The U.S. Coast Guard has been granted permission by the Bahamian government to send divers to search previously unsearched areas in the Bahamas for missing Michigan woman Lynette Hooker, a source briefed on the investigation confirmed to CBS News. The permission was granted to the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service. Hooker, 55, was reported missing on April 5, one day after her husband, Brian Hooker, told authorities that the couple had set sail for a nighttime ride aboard a dinghy from Elbow Cay in the Bahamas. Brian Hooker told local investigators that his wife fell from the dinghy and was swept away in the current with the keys to the boat, forcing him to paddle back to shore. He was initially arrested but later released and allowed to return to the U.S. He has denied wrongdoing and has not been criminally charged.
Newly obtained GPS data from Brian Hooker's phone has prompted U.S. investigators to relaunch the search for Lynette Hooker. The data appears to contradict Brian Hooker's account of where his wife was on the night she disappeared. The search will focus on a new area in the Sea of Abaco with 25-foot-deep waters, sources told Fox News Digital. The couple's sailboat, Soulmate, was seized by Coast Guard investigators about 40 nautical miles south of Florida. Investigators are also looking into whether an infrared camera aboard the Soulmate, which uses a cloud memory system, was in use on the night of Lynette Hooker's disappearance. Additionally, federal investigators are seeking to identify the owners or occupants of a sailboat that may have been moored next to the Soulmate in Aunt Pat's Bay on the night of Lynette Hooker's disappearance. Investigators believe they may have information critical to the case.
Karli Aylesworth, Lynette Hooker's daughter, told Fox News Digital that the Coast Guard has asked her family to submit DNA samples to help with their investigation.