An American who was arrested in the Bahamas after his wife vanished while the couple were traveling in a motorboat near the archipelago denies any wrongdoing, his attorney said.<\/p>\n
Brian Hooker \u201ccategorically and unequivocally denies any wrongdoing” and has been cooperating with authorities, lawyer Terrel Butler said in the statement. Butler said Hooker could not provide further comments while investigations are continuing.<\/p>\n
Authorities said the husband, a 59-year-old man whom they did not identify, was arrested in Abaco on Wednesday (local time) and is being questioned. Police and Butler did not provide further details, including whether or not he was charged.<\/p>\n
A US Coast Guard spokesperson told The Associated Press that they have opened a criminal investigation into the case.<\/p>\n
Officials have said Lynette Hooker, 55, was travelling in an 8-foot motorboat from Hope Town to Elbow Cay on Saturday night (local time), and that her husband, Brian Hooker, told authorities she fell overboard with the boat keys, causing the engine to turn off.<\/p>\n
Authorities said Brian Hooker then paddled to shore and alerted someone about her disappearance early Sunday.<\/p>\n
\u201cStrong currents subsequently carried her away, and he lost sight of her,\u201d police said in a statement issued Saturday.<\/p>\n
Lynette Hooker\u2019s mother, Darlene Hamlett, told The Associated Press late Wednesday that she was \u201cglad to hear\u201d about the arrest, but declined further comment, saying she was seeking more information.<\/p>\n
Earlier on Wednesday, she said she wanted to hear more from her son-in-law about how her daughter disappeared. The couple had been married for more than two decades and lived in Onsted, Michigan. Online records gave Brian Hooker\u2019s age as 58, and the reason for the discrepancy wasn\u2019t immediately clear.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m going to be interested in what he says, because I haven\u2019t heard from him in almost two days,\u201d Hamlett said while on a six-hour drive back home from the Bahamian Consulate in Miami, where she secured a passport so she can fly to the Caribbean nation soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur family grew up on water, and so Lynette, her whole life, has been near lakes, on boats, sailing and swimming,\u201d Hamlett said. \u201cIt would be a miracle if (she\u2019s rescued), but I\u2019m still counting on one.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lynette Hooker\u2019s daughter, Karli Aylesworth, told NBC News that it is unlikely her mother would \u201cjust fall\u201d off the boat, saying she was an experienced sailor. The couple had been sailing for years and documented their voyages on social media under the moniker, \u201cThe Sailing Hookers\u201d.<\/p>\n
Aylesworth also told NBC that the couple\u2019s relationship was volatile, and that they have a \u201chistory of not getting along, especially when they drink\u201d.<\/p>\n
She told WXYZ-TV she doubted her mother survived and was able to tread water that long, but hoped to find her to get closure.<\/p>\n
Butler’s statement said that Brian Hooker’s denial of wrongdoing includes in particular \u201cthe allegations recently made by Karli Aylesworth\u201d.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday morning, Brian Hooker wrote on Facebook that he is \u201cheartbroken 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\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cDespite desperate attempts to reach her, the winds and currents drove us further apart,\u201d he wrote. \u201cWe continue to search for her and that is my sole focus.\u201d<\/p>\n
The US Coast Guard has also joined the investigation and interviewed Aylesworth on Wednesday, according to her attorney, Ron Marienfeld.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are pleased to see it is being investigated, and hopefully, more answers will come to give the family some closure,\u201d Marienfeld said via email.<\/p>\n
Bahamian police said search operations and investigative efforts remain active.<\/p>\n
The morning’s headlines in 90 seconds, including fresh warnings about Cyclone Vaianu, and Melania Trump addresses Epstein rumours. (Source: 1News)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"An American who was arrested in the Bahamas after his wife vanished while the couple were traveling in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":372240,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[67,42,43,64,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-372239","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-crime-and-justice","9":"tag-headlines","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-north-america","12":"tag-top-news","13":"tag-top-stories","14":"tag-topnews","15":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372239","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=372239"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/372239\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/372240"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=372239"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=372239"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=372239"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}