A man was arrested Wednesday in connection with the disappearance of an American woman whose husband said she fell from a boat in the Bahamas, according to the Royal Bahamas Police Force.
The agency did not identify the man who is in custody or say what charges he may face, but in a news release it provided details that aligned with information about the disappearance of Lynette Hooker, 55.
Her husband, Brian Hooker, has said his wife fell in the water Saturday night during rough seas on a dinghy ride from Hope Town to Elbow Cay.
The police force said the man had been taken into custody shortly after 7 p.m. Wednesday in Marsh Harbour, a town in Abaco Islands, and was being questioned. The agency did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Earlier Wednesday, an official with the U.S. Coast Guard said it had opened a criminal investigation into Lynette Hooker’s disappearance. The official declined further comment on the matter.
In a Facebook post Wednesday morning, Brian Hooker said he was “heartbroken” that his wife had fallen in the water.
“Despite desperate attempts to reach her, the winds and currents drove us further apart,” he said. “We continue to search for her and that is my sole focus.”
Local authorities said Tuesday that the effort to find her was a “recovery operation.”
Lynette Hooker’s daughter, Karli Aylesworth, has questioned her stepfather’s account, saying it seemed unlikely that her mother would “just fall” overboard.
The Michigan couple are experienced on the water and have been sailing for more than a decade, starting with a small two-person sailboat and moving to a larger vessel they bought in Texas, Aylesworth said.
Tim Frendenberg, who has a sailboat in the same anchorage as the Hookers’ vessel, said Wednesday that the case was “sharp reminder that this beautiful place can become dangerous quickly.”
“It is a tragic situation,” he said.
The Royal Bahamas police have previously said the pair left Hope Town in an 8-foot, hard-bottom dinghy, about 7:30 p.m. Saturday, headed for Elbow Cay.
Brian Hooker told police that Lynette had the keys to the boat when she went overboard, which caused the dinghy’s engine to shut off, according to a police statement.
He paddled for hours before making it to Marsh Harbor Boat Yard early Sunday, he told police. According to the police statement, Brian Hooker told someone what had happened, and that person alerted authorities.
@ NBC News
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