This is an I Heart podcast. Guaranteed human. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. A gorgeous young Michigan mother, Lynette Hooker falls overboard in the Bahamas, according to her husband, who managed to paddle a shore to safety. Tonight, the search for Lynette underway. Good evening. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us. Lynette Hooker, a mom from Michigan, spent her days sailing the open seas with her husband aboard their yacht. What was meant to be a relaxing trip to the Bahamas quickly turns into a fight for survival. This gorgeous young mom, Lynette Hooker falls overboard on a romantic trip to the Bahamas with her husband. How do we know that? That's what her husband says. Straight out to Melissa Andrews joining us. Crime and investigative anchor WTOL 11. Melissa, thank you for being with us. What happened? So Brian and Lynette were out to dinner on Saturday night and they had used this dinghy boat, this eight foot dinghy to leave the yacht to go to that dinner. Brian said that on the way back from dinner to the yacht on the dinghy, that they experienced some rough weather and that as we established, Lynette was wearing this key to the dinghy and she fell off the boat. He said when she did that, he was unable to reach her. So he spent several hours paddling this dinghy back to shore, where he then reported her missing to the local police around four o'clock on Sunday morning. So after Lynette was reported missing, we're told by Bahamian police that they immediately began to search for her in the air and in the water and spent about six hours looking for her on Sunday and they were not able to find her in the water or anywhere else. So the search goes on for missing mom, Lynette Hooker, who falls overboard on the ship to the Bahamas. This is what her daughter says. For one, I don't understand how she got the key. Brian's always driving. So he basically is in charge of the key. So the fact that my mom had it doesn't make any sense. It just doesn't add up why she was swimming away from the boat or why she had the keys. I have known past issues between them have not been good. From what I've heard from my grandma, their relationship has been a lot of fighting and drinking lately. So I'm just kind of questioning what actually went on in the dingy. Carly Islesworth speaking out that from our friends at CBS NBC and 13 on your side straight out to Sydney, Sylvanee joining us, Crime Stories, investigative reporter. The search is ongoing, but I hear what Melissa Andrews is saying, but I want to break it down bit by bit. What we know about the timeline start at the beginning, Sydney. Huckers, we're eating dinner in Hope Town, and this is a small island and a group of islands in the Bahamas. So their dingy is located in Hope Town and their yacht, the soulmate is moored in elbow K about two and a half miles away. So the couple finishes dinner. It's about 730. They hop in their eight foot motorized dingy and they are heading back to the soulmate to turn in for the night and elbow K. Now, somewhere between Hope Town and elbow K, Brian Hooker claims Lynette went overboard with the kill switch lanyard and this. Hold on. Wait, Sid, I want to establish what I want to establish something. You just said they had left the restaurant. They were on the dingy, not a yacht, on the dingy that is attached to the yacht. And they were heading back to where they were staying for the evening. Right? Yeah. So they sleep on the boat. They live on their yacht, the soulmate. So they use the dingy to get around short distances from where they moor the yacht. So they frequently run to do laundry or run to do groceries from the mainland, leaving the yacht moored in a larger bay. Can anyone at the restaurant establish what the husband is now saying? Has that been confirmed? They did go to the restaurant. They did have dinner. They did get onto the dingy that had to be observed from the pier, the boat ramp. It takes a while to unhook, untie the dingy, get on the dingy from the pier and then take off the dingy is motorized. They're not having to row. Can that be confirmed? I guarantee you, Sidney, that there are security cams along that pier to guard boats that are in the marina. So can we confirm they really went to dinner? All of those details are extremely fuzzy. Carly herself is having a hard time getting any answers from Bahamian police. And these are all details that we just don't know yet. Wow. OK, so still trying to establish that they were at dinner. So let's suspend any disbelief and go with the theory they went to a restaurant. Then they left. OK, Sidney, the time, the time they leave the restaurant, is that in the timeline? That's 7.30 PM on Saturday. OK, they leave the restaurant, they go to the pier, they get in the dingy and then they take off. I know this is dissecting it into very small bits of time. But Randy Kessler, veteran trial lawyer joining us. Is it that what you do when you're trying to establish a timeline? Yes, that's what you try to do when you're prosecuting a case is you establish a timeline trying to lead towards