Lynette Hooker search: Bahamas allowing Coast Guard to send in US divers, official says
The Bahamas has granted the Coast Guard Investigative Service permission to send in U.S divers to search new areas in the case of Lynette Hooker, an American woman who went overboard and vanished in the Bahamas nearly two months ago, according to a U.S. official.
Forensic evidence recovered from the electronic devices of Lynette Hooker's husband, Brian Hooker, have led investigators to new areas of interest that were previously not searched, according to U.S. officials.
According to one U.S. official, the information Hooker told investigators does not match the GPS data from his electronic devices.
The CGIS is leading the probe into the disappearance of Lynette Hooker, who has been missing since the evening of April 4. Lynette Hooker's husband, Brian Hooker, told authorities that after the couple departed Hope Town on their dinghy to head to their yacht, called the "Soulmate," bad weather caused her to go overboard.
Brian Hooker was arrested on April 8 and questioned by police. He was released on April 13 without charges.
On April 14, Brian Hooker told ABC News that he was staying in the Bahamas with a "sole focus" of finding his wife.
But hours after that interview, Brian Hooker left the Bahamas, with his attorney saying he wanted to be with his terminally ill mother.
Karli Aylesworth, Lynette Hooker's daughter and Brian Hooker's stepdaughter, has told ABC News she doubted Brian Hooker's story.
The U.S. Coast Guard has seized the couple's boat and has it docked in Florida.
ABC News' Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.
