The husband of a woman missing in the Bahamas for more than a week told a night watchman he ‘should have known better’, it has been claimed.
Lynette Hooker, 55, went missing when she and husband Brian, 59, took a dinghy to return to their yacht, Soulmate.
She fell in while holding the boat’s kill switch – the engine’s shut off device – meaning Mr Hooker had to paddle seven miles back to shore.
Night watchman Edward Smith said he showed little emotion when he spoke to him.
He said: ‘There were no tears. He expressed nothing that you would imagine in those circumstances. He was more exhausted than emotional because he kept asking for water.’
Mr Smith also said that Mr Hooker admitted the couple had been ‘very drunk’ when his wife fell overboard.
He said Mr Hooker told him ‘I should have known better, I shouldn’t have done it’, referring to the rough seas they went out on when it was dark.
He told the night watchman that he saw his wife swimming towards Hope Town but lost sight of her.
Mr Hooker claimed to have shot a flare when he saw another boat, but they did not respond.
Mr Hooker was arrested last week in Marsh Harbour, Abaco Island, over Lynette’s disappearance.
Hooker, who has not been charged and denies any wrongdoing in his wife’s disappearance, remains in police custody after officers were granted a 72-hour extension to question him under Bahamian law.
His lawyer said Hooker required medical treatment after he fell from a police boat during a search, injuring his knee and needing to be rescued from the water.
Authorities are holding him for further investigation, but have found no trace of Lynette and a boat captain in the area suggested she may have been eaten by sharks.
He said: ‘Those waters where she went in are full of bull sharks, and they can be monsters.
‘Everything around there is bull sharks. They’d get her straight away.’
Before his arrest, Hooker posted on Facebook: ‘I am heartbroken over the recent boat accident in unpredictable seas and high winds that caused my beloved Lynette to fall from our small dinghy near Elbow Cay in the Bahamas.
‘Despite desperate attempts to reach her, the winds and currents drove us further apart. We continue to search for her, and that is my sole focus.’
Hooker also thanked the Bahamian search and rescue teams, who are working to search for his wife.
Karli Aylesworth, Lynette’s daughter, issued a statement saying that she had been told little information about her mum’s disappearance.
‘If this truly was an accident, I can understand and live with it. However, there needs to be an intensive review of the facts and circumstances of this tragic incident before that can be determined,’ she said.
Timeline of Lynette Hooker’s disappearance
April 4
Lynette Hooker and her husband Brian travel on a dinghy back to their boat. Lynette falls overboard in high winds and choppy seas.
Hooker paddles to shore and gets help – a search begins.
April 7
Brian calls Lynette’s daughter Karli Aylesoworth and leaves voicemail saying the floatation device he threw to her has been found.
Authorities say the search is now a recovery operation.
April 8
Brian Hooker is detained and questioned on ‘probable cause’ in relation to his wife’s disappearance.
April 9
Lynette’s daughter brings up the former domestic violence allegations, citing a ‘turbulent marriage’.
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