Husband's phone GPS data renews search for Lynette Hooker

U.S. officials are using GPS data to aid in the search for a Michigan woman who has been lost at sea for nearly two months, according to multiple reports.

Lynette Hooker, 55, disappeared on April 4 while boating in the Bahamas with her husband, Brian Hooker, 58. Investigators have recently obtained GPS data that will help them focus their search to a more specific area, CBS News and NewsNation reported.

An unnamed U.S. official told CBS News that Hooker’s husband, Brian Hooker, gave investigators information about his whereabouts on April 4 that doesn’t match recently obtained GPS data. U.S. investigators are now asking the Bahamas to approve a dive team to search new areas in the Sea of Abaco for the missing woman’s remains.

USA TODAY contacted the Royal Bahamas Police Force on May 28 but did not immediately receive a response. The Federal Bureau of Investigation referred the newspaper to the U.S. Coast Guard, which declined to comment, citing the active investigation.

Lynette, Brian Hooker had been sailing around the Gulf of Mexico

Lynette Hooker’s daughter, Karli Aylesworth, said her mother sold her home in Michigan four years ago and began living on a sailboat. Her mother and stepfather had been sailing around the Gulf of Mexico and went to the Bahamas when she disappeared, per WMAQ-TV.

Brian Hooker told the Royal Bahamas Police Force that he and his wife were traveling from Hope Town to Elbow Cay on Saturday, April 4, police said in a news release shared to Facebook on April 5.

The couple was in their dinghy, a separate boat from the Soulmate boat they live on, reported CBS News. Per police, Brian said they left Hope Town around 7:30 p.m. and headed to Elbow Cay when Lynette fell off the 8-foot dinghy. When she fell, she took the boat keys with her, causing the engine to shut off.

“Strong currents subsequently carried her away, and he lost sight of her,” police wrote in the news release. “He then paddled the vessel to shore.”

Brian also told police he got to Marsh Harbour Boat Yard around 4 a.m. the next day. That’s when he told someone nearby what happened, and that person contacted local authorities.

According to CBS News, some of the newly obtained GPS data comes from one of Brian Hooker’s electronic devices. The data shows that his cell phone was out on the water, the device stopped moving in the Sea of Abaco, then returned. The data has given investigators a more specific area to search.

Because U.S. officials need to search the waters in the Bahamas, they must request permission from the Caribbean country, CBS News and CNN reported.

The Royal Bahamas Police Force took Brian Hooker into custody on April 8 and questioned him about his wife’s disappearance, the agency said in an April 8 news release. Police announced on April 13 that he was released from custody, as the Department of Public Prosecutors told authorities that no charges should be filed pending the outcome of the investigation.

The Coast Guard also issued a news release on May 14, saying agents seized the Hookers' boat, named Soulmate, about 40 nautical miles off the coast of Melbourne, Florida.

The Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS) took custody of the Soulmate due to it being part of “an active criminal investigation,” the Coast Guard wrote in the May 14 news release.

Couple got into a domestic incident in 2015 at Michigan home, police report says

Per a police report obtained by USA TODAY, Brian and Lynette Hooker called local authorities at least once to respond to their home in Kentwood, Michigan, about 10 miles southeast of Grand Rapids, when they lived there. According to the report, the husband and wife were drunk and accused each other of assault in 2015. 

Police said they couldn’t determine who started the fight, but Brian Hooker was the only one with a visible injury, which was a bloody nose. Lynette Hooker was arrested on assault and battery and was booked into the county jail that night, per the report.

Lynette Hooker's daughter from a previous relationship, Aylesworth, said her mother and stepfather had a volatile relationship, per WMAQ-TV and NewsNation.

Brian Hooker's attorney, Terrel A. Butler, previously told USA TODAY that his client denied any wrongdoing. 

"Mr. Hooker categorically and unequivocally denies any wrongdoing and in particular the allegations recently made by Karli Aylesworth," Butler's statement to USA TODAY reads. "He has been cooperating with the relevant authorities as part of an ongoing investigation."

Aylesworth started a GoFundMe, initially to support the family financially as they went to the Bahamas to look for Lynette Hooker; however, more recently, she said the fundraiser would help with the search or to help lay her mother to rest if she's found deceased.

As of May 28, the GoFundMe has raised more than $25,000.

Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY’s trending team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Email her at [email protected].