Sailboat tracking data went dark for 11 hours the night missing American vanished in the Bahamas

Brian Hooker's sailboat stopped transmitting its determination connected the nighttime his wife, Lynette Hooker, vanished successful the Bahamas, according to information obtained by Fox News Digital.

After leaving enactment astatine Hope Town successful the Bahamas astatine astir 7:30 p.m. connected April 4, Brian Hooker told authorities that unsmooth waters caused his woman to autumn disconnected their dinghy. Brian Hooker paddled to enactment and arrived astatine Marsh Harbour astir 4 a.m. connected April 5, according to authorities.

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

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Brian and Lynette Hooker person been joined for astir 25 years, household members said. (The Sailing Hookers/YouTube and Instagram)

Data obtained by Fox News Digital done marine tracking institution VesselFinder shows the Soulmate's Automatic Identification System (AIS), which broadcasts a vessel's identity, velocity and position, went acheronian astatine 9:29 p.m. connected April 4 and did not resume until 8:40 a.m. the pursuing morning, a blackout of much than 11 hours.

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Soulmate stopped transmitting AIS information for implicit 11 hours, according to information from Vesselfinder. (Fox News)

Blaine Stevenson, a person of Brian Hooker's, antecedently told Fox News Digital that aft spending astir 3 oregon 4 hours searching with rescue officials connected April 5, Brian returned to his sailboat and stayed determination for astir 24 hours.

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Kenneth Engerrand, an adjunct prof of maritime instrumentality astatine the University of Houston Law Center and shareholder successful the Brown Sims instrumentality firm, told Fox News Digital the timing of the AIS going acheronian is "highly unusual."

"There are ways that it tin halt transmitting. Catastrophic powerfulness failure, things similar that. The mechanics successful a collision goes to the bottommost of the ocean, thing similar that, oregon it's turned off. It doesn't conscionable spell disconnected and past travel backmost on," Engerrand said.

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Brian Hooker leaves Central Police Station successful Freeport, The Bahamas, connected April 13, 2026, aft being released from custody. He was questioned astir the disappearance of his wife, Lynette Hooker, who helium says fell overboard from their dinghy earlier this month. (Matthew Symons for Fox News Digital)

"If [the AIS] had stopped altogether and ne'er came backmost on, past you would presume determination was immoderate benignant of catastrophic nonaccomplishment connected the system. But erstwhile it went disconnected and past came backmost connected immoderate hours later, that's an enactment whereby the strategy was turned disconnected oregon disabled," helium added.

Notably, determination were 3 much instances from April 10 to 13 wherever the AIS wasn't transmitting data.

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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. (Fox News Digital)

Brian Hooker hasn't been charged with a crime. He was detained for 5 days by Bahamian constabulary aft his woman disappeared, but wasn't charged.

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Sometime betwixt May 8 and 10, Brian and Lynette Hooker's sailboat, Soulmate, was seized, a root acquainted with the probe told Fox News Digital. Soulmate was seized 40 nautical miles disconnected the seashore of Melbourne, Florida, according to the U.S. Coast Guard.

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In a quality release, the Coast Guard said the seizure was portion of a "complex surveillance and interdiction operation." The sailboat was taken to Coast Guard Station Fort Pierce, wherever it is being processed for imaginable evidence.

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

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"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.

Fox News Digital reached retired to Hauser for comment.