A man whose wife went missing on a nighttime boat trip congratulated a pal on a sailboat purchase and was scrolling Facebook shortly after she disappeared, a new report alleges.
Brian Hooker claims his wife, Lynette Hooker, accidentally went overboard during a trip in the Bahamas on Sunday, but he has been arrested by local police.
“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 a family friend and fellow boater, Daniel Danforth, in a message obtained by CBS News.
That text was sent on Monday, two days after Lynette’s disappearance. Brian was arrested on Wednesday.
Brian, a 59-year-old Michigan native, categorically denies any wrongdoing and has not been charged with a crime. However, his Facebook activity, including his liking of irrelevant posts and chatting casually about a sailboat purchase in the wake of Lynette’s disappearance, as revealed by CBS, is being scrutinized by loved ones of the missing woman.
“You know, my wife’s missing, Facebook’s the last thing I’m worried about,” Danforth told CBS News. “You’re going to find me on the water riding around.”
Danforth also compared Hooker’s version of events with emerging media reports, noting that “the stories don’t really match up.”
Hooker told police that his wife was swept overboard and out to sea. Cops in the Bahamas say that Lynette fell overboard from a dinghy en route to their yacht, Soulmate, and was swept away by the current.
“Strong currents subsequently carried her away, and he lost sight of her,” they said.
Lynette’s daughter, Karli Aylesworth, told Fox News that she fears something sinister happened on the water, citing previous domestic issues between the couple.
“There’s history of him choking her out and threatening to throw her overboard,” told Fox. “So the fact that this is actually happening makes me believe there’s more to the story.”
One of the couple’s neighbors in Michigan told the Detroit News the Hookers’ “fought for a long time and the violence was pretty bad.”
