Dinghy route taken by missing American woman and jailed husband recreated as details of disappearance emerge
GREAT ABACO ISLAND, Bahamas — As more details emerge about Brian Hooker's final moments with his wife before she disappeared into the sea, Fox News Digital recreated the route Brian and his wife Lynette took moments before disaster struck.
Mo Monestime, who has spent 15 years chartering boats in the Great Abaco Island area, guided the excursion through the tropical Bahamian waters. He first exited a small harbor across from the Abaco Inn, where the Hookers had drinks before attempting to return to their boat.
The route calls for a turn southwest after clearing the harbor, and followed by a short ride between the western coastline of Elbow Cay and the eastern coastline of Lubbers Quarters. That was the route the Hookers attempted to take at around 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, April 4.
LYNETTE HOOKER MISSING IN BAHAMAS: TIMELINE OF MICHIGAN WOMAN'S DISAPPEARANCE, HUSBAND'S ARREST
According to digital maps reportedly drawn by Brian and sent to his friends, the Hookers' return trip ended abruptly near the southwestern turn, about halfway through the ride to their anchored yacht, which sat in a popular channel used by tourists and locals alike.
The water surrounding the cays is clear enough to see to the bottom and sometimes as shallow as only four feet, Monestime said. At high tide, he estimated the water rises to about 10 feet.
The small channel between the two cays is rife with activity, as boaters motor through, anchor, and maneuver their dinghies in and out of shallow waters. Nearby is Tahiti Beach, along with a large sandbar that features a floating bar when weather conditions allow.
The ride from the harbor to the popular anchoring spot took only about four minutes.
But wind gusts may have created choppy waters before Brian said his wife fell overboard, separating the pair.
In a recording of a phone call Brian made to a friend on April 7 obtained by CBS, Brian gave the most detailed account yet about what he says is an accident that led to Lynette's disappearance.
"She basically just bounced off the dinghy in the middle of a little blow, like 20-something knot winds that popped up," he said on the call, adding that he and his wife were not wearing life jackets.
"It was sun down, and the sun set like basically 10 minutes after she fell over," he said. "The dinghy key went over with he because it wasn't clipped to anything or anybody, and she had the spare dinghy key in her dry bag, which was with her."
Brian continued, saying the wind rapidly blew the couple apart and that he thinks Lynette tried to swim back to the yacht, which he said was about 1,000 yards or so from where the incident occurred.
"I yelled to her that I lost an oar, and then I threw the anchor out, anchored the dinghy, and just, yeah, I yelled. I couldn't see her anymore because the moon had not risen yet," he said.
Later, he said he threw a flotation cushion toward Lynette right after she went into the water, but he couldn't tell whether she was able to grab it. He said he yelled for her for about an hour.
"By the time I got the anchor set, I was probably a quarter to a half a mile away from her, and I decided that I had to go get help," he said, "but I could not get to the island, so I paddled."
"And it was a cascade of failures, and it's something I'm never going to forgive myself for," he said. "We stayed to long, we left too dark, all kinds of s---. No life jackets. I f---ing threw the dinghy out last— the anchor out last — instead of first. Can't really explain it, you know?"
Eventually, Brian claims, he washed ashore about four miles northeast of where the incident reportedly occurred, on a beach covered with jagged rocks, adjacent to a boat repair and storage facility called Marsh Harbor Boatyard. There, he was met by a security guard who eventually called the police.
Brian was arrested at around 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, four days after the incident.
He is currently being held in jail in Freeport, a separate Bahamian island, while police continue to investigate Lynette's disappearance. Bahamian law allows a 48-hour initial hold time before filing charges against a suspect, which can be extended under certain circumstances. The first deadline for his release was Friday night, but his detention was extended by 72 hours. He is expected to be released or charged with a crime by Monday night.
Lynette's fate remains uncertain, but local authorities have announced that their investigation has shifted to a recovery effort.
Butler said Brian has been cooperating with authorities and "categorically and unequivocally denies any wrongdoing."
Brian has maintained throughout the investigation that he is innocent of any criminal wrongdoing, and issued a statement on Wednesday mourning his wife's disappearance.
"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. 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," he said on Facebook.
"Not being found, that’s the mystery," Monestime told Fox News Digital.
"It is very hard to disappear, because, again, we’re so close to land," Monestime told Fox News Digital. "So if you do fall overboard [and] drown, somebody will see you the next day. Again, we can see bottom, you know? I’ll be driving the boat, I will see stingrays, I will see turtles, so I would see a human body. Somebody would see something. Somebody would say something, like, ‘Hey, we just saw something strange in the water.'"
Monestime said drownings happen occasionally near Elbow Cay, but then reiterated that victims are recovered quickly.
"Again, you could see land all the way, the whole time," he said. "Even if you fall overboard in pitch dark, you still could see the lights from the shore."