guilt. I try to establish a timeline that contradicts that. Nancy, there's so many alternative potential explanations for this situation that I cannot imagine they're going to get a successful prosecution. I just don't understand this is all in UN, all circumstantial, all. Well, he usually drives. There's no eyewitness to who was driving that night. Well, he's had some issues in the past. There's no evidence whatsoever that he did anything wrong this time around. Well, he would have seen her, you know, over the boat. Well, it was dark and maybe he didn't see her. I mean, you can't convict somebody on all this potential in your window and timeline. So yes, you do try to establish a timeline. That's not conviction worthy, in my opinion. Me thinks the death protests too much in the immoral words of the bard. Nobody asked you to leap forward to a jury trial. I just asked you if you have to go minute by minute, establishing a timeline. Oh, my, that was telling. Yeah, I do try to get ahead of the game. I say, how do you establish a timeline? You go, he didn't do it. Nancy, we've been together a long time. I know where you're headed. Not just don't want you to get there. So establishing a timeline, repeat at the risk of repeating myself. You have to parse minute by minute to create a timeline. Yes, no, maybe I should stick with cross examination questions with you. Randy Kessler. Yes, no. Yes, but I do have the opportunity to explain my answer on cross examination. And the explanation would be, yes, I want you to put together a timeline. But every minute of that gives me a chance to undo it or to find a hole in it or pick it apart. Yes, you need a timeline and it better be airtight. Guys, 7 30 p.m. Saturday night, the husband says they leave the restaurant. They're at the end to head back across the body of water to get to their yacht where they're live aboard. Now, we're also learning to Melissa Andrews joining us WTOL 11. The husband says she was not wearing a PFD personal floatation device. Yeah, that's right. And I think that's really Nancy, why a lot of people are questioning his story and have questioned his story. Because why would she not be wearing a personal floatation device or a life vest out in the open ocean, especially when Brian said at the time those waters were rough? I mean, I wouldn't get into a dinghy at night on rough water without a floatation device, without a safety vest, a life vest. Myself, much less, I wouldn't let my husband do it. Even if he wanted to or my children. So if she didn't have on a life vest, why didn't he insist? I'm just very curious because Melissa Andrews, they were both veteran boaters. They have boated. They have dived all over the world. And you know, you have to wear your life vest when you're out on the open sea. Yeah, absolutely. And maybe the argument could be made that they were so experienced that they felt they didn't need to wear those. I mean, part of Brian's story is that he did throw her some sort of floatation device that ended up coming to the surface later. Hopetown Fire and Rescue still searching for Lynette. What more do we know? Sydney Silvani joining us from Crime Stories about what the husband says happened that night. Well, from there, after Lynette goes overboard allegedly, Brian claims that she was quickly swept out of his sight. He couldn't even tell if she received the floatation device he tried to throw to her. From there, he claims he's now stuck in this dead dinghy. And the currents, he's trying to fight the wind. He's trying to make it back to shore where he last saw Lynette swimming. But Hooker washes all the way across to Marsh Harbor. And that's across what they call the Sea of Abaco or the Abaco Sound. So Hooker is stuck in the water for a very, very long time. And he doesn't beach until nearly 4 a.m. Sunday morning. So from 7 30 p.m. to 4 a.m. he is paddling to safety. Is that right? That's what he claims. So Lynette is not reported missing for hours. So how long did it take him, Brian Hooker, the husband to contact Lynette's daughter? It takes Hooker almost 24 hours to reach out to Lynette's daughter and let her know what's going on. And according to Carly, he was cool as a cucumber on that phone call. Cool as a cucumber on the phone call. Karen Stark joining us, a renowned TV radio trauma expert, psychologist, forensic psychologist and consultant. Karen Stark, cool as a cucumber. He had 24 hours to get calm down. Nancy, there's a lot of suspicion here. He was cool as a cucumber. And I also learned that he had written on social media. So think about your wife is missing. He referred to her in the past tense and instead of collapsing, he's composing something for social media that makes him look good about how he's heartbroken. I mean, in the middle of all of this chaos and horrible news, he's composing something. There's a lot that I mean, he was a Marine. So you would think it's his wife. He didn't jump into the water. He said he saw her swimming toward shore, which means he did see her. So he didn't jump in and go after her. He had training. He could have done that. It doesn't make a lot of sense to me, his story and how he behaved. His behavior is very telling that coldness that we always talk about. The flat affect. