Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - OVERBOARD: HUSBAND CAUGHT ON TAPE, LYNETTE HOOKER LOST AT SEA

Episode Date: April 13, 2026

Brian Hooker, the husband of missing Lynette Hooker, caught on tape, speaking to a friend in a recorded call  about the incident. The U.S. Coast Guard has opened a criminal investigation into Lynette's disappearance.  Brian Hooker taken in for  questioning, but now authorities must decide whether to charge him in connection with her disappearance or release him. That deadline is tonight.  Brian Hooker's attorney says he “categorically denies any wrongdoing. ”   Police say Lynette and husband Brian Hooker were using an 8‑foot dinghy to travel from Hope Town to their yacht, Soulmate, moored near Elbow Cay in the Abaco Islands. Husband Brian says around 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Lynette fell overboard, along with the boat’s engine key, which caused the motor to stop. He says strong currents carried her away, but he saw her swimming toward shore before losing sight of her. Brian reportedly paddled the boat to Marsh Harbour and contacted police around 4 a.m. Authorities from the Royal Bahamas Police Force, Royal Bahamas Defence Force, and U.S. Coast Guard conducted an extensive search of the area. Now days later the search has officially shifted from a rescue to a recovery mission. Lynette has not been found.  Lynette’s daughter, Karli Aylesworth, says her step-father's story “doesn’t add up” and points to past marital problems between him and her mother. Joining Nancy Grace today: Eric Faddis  - Founder of The Law Offices of Eric Faddis, “The Mile High Lion,”  former felony prosecutor and current criminal defense and civil litigation attorney; website: EricFaddisLaw.com, Janine Driver - Body Language Expert and CEO of the Body Language Institute, New York Times Bestselling Author of “You Say More Than You Think,” Host of podcast “In The Driver’s Seat with Janine Driver” website: JanineDriver.com, Instagram: NewBodyLanguage Vanessa Walsh  - Host of the podcast, Unmasked True Crime. She obtained a phone call from Brian Hooker to a friend a day after Lynette vanished. Facebook and YouTube: UnmaskedTrueCrime, X: Crime Unmasked Jordan Plentz  -   Neighbor   Sydney Silvagni  -  Investigative Reporter, 'Crime Stories'    See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Overboard in the Bahamas. As we all know by now, a loving mother and wife falls overboard on a sailing trip with her husband. Tonight, husband Brian Hooker caught on tape as his wife, Lynette, remains lost at sea. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.

I want to thank you for being with us. Lynette Hooker falls overboard. My initial thought is if he could paddle to shore, why didn't he paddle to her and save her? They were not able to find her in the water or anywhere else. A lot of people are questioning his story and have questioned his story because why would she not be wearing a personal flotation device or a life vest?

She basically just bounced off the dinghy in the middle of a little blow. like 20-some-not winds that popped up and on a pretty cool half-mile maybe trip back to the dingy and single thing failed every single thing we weren't wearing life jackets. 50. It was sundown and the sunset like basically 10 minutes after she fell over. Dingy killed her with her because it wasn't clipped to anything or anybody and she had the spare dingy key over. key in her dry bag, which was with her. Yeah, it was inflated.

I mean, inflated because it was folded, but the wind blew us apart so fast that I think she tried to swim back to the sailboat, back to our sailboat, which was probably, I don't know, thousand yards or something. But the waves were three foot, and I was trying to ship the whores, and one of the pins on the horse broken that hurt dropped over the side. And I was yelling for her the whole time. And I yelled to her

that I lost a war and I threw the anchor out and anchored the dinghy. And just, yeah, I yelled. I couldn't see her anymore. It was, it was, it was, the moon had not risen yet. You are hearing husband Brian Hooker caught on tape by a friend he called. Just so you know, he made the call from the Bahamas, which is a one-party consent jurisdiction, to the friend in St. Martin's, which is also a one-party consent jurisdiction. What does that mean? To record a phone call in many jurisdictions, both parties must consent to the recording, the caller and the callee, not so in Bahamas and St. Martin. Joining us an all-star panel, but first to Vanessa Walsh. Joining us, Vanessa is a star of Unmast True Crime Podcast, and she obtained this sound and has shared it with us at Crime Stories.

