Missing American's husband sat on boat for 24 hours after she vanished in Bahamas, friend says
FIRST ON FOX: Brian Hooker sat on his sailboat for 24 hours after she vanished while the couple were in the Bahamas, according to one of his friends.
After leaving shore at Hope Town in the Bahamas at around 7:30 p.m. on April 4, Brian Hooker told authorities that rough waters caused his wife to fall off their dinghy. Brian Hooker paddled to shore and arrived at Marsh Harbour around 4 a.m. on April 5, according to authorities.
The couple was headed back to their sailboat, their full-time home in retirement, when Lynette fell overboard. They frequently sail around the U.S. and Caribbean, according to their social media pages.
Blaine Stevenson, a friend of Brian Hooker's, told Fox News Digital that after spending about three to four hours searching with rescue officials on April 5, Brian returned to his sailboat and stayed there for roughly 24 hours.
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"So the incident happened Saturday at 7:30 p.m. He came ashore at 4 a.m., the search and rescue took him out for three or four hours and brought him back to his boat. He sat on his boat for almost 24 hours until search and rescue brought him his dinghy back," Stevenson said.
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"At no point did he really look at the situation and give anybody any more details than he had at the beginning when supposedly he was in shock," Stevenson said.
Brian Hooker would go on to stay at the Conch Inn in Marsh Harbour on April 6, Stevenson said, where he stayed until he was arrested on April 8 by Bahamian authorities. He was released from jail on April 13 without being charged.
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Stevenson also said he's shocked Brian Hooker didn't make more of an effort to find his wife.
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"Even if he accepts the fact that his wife is gone — does he not want closure? Does he not want redemption?" Stevenson said.
Sometime between May 8 and 10, Brian and Lynette Hooker's sailboat, Soulmate, was seized, a source familiar with the investigation told Fox News Digital. Soulmate was seized 40 nautical miles off the coast of Melbourne, Florida, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.
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In a news release, the Coast Guard said the seizure was part of a "complex surveillance and interdiction operation." The sailboat was taken to Coast Guard Station Fort Pierce, where it is being processed for potential evidence, the source said.
"The vessel Soulmate is currently in the custody of CGIS as part of an active criminal investigation," the Coast Guard said.
Brian Hooker's Michigan-based attorney previously asked Americans to give him the benefit of the doubt in an interview with ABC News.
"I would ask those watching to treat him the way you would want to be treated, to give him the benefit of the doubt, and to consider that not all of us, nor you, considering your own relationships, the way you speak to one another, we all handle things in different ways," Crystal Marie Hauser said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Hauser for comment.