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Let me understand. Melissa Andrews joining us from WTOL 11. This trip to the Bahamas was part of a it was just one leg of a four year live aboard experience. Is that right? Yeah, that's exactly right from from what I've been able to gather. This couple was described to me as nomadic. They really enjoyed this boating scene. They were documenting it on social media. I'm told that they bought this soulmate yacht, this sailboat in 2022 in Texas and originally started their journey around there. Then they went to Florida and boated around again, documenting this and were in the Bahamas for the last month or two. We're pretty distraught that this is even happening. I'm still in shock. Like it's just surreal. He said that my mom's missing and that she fell out of the boat and that he threw a life jacket to her or something and he doesn't know if she got it or not. But then he paddled the shore and then he called for help. I was just sitting there in shock because I couldn't imagine this actually happening to her. I just hope we find her. I don't want to go forever just not ever finding her again. On my stars, the daughter Carly's flat affect. She looks like she's just completely, completely disassociated from what's happening in shock. That's where our friends at 13 News and NBC. I want you to hear the voicemail husband, Brian Hooker, left for the daughter. A voicemail. Hello honey. I just got a call from a book counselor to rescue and they found the quotation device that I threw to mom when she fell overboard. They haven't found her yet. Okay. I want to hear that one more time. Guys, this is the voicemail husband, Brian Hooker, leaves for daughter Carly. A voicemail. Hello honey. I just got a call from a book counselor to rescue and they found the quotation device that I threw to mom when she fell overboard. They haven't found her yet. That from our friends at CBS. Why don't you leave that in the voicemail? That's just hindsight to Sydney Sylvanee. What is the status of the search for Lynette now? Well, Bahamian police have turned this from a search and rescue effort to a search and recovery effort. They do not believe four days later that Lynette could possibly still be alive. If she did go overboard into the water, land searches are a different story. There's possibility that Lynette did make it to shore and whatever happened in that dingy has led her to stay hidden. Sydney, as the search seemingly turns to a recovery effort, I'm very concerned about some physical evidence and I'm referring to the AIS tracking system on the boat. Listen, they have an AIS tracking system of the boat and apparently he was on the boat and while he was paddling to shore. So from our friends at Fox and friends. Okay. What does that mean? An AIS tracking system on the boat and it shows reportedly he was on the boat when he says he was paddling to shore. Nancy, it's a system that's designed for smaller vessels so that when they're traveling in water, larger vessels, cargo ships can see them. And this can even be put on smaller vessels like the dingy or a jet ski or something of that manner so that an individual, if they are not on a ship, can also be seen by other people in the area. It uses radio waves. So it's unclear if it could show if somebody was or was not on a ship, but it can show if that ship is moving. AIS system allows vessels of all sizes to exchange navigation and identification information with each other. When connected to something like your chart plotter or your radar, the AIS 700 allows you to see the name, course, speed and position of other AIS equipped vessels right on your screen. As a Class B device, the AIS 700 not only receives AIS information from other vessels, but it broadcasts your boat's information too. This helps to ensure other vessels out there are aware of your location and identification. That from Ray Marine on YouTube. So let me understand. Randy Kessler, the daughter of Carly Ailsworth, is stating that there is an AIS tracking system on the dingy. You know, technology can be faulty. I don't know what the technology shows yet. All we've heard is hearsay from the victim's stepdaughter and what she heard from somebody else. So once it's all vetted and fleshed out, that may be the proverbial nail in the coffin or the smoking gun that so far doesn't exist. So let me think. Randy, you've had to deal with similar problems like this in many of the cases that you have handled as a defense lawyer. Guys, by the way, just as a formal introduction, Randy Kessler is a veteran child lawyer. He is a professor at Emory Law School, former chair of the ABA Family Law Section, and he is the author of Divorce, Protect Yourself, Your Kids, and Your Future. You can find him at KSFFamilylaw.com. How would you attack the AIS system that is on his yacht soulmate? First thing I would do is hire somebody much smarter than me that understands this technology