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A man who said his wife fell from a boat in the Bahamas has been arrested, his attorney said Thursday, five days after she was reported missing in the Caribbean nation.
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The Royal Bahamas Police Force previously said a man was arrested in connection with the disappearance of Lynette Hooker, 55. Early Thursday, the man arrested was named as Brian Hooker, 59, in a statement from his Bahamas-based attorney, Terrel A. Butler.
The statement said Hooker denies any wrongdoing and rejected claims made by Lynette Hooker’s daughter, Karli Aylesworth, that it seemed unlikely that her mother would “just fall” overboard.
“Mr. Hooker categorically and unequivocally denies any wrongdoing and in particular the allegations recently made by Karli Aylesworth. He has been cooperating with the relevant authorities as part of an ongoing investigation,” Butler’s statement said.
Butler added that she and her client cannot comment further because the case was ongoing.
Police said a 59-year-old man was taken into custody shortly after 7 p.m. Wednesday in Marsh Harbour, a town in the 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 to comment further.
Hooker has said his wife fell in the water Saturday night during rough seas on a dinghy ride from Hope Town to Elbow Cay.
He said Wednesday morning on Facebook that 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.”
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 but does not know the couple, 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.
Hooker told police that Lynette Hooker 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 he made it to Marsh Harbor Boat Yard early Sunday, he told police. According to the police statement, Hooker told someone what had happened, and that person alerted authorities.
Tim Stelloh is a breaking news reporter for NBC News Digital.
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