denied wrongdoing.

“I’ve never harmed Lynette, and I would never harm Lynette, and I want to find Lynette,” he told NBC News in April after his release. His attorney, Terrel A. Butler, said Brian Hooker has been cooperating with officials in the investigation.

Troy Pritchard, a member of the initial search team, told CBS News that the account given early in the investigation raised concerns.

“The story didn’t make a whole lot of sense to me,” Pritchard said. “But going on information that we had, we had to do our best to search what was told to us in the initial talks with the police.”

Friends of Lynette Hooker said they hope the renewed search yields answers.

“I’m hoping this is a step in the right direction for justice for Lynette,” Marnee Stevenson told CBS News.

“I have faith that following their GPS coordinates, they’re going to find something,” Baine Stevenson added.