May 11, 2026

Coast Guard Seizes Sailboat of Missing Michigan Mom As Investigation Intensifies

Coast Guard Seizes Sailboat of Missing Michigan Mom As Investigation Intensifies

The Coast Guard is ramping up its investigation into the disappearance of 55-year-old Lynette Hooker. Hooker’s husband Brian remains a person of interest after telling authorities his wife fell off their 8 foot dinghy in the Bahamas during rough seas. The U.S. Coastguard seized the Hooker’s sailboat over the weekend and moved it to Florida, while the agency has also been conducting interviews with possible witnesses. Both Lynette’s daughter and mother are speaking out now about the agony of not knowing what happened.

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00:00:02
Speaker 1: Hey, folks, it is Monday, May eleventh, and there are significant updates in the case of a Michigan woman who went missing in the Bahamas last month. Welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ Robes. I have to admit I thought this wasn't one I was keeping a lot of updates on because it seemed like they didn't arrest the husband, they let him go. So I thought the case was just cold at this point, or they let it go. Not the case at all.

00:00:30
Speaker 2: No, and this is promising news for the people who love Lennette Hooker who are waiting for any word about what may have happened to her. Her daughter is been has been keeping a close eye, as has her mother. But we now have learned that the Coast Guard we were told when authorities behaving, the authorities let Brian Hooker go after detaining him for five days and considering him a person of interest. We were told the Coastguard was going to continue to investigate. But you know, you're in the Bahamas, it was international. You start to wonder just how much focus is actually being placed on this missing fifty five year old woman whose body has yet to be found, And it is a recovery mission has been for some time. But yeah, there were some big developments that have been happening over the past several days and notably over the weekend.

00:01:16
Speaker 1: And we did report it was last week, right. The update was that they were still interviewing people. They were conducting interviews the authorities were. The other big part their ropes is they put out a call to the public, we need your help specifically for something that time.

00:01:30
Speaker 2: Yes, in fact, on x they had a they actually made it. This is funny you've got I shouldn't say funny, but it's so interesting to see investigators and police agencies.

00:01:39
Speaker 3: Utilize social media in a way.

00:01:41
Speaker 2: But they actually started with hashtag breaking, like they know how to get people's attention. So in their ex alert last week they said Breaking Coastguard CGIs is asking the public for info about the disappearance of Lynette Hooker within Aunt Pat's Bay. They talk about the Bahamas on April fourth. They say they are looking for the owner of this sailboat below they have a picture of it more near the Soulmate, which is the name of the boat that Brian and Lynnette Hooker were using, And they were asking for people with information to their urging them to submit tips through the Coastguard tips app.

00:02:16
Speaker 3: So that was a big, big headline.

00:02:18
Speaker 1: It was a huge that's a significant one that our eyebrowels first went up said, oh they really are pursuing that. Could there be more? Well, sure enough, here we are today and Robes there is more, and potentially a lot more given what they're doing now. That's a big suggestion about the direction the investigation is taking them.

00:02:37
Speaker 2: Yes, the US Coast Guard has seized the boat, the Soulmate that we just mentioned that Brian and Lynette Hooker had been using to sail around the Caribbean. They were documenting their travels and their adventures on social media, and this was the boat that allegedly Lynnette Hooker was swimming towards when she fell off that dinghy. This is, of course, all according to her husband of more than twenty years, Brian Hooker, But.

00:03:05
Speaker 1: Thames, that's relevant. We're talking this is a month ago that she went missing. Why just now has something else come up? Because it seemed like this might be the first thing you go after, the boat where they had been hanging out.

00:03:17
Speaker 2: You know, we yes, and you know we talk about momentum a lot in sports, you can talk about momentum in crime investigations as well, and there seemingly is some really significant momentum now because yes after it was widely reported that the Coast Guard over the last several days specifically, has been conducting interviews, really ramping up their investigation, this call to action for people with information and maybe somewhere, somehow they got something that gave them the ability.

00:03:48
Speaker 3: To seize this boat and sail it up the coast.

00:03:52
Speaker 2: In fact, Lynette's daughter first saw this and said, I just saw two men on my mother and stepfather's boat who aren't Brian, and they're literally sailing it up the Eastern seaboard. She just saw them taking off, and then the Coast Guard later confirmed, Yep, we got the boat. It's in Florida and we are we've seized it and it's now basically a part of evidence that in this case.

