The husband of missing American boater Lynette Hooker told a pal that the wind blew him away from his missing wife after news of her apparent overboard in the Bahamas started to spread, Facebook messages reveal.
“The wind blew me away from her and she swam towards the sailboat, and we lost sight of each other pretty quickly as it was just about sundown,” Brian told family friend and fellow boater Daniel Danforth in the message, seen by CBS which was sent Monday – two days after Lynette’s disappearance.
Brian, 59, made the claim after Danforth reached out when he watched an ABC World News report about the Michigan mom’s disappearance.
But the narrative puts him at odds with law enforcement, who said Lynette was swept away by strong currents while trying to return to the couple’s yacht Soulmate.
Lynette, 55, fell into the water Saturday night with the dinghy’s key, forcing its engine to be cut off, and Brian told Danforth he “drifted and tried to paddle with one oar for the next 7 hours until I washed up behind the shore of the next island over.”
“We are still searching..a lot is going on right now but I thank you for checking on us,” Brian told his pal of 3 years.
Danforth sent prayers to which Brian replied, “Thank you friend. Our family is in hell right now.”
Brian told how his wife hadn’t been found despite the extensive search, revealed he was moored in the marina resort of Conch Inn, and said his sister and brother-in-law would be jetting in for a “couple of days.”
“I will probably stay with them for a night or two while weather happens but then I plan on heading back out to the site and continuing the search,” he said.
“I will most likely definitely need help in the future but I just don’t know what it is yet I’m trying to take it a day at a time and keep the faith.”
Danforth said that “the stories don’t really match up” after he compared Brian’s version of events with the police statements.
He was puzzled why Brian didn’t try to rescue Lynette after her supposed fall from the dinghy, and was skeptical about his claim that the wind separated him from his wife.
Danforth also recalled how Brian had liked a boating post over the weekend amid the search – something which has turned into a red flag
“You know, my wife’s missing, Facebook’s the last thing I’m worried about,” he said. “You’re going to find me on the water riding around.”
Brian, who said he was heartbroken over his wife’s disappearance, was arrested Wednesday night and is being treated as a “suspect” in the case.
He fell overboard off the police boat while being handcuffed, leaving him with “knee pain and abrasions,” his attorney Terrel Butler told Fox News.
Brian has not been charged and Lynette’s family said they don’t expect him to be unless certain evidence is discovered, the Detroit News reported.
“We don’t expect [he’ll be charged] unless they find blood on the dinghy, or her body or some key evidence like that,” Steve Hansen, the boyfriend of Lynette’s daughter Karli Aylesworth, told the outlet.
Aylesworth fears something sinister may have happened at sea, alluding to her stepfather’s alleged violent streak.
“There’s history of him choking her out and threatening to throw her overboard. So the fact that this is actually happening makes me believe there’s more to the story,” she told Fox News.
Jordan Plentz, a neighbor, told the Detroit News the Hookers’ “fought for a long time and the violence was pretty bad.”
Records revealed Lynette was jailed in 2015 over a domestic violence incident that left her husband with blood pouring from his nose.