First of all, Vanessa, thank you for being with us tonight. Where did you get the sound? So I put a video on my channel, and right after I had posted it, I got contacted by one of Brian's friends who said that he had talked to him the day after that she went missing and asked if I would talk to him about what happened and if I wanted the audio. And when you first listened to it, Vanessa Walsh, what was your reaction? The first thing I noticed, I was just struck with his tone, how unusually casual and a matter of fact, he was. It sounds like he's just talking about a normal day going to the grocery store. You know, where's the emotion and where's the urgency? His tone just doesn't match up with what just occurred 24 hours earlier. Well, you're right, Vanessa Walsh, a very,

conversational, matter of fact, calm, tone. This is as he called a friend in St. Martin. And why did the friend, Vanessa, did the friend explain why he felt, he or she, felt they had to record the call? He did. And it was for the same reason. He was so disturbed by two things initially. One was the tone of his voice, just how nonchalant he was about the whole thing. and then the second thing that really alarmed them

was he kept referring to Lynette in the past tense. And at that point, they decided they needed to document the call. I'm wondering if there's even more of the conversation, Vanessa, based on what you're saying, before they thought, oh, my goodness, we need to record this. I would like to know that too. I don't know the answer to that, but I would assume so. Guys, let's take another listen.

There's a lot to plow through, but I want to hear this again. Listen to husband Brian Hooker trying to explain what happened to wife Lynette. She basically just bounced off the dinghy in the middle of a little blow, like 20-some-knit winds that popped up and on a pretty cool half-mile maybe trip back to the dinghy

and single thing failed. Every single thing we weren't wearing light jackets. Uh, Bipsey, uh, it was sundown and the sunset, like basically ten minutes after she fell over. Um, Dini Kew were with her because it wasn't clipped to anything or anybody. And she had the spare Dini Kee in her dry bag, which was with her. Yeah, it was inflated. Um, I mean, inflated because it was folded, but, uh, the wind blew us apart so fast that I think, I think she tried to swim back to the sailboat, back to our sailboat, which was probably, I don't know, thousand yards or something.

But the waves were three foot, and I was trying to ship the whores, and one of the pins on the oars broke, and that hurt dropped over the side. And I was yelling for her the whole time, and I yelled to her that I lost an oar, and I threw the anchor out and anchored the dinghy. and just, yeah, I yelled. I couldn't see her anymore. It was, it was, the moon had not risen yet. Wow. What a series of unfortunate events. What a set of coincidences, a string of coincidences, as he says later on in the recordings,

Vanessa Walsh, obtained unmasked true crime, a cascade of failures. Wow. the cards were just stacked against them or so he would have us believed to veteran trial lawyer, Eric Fattis, founder of law offices of Eric Fattis. What about it? Does that happen often with your clients? It's just one coincidence after the next and somebody just ends up dead through no one's fault. You know, Nancy, surely accidents happen.

And these are circumstances that are not always foreseen and something with which a person may not have experience. And so when that crisis hits, not everyone knows what to do. They're not always thinking rationally. They're not always taking meaningful steps that we might expect them to take in order to address this emergency that has just befallen them. So, you know, while there are some coincidences here, I think that it's equally plausible that this was just a tragic accident and he didn't quite know what to do. And now we're left with the place we're at presently. Wow, you said an accident. Let's just recap all the coincidences that happened.

She bounced off the dinghy. I've never heard of a human bouncing ball, but his description. In the middle of a little blow, which I guess means high winds, 20-some odd winds that just popped up suddenly, almost immediately after they get into the dinghy trying to sell back to their sailboat, quote, every single thing failed. These are veteran swimmers and boaters. They're on a four-year sojourn.

They sold everything they own. They got rid of their home and took off. But they weren't wearing life jackets. It was sundown, no life jackets, and the sunset just 10 minutes after she fell over. That's important because we're going to hear more about the conditions in his phone call. the dry bag that held the clip, the kill switch, fell overboard too. It was with her. Why? Because it's usually on a lanyard with the driver. She tried to swim back a veteran swimmer but couldn't. The waves are now at three feet tall and uh-oh, a pin on the ore broke and it dropped over the side. I hate when that happens when your spouse is full. lailing to live and, oopsie, drop the oar. Wait, where did he say he jumped into Savor? Oh,

that's not in there. Now, interesting, he threw out the anchor, but later on he says it was trapped under one of the cushions and then the moon. It was the moon's fault. The moon had not risen. Two special guests, along with Vanessa Waltz, joining us, Jordan Plinz, a neighbor of Lynette and Brian Hooker back home. Jordan Plinence, thank you for being with us. Jordan, you heard defense attorney, Eric Fattis, state that nobody would know what to do.

But if you are a seasoned sailor, boater, swimmer, you do know what to do. My children are Eagle Scouts, and they know what to do and they've done it. My son at age 12 as a scout jumped into the water and saved another boy's life.