00:04:19
Speaker 1: Evidence of what right? What are they looking for a reminder, and please help me with the exact date. It was April sixth.

00:04:24
Speaker 2: It was April fifth is when she was reported missing. But supposedly this happened on the evening of April fourth, around sunset, where Brian Hooker says that they were traveling back to their sailboat in an eight foot dinghy when rough seas hit the couple in this boat, and he claims she fell overboard, but she had the keys to the dinghy in her possession and therefore he couldn't go get her. He had one or it's a really a lot of questions why he decided to try and paddle with that one, or took come hours to get back to shore versus going towards her. He said he threw some flotation device towards her, but he lost her in the high winds and rough seas as she was swimming towards the sailboat.

00:05:09
Speaker 1: Did he not report he was well, He obviously the only one that was out there, so he was the one that reported she got in the water and she started swimming right, yes, towards the other boat the soul mats right yes.

00:05:21
Speaker 3: Why didn't he exactly?

00:05:23
Speaker 2: There are so many questions. This is so interesting because Brian Hooker was very vocal. Initially, he was calling friends, leaving voicemails, he was going on to Facebook, he was defending himself, trying to explain what happened, and he was chatty chatty, chatty chatty, and he even put together a map of where he says his dinghy went versus where she went, versus where the sailboat was. And now there are reports at the Coastguard. Yes, after talking to eyewitnesses, people who may have been in the area, they've expanded where they think maybe this route went, what he took.

00:05:56
Speaker 3: It's hard to know.

00:05:57
Speaker 2: They didn't have their cell phones on them, so there is no way to verify. And that is why Lynette's daughter and some other folks have said very carefully that they believe this possibly could have been premeditated. Maybe this wasn't an accident. Why in the heck did neither one of them have their cell phones on them?

00:06:16
Speaker 1: That doesn't make a whole lot of sense, especially with experienced folks. I mean, like, the easiest thing you can do if you need help is call on a cell phone. Now, why wouldn't you have that? The key thing is weird. Her swimming away is weird.

00:06:32
Speaker 3: Him going in the opposite direction is weird.

00:06:35
Speaker 2: You know. I don't know how tides work, but these were a serious and very well traveled sailors. Both Lynnette and Brian knew those waters. No sailboats know how to swim, and certainly it doesn't seem like you'd be put in a situation where you didn't have any way to contact anyone if something went wrong.

00:06:54
Speaker 3: That's boating one on one.

00:06:56
Speaker 2: You have a backup plan, you have an emergency plan, you have flares, you have phones, you have what you need to make sure you're prepared for accidents that obviously happened.

00:07:06
Speaker 3: Oftentimes we can.

00:07:08
Speaker 1: Wap our cell phones before we go down to the podega on the corner. Obviously people take their cell phones. Why this just happened to be the one time? Who knows has her phone been recovered? Where was it?

00:07:20
Speaker 3: Not that I have heard of at all. I haven't heard anything about about her phone at all.

00:07:25
Speaker 2: But look, it was interesting because she went missing on April fourth, or at least that fifth. That's when he reported her missing. But Brian was arrested. I didn't realize three days later on April eighth. Just to remind everyone as a possible person of interest, he was questioned multiple times. He retained a lawyer down there in the Bahamas, but he eventually was released on April thirteenth because behaming in law if they did not have enough evidence to charge him.

00:07:50
Speaker 3: They had to release him. And it's so interesting.

00:07:53
Speaker 2: He sat down for an interview almost immediately said he was staying in the Bahamas to search for Lynette until it for as long as it took, and within hours he left the island citing his sick mother. He has not returned. He's given no more interviews. His current whereabouts is unknown.

00:08:10
Speaker 1: Can understand that media is looking for him. Um, he's retained a lawyer. But at this point, I mean, he's he's got to see this as well. He sees the direction the investigation might be going. He's the only one that knows if he's guilty of anything. This could absolutely robes have been an unfortunate flukish coincident, full accident.

00:08:32
Speaker 3: Sure, that is possible. He vehemently denies any wrongdoing.

