Infrared camera on sailboat could hold clues in Michigan woman's disappearance

An infrared camera aboard the Hookers’ sailboat could become one of the most valuable pieces of evidence in Lynette Hooker’s disappearance, giving federal investigators a rare electronic record from a case that unfolded far from land and in the dark.

The sailboat, Soulmate, was seized by U.S. Coast Guard investigators on May 10, 2026, and taken to Fort Pierce Coast Guard Station in Florida. Federal investigators are also looking for the owners or occupants of another sailboat that may have been moored near Soulmate in Aunt Pat’s Bay, close to Elbow Cay and Hope Town, on the night Lynette Hooker disappeared. The Coast Guard Investigative Service has been interviewing potential witnesses and is asking the public for tips, including anonymously through its CGIS Tips app.

Lynette Hooker, 55, of Michigan, vanished on April 4 after a nighttime dinghy ride in the Abacos with her husband, Brian Hooker, 59. Authorities said the couple left Hope Town for Elbow Cay around 7:30 p.m. aboard an 8-foot hard-bottom dinghy. Brian Hooker told police Lynette fell overboard with the boat keys, the engine shut off, and strong currents carried her away. He said he paddled to shore and reached the Marsh Harbour Boat Yard around 4 a.m. on April 5.

The Royal Bahamas Police Force later said the search had become a search-and-recovery operation. Brian Hooker was detained by Bahamian authorities on April 8, questioned for several days, and released without charges after prosecutors recommended no charges be filed at that time pending further investigation. After his release, Hooker left the Bahamas to be with his ailing mother, according to his attorney.

The infrared camera matters because maritime searches often depend on fragments that do not exist in land cases: vessel positions, dockside sightings, engine use, tides, currents and any electronic image of who was near the boat. Investigators are already examining Brian Hooker’s reported accounts, text messages and annotated maps describing the night Lynette went missing. If the camera captured heat signatures from another boat, movement on deck, or activity near Soulmate, it could help narrow the timeline or force a different theory of how Lynette disappeared.

Lynette Hooker’s daughter, Karli Aylesworth, has publicly questioned Brian Hooker’s account and said her mother was an experienced swimmer and had been sailing for more than 10 years. Aylesworth has called for an intensive review of the facts and circumstances. Brian Hooker later said he was heartbroken and that his sole focus was finding his wife.