Lynette Hooker update: Daughter reveals plans as search continues

The daughter of a Michigan woman who vanished at sea after reportedly falling from a dinghy has revealed she is traveling to the Bahamas, where the incident occurred.

“I am heading to the Bahamas on Wednesday with Steve!” Lynette Hooker’s daughter, Karli Aylesworth, wrote on a GoFundMe page on Monday. “Thank you for all of your support, it means a lot!”

Newsweek has contacted Aylesworth for further comment via an email to her attorney.

The Context

Lynette Hooker’s husband of more than 20 years, Brian Hooker, told police that she fell overboard with the keys to the dinghy that was carrying the couple from Hope Town to Elbow Cay on April 4. He told authorities that she was carried away by strong currents and that he had to paddle to shore before he was able to alert someone about her disappearance early on April 5.

Authorities arrested Brian Hooker on Wednesday, after Aylesworth questioned her stepfather’s account of what happened and called for a thorough investigation into the incident in several interviews. Hooker denies causing his wife’s death and is cooperating with law enforcement, his attorney, Terrel Butler, said. He has not been charged with a crime.

The U.S. Coast Guard has opened an investigation separate from the one by Bahamian authorities.

What To Know

Aylesworth set up the GoFundMe page last week. As of early Monday, it has raised more than $7,500.

“This is to help the search for her or to help lay her to rest. Anything would help,” she wrote on the page.

She said in an interview with NBC News last week that it’s unlikely her mother, an experienced sailor, would “just fall” from a boat. The couple shared updates about their life at sea on social media under the moniker, “The Sailing Hookers.”

Aylesworth also said the couple’s relationship was volatile and that they have a “history of not getting along, especially when they drink.”

On Friday, Butler told The Associated Press that police had spent four hours interviewing Brian Hooker and that he had continuously asked about his wife.

“He was a bit puzzled because he was uncertain as to why they were questioning him about causing harm or possible murder when they had not given him any information in terms of where she is, if they had recovered her,” she said.

Brian Hooker described a “cascade of failures” that led to his wife’s disappearance in a phone call to a friend before his arrest, according to a recording that was obtained and verified by CBS News.

In that call, he says he and his wife had anchored their sailboat at the south end of Aunt Pat’s Bay on Elbow Cay, and had gone out in their dinghy despite windy conditions.

Hooker said his wife “basically just bounced off the dinghy in the middle of a little blow,”

“It was a cascade of failures, and it’s something I’m never going to forgive myself for. We stayed too long, we left too dark, all kinds of s***. No life jackets,” he said.

He also said he failed to anchor the dinghy when his wife fell overboard.

“I f****** threw the anchor out last, instead of first,” he said. “Can’t really explain it, you know. I just know that I hate this boat.”

In an earlier statement to Newsweek, Butler said Hooker had fallen overboard the night he was arrested on the Hookers’ sailboat, and suffered a knee injury.

What People Are Saying

Brian Hooker wrote on Facebook on Wednesday: “I am heartbroken over the recent boat accident in unpredictable seas and high winds that caused my beloved Lynette to fall from our small dinghy near Elbow Cay in the Bahamas.”

He added: “Despite desperate attempts to reach her, the winds and currents drove us further apart. We continue to search for her and that is my sole focus.”

The Royal Bahamas Police Force said in a news release on Wednesday: “Police wish to inform the public that, as the investigation continues, a 59-year-old male of U.S. nationality was taken into custody shortly after 7 p.m. on Wednesday, 8th, April 2026, in Marsh Harbour, Abaco. He is currently being questioned in connection with this matter.”