A 59-year-old man has been taken into custody in the Bahamas following the disappearance of Michigan-born Lynette Hooker, who went missing during a sailing trip with her husband after he reported she had fallen overboard.
Bahamian officials have not identified the suspect publicly. The arrest came Wednesday after a four-day inquiry into the circumstances surrounding Hooker, 55, who was said to have fallen from an 8ft dinghy and been carried away by strong currents.
Hooker and her husband, Brian, were reportedly living out their retirement plan of cruising the Caribbean by yacht. The couple stopped at the Abaco Inn in Hope Town on Saturday, April 4, and departed the area sometime after 7:30pm.
As night set in, they headed toward their yacht near Elbow Cay using a dinghy. Brian said Lynette fell from the smaller vessel while the ignition key was in her pocket, and that the current then pulled her out to sea.
He later stated that he paddled back to Marsh Harbor in the dark, and ultimately reported his wife missing at around 4am on Sunday.
In a statement to CBS at the time, he said:
“I am heartbroken over the recent boat accident in unpredictable seas and high winds that caused by beloved Lynette to fall from our small dinghy near Elbow Cay in the Bahamas.