and can point out to me all the flaws and all the potential pitfalls. And then after that, I would say, are we going to trust some technology that is weird science? And, you know, unfortunately, the rest of the story makes a jury want to buy it, I think, because everyone wants a drama like this or wants to know this guy who seems to have been abusive in his past and their allegations that he's choked his other child and he's, you know, hurt his wife and threatened to throw her off the boat. That's not enough to convict, but this piece of technology evidence scares me as a defense lawyer because that could be what the jury needs to be able to say, OK, now there's some proof. Because except for that, there's no proof. So I'd check out the technology. I'd have an expert that's well versed in it, somebody who is equally competent as the state's best expert to go to battle. But I'd have to see what they say and what they tell me before I can even develop a strategy. It would scare me as a defense lawyer. Absolutely. You mentioned allegations of prior choking. Well, you opened the door, you brought it up, and now I'm stepping across the threshold. Listen, 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. I've seen him choke out one of his daughters before and we had to go to court for that. And I was only in third grade. So he's just repeating patterns. That is Carly Ellsworth. That is Lynette's biological daughter from our friends over at Fox and Friends. Yeah, that's your worst nightmare, Randy Kessler. Right, that opens the door. Without that, they're not looking at him as carefully. They're thinking it's a loving couple that are living this dream life, boating across the world, and all of a sudden there's trouble in paradise. And you've got somebody who's very credible. I mean, she lived with this guy since she was four years old. He helped raise her. Why would she turn against him? It's the only living parent figure that she's lived with left. She's got something to say bad about him. They're going to listen very carefully because she's got, unfortunately for him, she's got a lot of credibility. So her pointing them in the right direction is a good start for the prosecution. It's not enough to convict him, but this new technology that may place him at the boat when he says he was on the dinghy. Boy, now all of a sudden the conviction prospects are a lot worse for him than they were until we knew about this technology. Or if he didn't have this history of violence towards his wife and towards others. Success. All right, we got the grub. Got groceries. Delivery. It's a way of life, man. That is from the Sailing Hookers on YouTube, and that is just the picture that a veteran defense attorney like Randy Kessler would want to paint. Agree, Randy? Absolutely. It's the dream come true. Why would he not want that life to continue? It's not like she's replaceable with somebody else who'll just hop on a boat and travel the world with him. It seems like he had the ideal lifestyle. Why would you point the finger at him? He's the victim. He's suffering. He's lost his partner, his partner in this beautiful life, and now he's got to defend himself and tell the world that he didn't do it. Ladies and gentlemen, let this man go more privately. Don't try to convict him with something he didn't do. Something really sticks. Oh, I think it's you. Did you just say he's the victim? He is a victim, absolutely. He lost his wife. He lost not just his wife, his partner of 20-something years. His boating partner, his world partner, his life partner. He's absolutely a victim. Until he's found guilty of murder, he's not guilty of anything, right? He's innocent to prove him guilty, and he certainly has suffered a loss. I'm pretty sure that regardless of the outcome that most people consider her to be the victim since she's the one missing, and it's turned into a search and recovery. They're no longer looking for her, swimming in the water. They're trying to find her dead body. I would think, call me crazy, that she's the victim. So now you've left me in a conundrum. With him or the AIS? Him or the radar? I'll think about that. Straight out to special guests joining us, Ben Dobrin, emergency response diving instructor, dive instructor, trainer, police diver, and emergency services diver. Ben Dobrin, thank you for being with us. Initial thoughts about what happened to Lynette. My initial thought is if he could paddle to shore, why didn't he paddle to her and save her? That's my exact thought. I was talking about it with a friend today, and I read his account is that she started swimming and he started paddling, and why didn't they meet together in the middle? If he could paddle to shore, he could paddle to her. My other question is, the daughter has said that Brian is the one who usually operates the boat. Why was the kill switch lanyard on her? The kill switch lanyard is a very short piece of string or rope or whatever that is usually attached to the operator of the vessel so that if the operator would fall overboard, the boat would stop. Daughter says that he always is the