Overview
- Lynette Hooker went missing on April 4 while returning by dinghy to the sailboat Soulmate, and her husband, Brian Hooker, says she fell from the small boat; her body has not been found.
- On June 5 U.S. authorities took custody of the dinghy believed to be the last vessel used and observed a life jacket on board as forensic teams prepared to examine the boat.
- Forensic extraction of GPS and device data from the couple's electronics produced location traces that investigators say conflict with the husband's account and identified new areas for underwater searches.
- U.S. Coast Guard divers, underwater drones and cadaver dogs have been deployed to the Sea of Abaco to search GPS-guided sites, while the seized sailboat is under forensic processing at a Florida facility.
- No criminal charges have been filed; the case remains an active, cross-jurisdictional probe that faces the challenges of saltwater degradation, complex evidence rules and the difficulty of prosecuting a no-body maritime disappearance.