Missing American boater Lynette Hooker had previously separated from her husband years before he emerged as a suspect in her Bahamas disappearance — and in chilling texts to a friend, she admitted she was afraid to be out on the water with him, writing, “Not going back.”
Lynette Hooker, 55, has been missing since her husband, Brian Hooker, 59, says she was knocked overboard during turbulent conditions when she fell from the family’s dinghy in the Bahamas over a week ago. Text messages seen by CBS News show Lynette Hooker confiding in a friend about “problems” in his nearly quarter-century marriage in 2024.
Messages that Lynette Hooker sent to a friend in 2024 following her split with husband Brian Hooker indicate she had concerns about him and their life at sea. The couple got back together, and now he is being questioned by police in the Bahamas after saying she went overboard… pic.twitter.com/KpgpD7vtM8
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 13, 2026
“I guess it was too much closeness. We decided to call it quits. I’m not going back,” Hooker wrote to her friend, Marnee Stevenson, in early 2024, according to screenshots of the exchange. Reflecting on their time together, Lynette Hooker added, “We were married 21 years. Our marriage lasted 6 weeks cruising.”
Lynette Hooker’s daughter is sharing a voicemail she says her stepfather left after her mother vanished during a boat trip in the Bahamas as she questions his account of what happened at sea. Authorities have now shifted to a recovery operation for the 55-year-old Michigan… pic.twitter.com/3WrSAZYLZ3
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 8, 2026
In another message, she described the situation bluntly: “It was real bad. I can’t be out there with him.”
About a month later, however, Hooker told her friend the couple had reconciled, according to the messages. “Looks like things are on the up and up,” her friend replied. Lynette Hooker answered her friend’s reply with heart emojis and a thumbs up.
Marnee and Blaine Stevenson first crossed paths with the Hookers in 2023 while sailing through Florida, forming a connection as they spent time boating together. “We were boating with them for a while,” Blaine Stevenson recalled.
Lynette Hooker, who had previously lived in Michigan, confided in Marnee that she had walked away from her former life to embrace sailing, writing that she had “quit my awesome career, sold my house and gave away everything I own to cruise.” According to the messages, she later left Brian and went to stay with her mother in Florida.
Brian Hooker, 59, remains under police questioning in the Caribbean after claiming his wife, Lynette, 55, fell overboard from a small dinghy as they were heading back to their yacht on April 4.
“It was a cascade of failures, and it’s something I’m never going to forgive myself for,” Hooker said during the April 7 call. Speaking calmly, he added, “We stayed too long, we left too dark, all kinds of s–t.”
Brian Hooker, whose wife, Lynette, went missing on April 5, after allegedly falling overboard while the couple was traveling in the Bahamas, was recorded speaking to a friend on April 7. During the call that CBS News has verified, he described the events from that night as a… pic.twitter.com/k4vBVqLQ6n
— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 12, 2026
He went on to acknowledge another critical mistake — failing to anchor the dinghy. “Can’t really explain it, you know. I just know that I hate this boat and if she doesn’t come back, I’m never getting on this f–king boat and I’m gonna sell this f–ker,” he said. Brian Hooker also admitted the couple had not brought life jackets with them that night.
Despite the seriousness of the situation, his tone reportedly remained composed throughout the call — even breaking into laughter at times as he recounted the events. “She basically just bounced off the dinghy in the middle of a little blow, like 20-something knot winds that popped up,” he said, noting that visibility quickly became an issue. “It was sundown, and the sun set basically 10 minutes after she fell over.”
He told his friend that Lynette Hooker had the dinghy key with her when she went into the water, forcing him to paddle back alone. “I f–king threw the anchor out last, instead of first,” he admitted. “The dinghy key went over with her because it wasn’t clipped to anything or anybody, and she had the spare dinghy key in her dry bag, which was with her.”
According to Brian Hooker, the conditions worsened rapidly. “The wind blew us apart so fast that I think she tried to swim back to the sailboat,” he said, estimating they were about “1,000 yards” from the yacht at the time.
“I yelled to her that I lost an oar, and I threw the anchor out and anchored the dinghy … I couldn’t see her anymore,” he added, saying he tossed out a “floatation cushion” but wasn’t sure if she ever reached it.
Authorities later confirmed the cushion was recovered, but there was no sign of Lynette Hooker. The search was officially called off Tuesday. Brian Hooker was taken into custody for a possible crime related to his wife’s disappearance, around 7:30 p.m. Wednesday local time “for additional questioning,” according to Advardo Dames, assistant commissioner of the Royal Bahamas Police.
