Coast Guard Seizes Sailboat of Man Whose Wife Vanished in Bahamas

The U.S. Coast Guard’s seizure of the 47-foot sailboat Soulmate gives investigators control over the vessel at the center of the disappearance of Lynette Hooker, 55, and could open a crucial forensic window into what happened offshore near Elbow Cay. Taking custody of the boat moves the case beyond search-and-rescue questions and into the kind of evidence preservation that can matter in a criminal inquiry.

The boat, owned by Brian Hooker, departed Marsh Harbour in the Bahamas on Friday and was taken into Coast Guard custody on Saturday, May 10. Drone images later showed Soulmate docked at Fort Pierce Coast Guard Station in Florida on May 11, a visible sign that federal investigators had secured the vessel rather than leaving it in private hands. A Coast Guard official in Fort Pierce said questions were referred to the agency’s Miami office, which did not immediately respond. It remains unclear whether the seizure was directly tied to the criminal investigation.

Lynette Hooker was last seen on the night of April 4 near Aunt Pat’s Bay, close to Elbow Cay and Hope Town. Brian Hooker, 58, told authorities that his wife fell from an 8-foot dinghy during a nighttime return to Soulmate in rough weather. He said Lynette Hooker was not wearing a life jacket and had the key to the dinghy’s engine when she went overboard.

Brian Hooker was detained by the Royal Bahamas Police Force on April 8 and held for five days before being released without charges. He denied wrongdoing and later returned to the United States to help his sick mother. The chronology matters because it shows how quickly the case shifted from an initial missing-person report into a cross-border investigation involving Bahamian police, the Coast Guard, and Coast Guard Investigative Service agents.

Federal investigators have already signaled that they are looking beyond the family’s account of the night Lynette Hooker disappeared. On May 5, the Coast Guard Investigative Service asked the public for help identifying a mystery sailboat that may have been moored near Soulmate. That appeal suggests investigators were seeking witnesses, boat traffic, or other physical evidence that could place another vessel in the area and help reconstruct the final hours before Lynette Hooker vanished.

With Soulmate now in custody, investigators can examine the boat for evidence that would be difficult to preserve if it remained in circulation, including electronic navigation data, communications equipment, damage patterns, residue, and other traces that could help confirm or challenge the timeline. Lynette Hooker’s daughter, Karli Aylesworth, said on Mother’s Day that it was her first Mother’s Day without her mother and that the family had received no update from investigators, a reminder that the search for answers is now centered on the vessel itself.