news Alerts
There are no new alerts at this time
The U.S. Coast Guard will reopen the search for Lynette Hooker, the Michigan woman who has been missing since April after she fell overboard in the Bahamas, according to a U.S. official familiar with the investigation.
Subscribe to read this story ad-free
Get unlimited access to ad-free articles and exclusive content.
The search will resume because GPS data from the boat she and her husband, Brian Hooker, were on appears to contradict his account of his whereabouts the night she disappeared, the official said.
Hooker’s account caused investigators to search “in the wrong area” of the Sea of Abaco while they were looking for Lynette, 55, the official said. The Coast Guard is requesting permission from Bahamian authorities to allow divers to re-search the sea, the official added.
Hooker’s Bahamas-based attorney, Terrel A. Butler, declined to comment Wednesday citing the ongoing investigation. Her client has denied any wrongdoing in relation to his wife’s disappearance.
Lynette’s daughter, Karli Aylesworth, told NBC News that she provided DNA to the Coast Guard on Wednesday to aid its investigation into her mother’s disappearance.
Lynette’s mother, Darlene Hamlett, said authorities have not kept her up to date on the investigation, and she has not talked to Brian Hooker. She declined to comment further.
The FBI is processing evidence at its facility in Quantico, Virginia, according to the U.S. official.
Hooker told Bahamian authorities that his wife fell out of their 8-foot dinghy with the key to the engine on the evening of April 4 as they were traveling from Hope Town to Elbow Cay.
He said he paddled the vessel to shore, arriving around 4 a.m. April 5 at Marsh Harbour Boat Yard, where he told someone what had happened, authorities said. That person then informed police.
The Coast Guard took possession of the couple’s boat, the Soulmate, this month.
Hooker was arrested in connection with Lynette’s disappearance on April 8 and released five days later without being charged. At the time, Royal Bahamas Police Commissioner Shanta Knowles said he would remain a suspect.
Hooker has denied harming his wife and has returned to the U.S.
“I’ve never harmed Lynette, and I would never harm Lynette, and I want to find Lynette,” he told NBC News last month.
Aylesworth previously told NBC News that her mother and Hooker had “a history of not getting along, especially when they drink.”
In 2015, Lynette was arrested on charges of assault and battery/simple assault. A Michigan police report from that night said she and her husband accused each other of assault.
The warrant was denied for “insufficient evidence as to who started the assault.”
Marlene Lenthang is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
Maya Rosenberg is an assignment editor based in Miami.
© 2026 NBCUniversal Media, LLC