Sailboat tracking shutoff could be crucial in Lynette Hooker disappearance, expert says
LAS VEGAS — A former federal prosecutor who wrote a book on no-body murder cases told Fox News Digital that a "key question" in the search for a missing American woman is why her husband's sailboat stopped transmitting location data on the night she disappeared.
Brian Hooker and Lynette Hooker left shore at Hope Town in the Bahamas at around 7:30 p.m. on April 4, Brian Hooker told authorities that rough waters caused his wife to fall off their dinghy. Brian Hooker paddled to shore and arrived at Marsh Harbour around 4 a.m. on April 5, according to authorities.
The couple was headed back to their sailboat Soulmate, their full-time home in retirement, when Lynette fell overboard, Brian claims. The couple frequently sail around the U.S. and Caribbean, according to their social media pages.
Data obtained by Fox News Digital through marine tracking company VesselFinder shows the Soulmate's Automatic Identification System (AIS), which broadcasts a vessel's identity, speed and position, went dark at 9:29 p.m. on April 4 and did not resume until 8:40 a.m. the following morning, a blackout of more than 11 hours.
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Blaine Stevenson, a friend of Brian Hooker's, previously told Fox News Digital that Brian returned to his sailboat with search and rescue officials on the morning of April 5. The Coast Guard Investigative Service is conducting a criminal investigation into Lynette Hooker's disappearance.
Tad DiBiase, a former federal prosecutor and author of the book "No-Body Homicide Cases: A Practical Guide to Investigating, Prosecuting and Winning Cases When the Victim is Missing," told Fox News Digital that finding out how the tracking data went dark will be a key question for investigators.
"I believe there's evidence that the tracking of the boat was turned off at a time that closely parallels around the time that she went missing. All of those things are highly suspicious," DiBiase said.
FRIEND OF BRIAN HOOKER SPEAKS OUT, QUESTIONS DISAPPEARANCE OF WOMAN IN BAHAMAS MYSTERY
DiBiase said if he were a prosecutor being consulted on this case, he'd want to see a few questions answered.
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"I'd wanna know a lot more about their relationship and then I would want to be very certain that the tracking system was turned off, what time it was turned off, all of that kind of forensic evidence," he said. "I'd want to make sure that it was very solid and very clear what happened and what the position of the boat was, as opposed to where he said the boat was."
U.S. authorities recently asked the Bahamian government for clearance to search a new area in the Sea of Abaco for Lynette Hooker's remains after investigators found GPS data that allegedly contradicted what her husband told investigators on the night she disappeared, CBS News first reported and sources confirmed to Fox News Digital.
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A source in the Bahamas told Fox News Digital that the new search, if approved by Bahamian authorities, will focus on an area of the Sea of Abaco with waters reaching 25-foot depths. The renewed efforts are based on GPS data from Brian Hooker's phone, in which he was using a marine navigation app. The Hookers' dinghy allegedly visited the same area, a U.S. official confirmed to Fox News Digital.
The Coast Guard seized the couple's sailboat, Soulmate, in early May and took it to Fort Pierce, Florida, but it was recently moved to Fort Lauderdale, as authorities couldn't pull it from the water.
Brian Hooker's Michigan-based attorney previously asked Americans during an interview with ABC News to give him the benefit of the doubt.
"I would ask those watching to treat him the way you would want to be treated, to give him the benefit of the doubt, and to consider that not all of us, nor you, considering your own relationships, the way you speak to one another, we all handle things in different ways," Crystal Marie Hauser said.
Fox News Digital reached out to Brian Hooker's lawyer for comment.