Bahamian authorities approve search of 25-foot-deep zone flagged by Brian Hooker's phone GPS data: sources

FIRST ON FOX: Data from Brian Hooker's telephone led U.S. investigators to program to hunt a caller country successful 25-foot-deep Bahamian waters for missing Lynette Hooker, and Bahamian authorities person approved the search, sources acquainted with the probe told Fox News Digital.

Brian Hooker and Lynette Hooker initially near enactment astatine Hope Town successful the Bahamas astatine astir 7:30 p.m. connected April 4, with the hubby telling section authorities that unsmooth waters caused his woman to autumn disconnected their dinghy. However, GPS information from Brian Hooker's telephone obtained by authorities allegedly shows a discrepancy betwixt what helium archetypal told instrumentality enforcement, sources acquainted with the probe told Fox News Digital.

That discrepancy prompted national U.S. authorities to question support from Bahamian authorities to hunt a caller country successful the Sea of Abaco with 25-foot-deep waters, the sources added.

A root acquainted with the substance told Fox News Digital connected Thursday that Bahamian authorities person approved the U.S. petition to nonstop a squad of divers to hunt the caller area.

LYNETTE HOOKER MISSING IN BAHAMAS: TIMELINE OF MICHIGAN WOMAN’S DISAPPEARANCE, HUSBAND’S ARREST

Brian Hooker and his sailboat Soulmate (Matthew Symons for Fox News Digital and Coast Guard)

Authorities obtained information from Brian Hooker's phone, specifically GPS information from a marine navigation app that was utilized portion the mates was connected the dinghy, the sources said.

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The mates was headed backmost to their sailboat, the Soulmate, their full-time location successful retirement, erstwhile Lynette Hooker fell overboard, the hubby told Bahamian authorities. They often sail astir the U.S. and Caribbean, according to their societal media pages.

Karli Aylesworth, Lynette Hooker's daughter, told Fox News Digital that the Coast Guard has asked her household to taxable DNA samples to assistance with their investigation.

Mo Monestime, a section vessel charter skipper connected Elbow Cay successful the Bahamas, wherever Lynette Hooker vanished, antecedently told Fox News Digital it's hard for him to ideate a script wherever she isn't found.

"Not being found, that’s the mystery. It is precise hard to disappear, because, again, we’re truthful adjacent to land," helium said. "So if you bash autumn overboard [and] drown, idiosyncratic volition spot you the adjacent day. Again, we tin spot bottom, you know? I’ll beryllium driving the boat, I volition spot stingrays, I volition spot turtles, truthful I would spot a quality body. Somebody would spot something. Somebody would accidental something, like, ‘Hey, we conscionable saw thing unusual successful the water.'"

"It’s precise hard to vanish by accident," Monestime added.

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U.S. Coast Guard investigators hunt the vessel Soulmate, docked astatine their presumption successful Fort Pierce, Fla., connected May 13, 2026. The vas belongs to Brian Hooker and his missing woman Lynette Hooker and was brought backmost to the U.S. from the Bahamas by the Coast Guard. (Obtained by Fox News Digital)

The Coast Guard seized the Soulmate successful aboriginal May and took it to Fort Pierce, Florida, but it was precocious moved to Fort Lauderdale, arsenic authorities couldn't propulsion it from the water.

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Brian Hooker was detained for 5 days by Bahamian constabulary aft his woman disappeared, but wasn't charged.

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Brian Hooker's Michigan-based lawyer asked Americans successful an earlier interrogation to springiness him the payment of the uncertainty successful an interrogation with ABC News.

"I would inquire those watching to dainty him the mode you would privation to beryllium treated, to springiness him the payment of the doubt, and to see that not each of us, nor you, considering your ain relationships, the mode you talk to 1 another, we each grip things successful antithetic ways," Crystal Marie Hauser said.

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Fox News Digital reached retired to the Coast Guard and Hauser for comment.