00:08:36
Speaker 2: We have learned that he has retained a US based attorney and according to CBS News, I did get a chuckle listening to the reporter describe that they have called this attorney multiple times and she has quote unquote hung up on them. So that's where that stands. But it's really interesting. When we come back, we want to go over what Lynette's daughter has just posted. She put up a post on Mother's Day. And then Lynette's own own mother is also speaking out, and it's really really interesting hearing what she has to say about this new ramped up investigation into trying to find out what happened to Lynette Hooker. And welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ, where we are talking about some increased activity in terms of an investigation as to where Lynnette Hooker could be. We know the Coastguard has made some moves here in the most recent days, including seizing the boat used by Brian and Lynette Hooker, the Soulmate, conducting more interviews, putting out a massive call to action for anyone with information. They are really trying to get to the bottom of what may have happened to this mother, this Michigan mother and Lynette's daughter. It was Mother's Day yesterday. It's understandable she's thinking of her mom. She's worried, she's confused, and she wants answers. So she went on on social media and said she just said that she wishes it were over. She says not having answers has been incredibly difficult, incredibly painful, and she is trying to figure out what happened.

00:10:18
Speaker 3: She said, I want to know the truth.

00:10:20
Speaker 2: And this is tough for anyone in this situation to just not know. That's the worst part, not having any answers, not knowing. And she just said Mother's Day has been incredibly difficult, and her birthday was last week. So these are all these first We talk about this often when people go missing. It's those firsts, and just having question marks adds to all of that pain.

00:10:43
Speaker 1: Where's the daughter now in her thinking? Because she started out pretty strongly and it's made some pretty strong press statements about thinking this was not just some accident, but then she's seen she went down to the Mahamas, I believe, and she backed it off a little bit. But publicly, where is her stance now?

00:11:02
Speaker 2: Publicly is she feels like this was pre planned? She says, it doesn't seem like it was an accident. And you know, she's gone very publicly and given interviews talking about prior fights, prior physical violence, prior threats. She seems still pretty convinced that her stepfather had something to do with it.

00:11:22
Speaker 3: But I do give her credit.

00:11:23
Speaker 2: She always gives their she always leaves space, gives space for the fact that maybe it could have been an accident. But the really interesting part about some of this new information was Lynette's mother.

00:11:36
Speaker 3: She said.

00:11:38
Speaker 2: She hasn't heard from Brian Hooker, and the reporter asked her, don't you think that's odd he hasn't tried to contact you. Her response, if he's innocent, yeah, I mean, can you imagine you've been married to this woman for more than twenty years, she goes missing in a freak accident, and sure, you know that you are going to be a suspect given the circumstances. But to not speak to her mother, to not reach out to her mother, to not be coordinating anything with her mother, I think it's interesting. And Lynette's mom also revealed this. I don't know if we've heard this before. She said that she spoke to Lynette about Brian in March, and she said that Lynette told her a month before her disappearance, I can't take it any more. Mom. She said she told her daughter to get on a plane and come home, and she said, I want my stuff, And she said, she told her daughter, I want you. She said her daughter bought a ticket, but she never came home, and that's what they want, that's what her mom wants, that's what her daughter wants, for Lynette to come home.

00:12:41
Speaker 1: Uh, hey, they have to. They have to be comforted somewhat to know that the investigation is as active as it is. But good on them. I didn't hear or see much about searchers, like searches in the water that are still going on. They probably are, but yeah, that's huge. What could be on that boat, on that sailboat as evidence of what? Again, it's not the boat they were on when this whole accident happened, but it's something happened ahead of time.

00:13:07
Speaker 3: Who knows. Yeah, we don't know.

00:13:08
Speaker 2: And look, if this were premeditated, maybe they can find something on that boat that proves that or suggests that, and it can lead to something further. But I'm just curious why it would have taken until now for the US Coast Guard to seize that boat. Perhaps maybe one of these interviews that they've done, maybe some tips they've received, allowed them to feel comfortable enough to seize this boat.

00:13:31
Speaker 3: But that certainly is a huge development.

00:13:33
Speaker 1: Maybe there were legalities having to do with the Bahamas and US and laws and maritime laws. Who knows, But it's a development, but a lot's happened in just a week's time in this month long investigation. Now, but hey, I am fascinated now. But yeah, hardened to hear that they are on it.

00:13:51
Speaker 2: I can only yeah, I can only imagine that Lynnette's family is certainly excited that they may actually finally get some answers. Will of course continue to keep our I on this developing story, and hopefully it doesn't go cold. Hopefully there are some answers very soon for Lynette's family. But in the meantime, we always appreciate you listening to us. Everybody.

00:14:10
Speaker 3: I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ. Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.