one who operates the boat. There's no reason that she had the kill switch lanyard and went into the water. So that didn't make sense to me at all. Looking at pictures of the little dingy, it's tiny. You're not going to not know somebody went overboard. You're going to know they went overboard. But even if she was driving for some reason, he could have paddled back to her. If she fell off, the motor, looking at the motor, I don't know how many horsepower, but it's not big. It's not a fast boat. He's not going to go very far. Once that kill switch lanyard got pulled, he might have gone 10, 15, 20 feet and been able to paddle. If he did that long distance paddle to shore, he could have paddled back to her 10 or 15 feet. But instead, she was swimming towards shore. That means she was conscious and awake and ability to swim. She could have very easily swum that little distance back to the boat, even if he couldn't have paddled to her for some reason. She could have swum that distance back to the boat. It doesn't make sense. The story that he's giving, it doesn't make sense. Okay. I'm trying to take in everything you're telling me, Ben. Look, I'm just a trial lawyer. Yes. I know how to dive. I've dived all over the world, but you're giving me so much information. It's hard to take in. Let me just start at the beginning and please bear with these rudimentary questions. Kill switch. Kill switch. What is that? There is, like if you've ever rented a jet ski or been on a jet ski, there is a little switch that you put in to make sure that it runs. And then as soon as you fall overboard, you pull it and kill the switch. So on small boats, there's this safety feature and you attach it to yourself. Like I said, it's a little lanyard. It's a little rope. You can attach it to your wrist or you can tie it to your PFD, but it's designed on a small boat or a jet ski that if you fall over, it stops. It's not, some of the things that it's a ignition key. It's not a key. There's no key on little motors like this, but it won't run without it. And if he was operating the boat, it's attached to him. It's not a very long rope. It's only like two or three feet. The fact that he keeps saying she had it, she had it when she went overboard, that means she was driving. The daughter keeps saying that she never drives the dinghy or, you know, he's the driver of the dinghy. It doesn't make sense that she had this kill switch on her or with her. It would be attached to the person driving the boat. It's not long enough. That's a tiny boat. It's not long enough to get to the next person. Okay. The meaning is a kill switch is like an engine cutoff switch, an ECOS. It's a mandatory safety device. You have to have it. It instantly shuts down the engine if the operator is thrown from the helm. It uses a physical lanyard. It can use a wireless fob and it breaks the ignition circuit. Now that is federal law. It's federal law for power boats under 26 feet. Now this is my question to you so we can all understand kill switch. You keep saying only the boat driver, the boat operator has the kill switch. Is that because if it gets a certain distance away from the boat, the boat automatically cuts off? Well, it's a certain distance away from the motor and from where the quick kill switch is attached. If let's say the kill switch lanyard is three feet, if the boat operator goes four feet away, it turns off. On a boat that size does not make a difference but let's say you're operating your 25 foot Boston whaler and you're at the helm and you walk toward the front of the boat, it's going to kill. That happens all the time. That's why a lot of people don't actually turn, they don't wear them because if they leave the helm, it's going to kill the motor. On a little boat like that, there's really not that much distance but still if it's only a three feet, most of these lines are only two to three feet long, that boat, the person not driving the boat isn't wearing it. It's only the person wearing the boat who wears it. I can't imagine why somebody else would wear it. It would unplug. You're too far away from the motor for it to stay plugged in if you were not the operator. It's going to kill the motor. Real quick, I want to tell you guys the importance of wearing your kill switch. This thing is here for a reason. Make sure you're clipping it onto your belt buckle or somewhere onto your body whenever you're out driving the boat. The reason for this, if you were to ever get thrown out of the boat or thrown out of the seat and this boat is left in forward, it's going to be out of control. The kill switch pops off, kills the motor on contact just like that and you're not going to crash into anything just like that. So make sure you're wearing your kill switch. Not from Matt Baker on wearing your kill switch and boat safety tips. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. So now I get it, Ben Dobrin, you're telling me that he, the husband says, she fell overboard in the Bahamas. She had the kill switch and you're saying that's impossible. If he was driving, it was impossible. If he's driving, he's wearing the kill switch. Let's just for the sake of argument, say she was driving out of the ordinary. According to the daughters, you know what she has said, the daughter said he always drives, but let's say he had a couple of cocktails or he's feeling seasick for some reason. Let's say just for argument's sake, she was the one actually driving. She falls overboard. It still doesn't explain. He said she started swimming the shore. He started paddling shore. Did he just paddle in a parallel course to her? Why didn't he paddle to her? If she could swim, why didn't she swim to the boat? Like I said, when the kill switch kills the motor, that little boat not going very far, 20, 30, 40 feet at most. It's not very far. So I mean, the motor is dead. He's not pulling away from her. If she has the kill switch, he is not pulling away from her under power. If she can move, she's not far away from it. Even if she can't move, he can paddle to her. If he paddled to shore, he could have paddled to her. Shore is a lot further away than what she was. Even if the current was ripping, as he says, the current is pushing him in the same direction as it's pushing her. He would be going in the same direction. He wouldn't be, she wouldn't be pulling away from him. She would be going in the same direction. He'd be using the current to get to her. Either she was driving or, and took the lanyard, or he was driving and somehow she grabbed the lanyard and fell overboard. She still wouldn't end up very far away from the boat. He could have paddled to her, or she could have swum back to him, or both. So Ben Doberin, what should have happened when she fell from the dinghy? If he was driving, and let's say she fell from the dinghy, the first thing, and for some reason she grabbed the kill switch lanyard, he would still be able to paddle to her. He made it clear that he paddled to shore. She's drifting, if she was unconscious, she would be floating, if she was wearing a PFD, she'd be floating so she could breathe. She's going whichever way the current's taking her. The current is taking the boat in the same direction at the same speed. He could paddle to catch up to her. If she was conscious, she could swim, she could swim back to the boat. Everything that I say, see online, looks like she's fit and in shape. And if she spends a lot of time in the water, she probably is a halfway decent swimmer. Once that kill switch gets pulled, the boat stops. It's not going very far away from her. There's not a huge distance. Yes, it's dark. Might be hard to see somebody. If she had a PFD on, there's different questions. My PFDs all have lights that are water activated. So if you fall in overnight, it's a light activated on the PFD. I also have what's called an E-Purb and electronic satellite on my PFD. So if I fall overboard, my PFD pings up to a satellite and then the Coast Guard knows where I am. He said she wasn't wearing a PFD, but then they found... Guys, what are you saying PFD is a personal flotation device? Every time you get on a plane, they scare the hay out of all the passengers by telling them what will happen if you crash over water. And they refer to your flotation device. And they say it will light up once it touches the water. Nobody wants to think about that. But that's what he's talking about. It's like a life vest that lights up when it hits the water. Personal flotation device, PFD. Okay. Other thoughts, Ben Dobrin? If she wasn't wearing a PFD, then it'd be hard to see at night. I mean, I don't know what the moonlight was like, the starlight. But if he's driving a boat at night, he can see enough to operate a vessel. He would be able to see somebody in the water that was near to him. If he's looking out for... It's a Bahamas, there's reefs, there's Channel Markers, there's Buies, there's other boats. There's enough light that he can operate the vessel. There's enough light that he can see somebody floating in the water who's not super far away from him. And if she was conscious, she would be yelling and waving her hands. And if she was unconscious, she'd still be floating at the surface so he could see her and be able to see her and then paddle to her and recover her back onto the dinghy. What is a way, Ben Dobrin, for us to determine what the weather really was when she, quote, fell overboard? In America, there's... NOAA has Buies, and you can get historical data on the Buies of what the sea state was, how big the waves are, the wind. I know the water temperature in the Bahamas right now is about 76 or 77. So people don't think that you can get hypothermia in the Bahamas, but after about, it varies, 15 to 20 hours, 25 hours, you can still get hypothermia in the Bahamas if you're in water that long. But if you want to check out the sea state, I don't know if Bahamas has something akin to the NOAA Buies that we have in the United States looking at the sea state. If you know or think you know anything about the disappearance of Lynette Hooker, please dial Crime Stoppers 242-300-8477. Repeat 242-300-8477. Update. Nancy Grace, signing off for tonight. Good night, friend.