He knew what to do. Just to become a certified diver, I had to go through hours and hours. Months, it took me months to learn to dive and to train for safety issues. They knew what to do. He knew what to do, Jordan. What was your experience with them? Well, I think it's crazy. He's a Marine, for one, so he should be able to take life-saving measures.

But, you know, with her swimming, even if the waves were three feet, she knows how to float. You know, you learn those things. You know how to swim here before you can walk. Like we are surrounded by 50 lakes in a 50 mile radius. Lynette knows how to swim. So Ryan, too, considering he was in the military, it just doesn't make sense on why he waited so long to call or even report that she's missing.

He didn't even attempt to save her. Like he didn't want to jeopardize his own life. And if you love somebody so deeply, right, it doesn't matter. You try your best. And I just feel like a lot of it doesn't make. sense to me in this scenario unless she got hurt to where she couldn't swim. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Now, it's interesting that you bring up the specter of her getting hurt before she went

into the water at Jordan Plants. Isn't it true that there were several occasions where Lynette Hooker would move out of her home with husband Brian and come and live in your mom's home for a period of time? Yeah, there's just a couple times that I knew of. I don't know anything before that. I've lived here since 2018, but Darlene would let me know that this is happening. And it's kind of like sad that they're bringing up the court case in 2015 trying to paint this picture against Lynette when she's the real victim here.

We can't find her. You know, her body is missing. Jordan, one more thing before we played more of husband Brian Hooker caught on tape. When I say neighbor, you guys are right on the water. Describe where you live and where the hookers fit into this. There's 50 lakes in a 50-mile radius. They're all anywhere from 600 to 1,000 acre lakes. They're not small.

You know, they have some depth to them. She lives across the street from me directly. I can, I'm literally looking at her house right now, her mom's house. And truthfully, like, we all grew up on this lake. Lynette grew up swimming around my parents and all that. They've been on this lake for a very long time. So you learn how to swim before you can walk here. They throw you in as babies because if you get out, you're going to drown if you don't know how to swim.

So, you know, it just doesn't make a lot of sense unless there was foul play. before something happened to her that she could not withstand swimming a half mile, even a mile, she could do too if she was in good shape. And I don't even think drinking has anything. She could be probably tanked and still be okay. You know what I don't like, Jordan? I don't like, you mentioned an earlier complaint made by Brian Hooker, the husband, naming his wife, now missing at sea.

Lynette as the aggressor. I'd like to... What I don't like is people painting Lynette, and I've seen this online, and it's very hurtful, as they quote, boozy broad. People say they were both drunk

and a story. Once again, a woman is being maligned over what? Nothing. And in that prior incident where he claimed she was the aggressor, law enforcement refused to execute a warrant.

They said there was insufficient evidence to state who was the aggressor, and she would not say anything against the husband, as is so often the case. So somehow she's getting dragged through the mud, and she's the one potentially at the bottom of the ocean right now. Exactly. It's sad that that had to surface that way. And, you know, I just don't get it personally because she is the victim here in this scenario. We still have not found her body. Her family is still suffering, right? And yet, we're pulling up stuff from 2015 to make her look bad.

But realistically, she's the one missing. She's the one in danger here, wherever she is. Back to Brian Hooker caught on tape, as found by, Vanessa Walsh Unmasked True Crime. Let's listen. And the ways were doing their thing and you know, I saw her I think twice. I threw her a

flotation cushion that we used to sit on the dinghy, you know, right after she went in. But I didn't, I couldn't tell if she got it or not. We've been looking for the cushion to the search and rescue teams. How small a person is in two or three footers

and 25-nar wins. And the order of calling her, I could have never heard her voice. And that towered mo came by, and I raised my flashlight on my phone, and they were so fast, you know, I didn't even see it. And then as another one came by right behind it, sort of, five minutes behind it. And I had grabbed the fliers by then. I came with, I had two flares. they didn't see the flares, I guess.

And I didn't know what the do. I was basically we were basically by the time I got the anchor set, I was probably a quarter to a half a mile away from her. More of those pesky coincidences that end up with Lynette Hooker gone. You know, it's another interesting thing.

I don't know if you feel this way or not Jordan Plentz. This is neighbor of Lynette and Brian Hooker. I recall I had been at work and the twins, they were little. They're now 18. They were about three. And we had had them in swim class since they were two. And I went to every single class and sat on the side ready to jump in. Of course, I never needed to.

They were with not one, but two instructors at the same time, one instructor to watch the other instructor watch the other instructor. But I had been at work. At that time I would have been at CNN's HLN. I went straight to their swim class. It was only the second class they had ever had without me standing by watching.

I got to the edge of the pool. It was a big Olympic-sized pool. And I heard my daughter scream, Mom! Help! Mommy! Mommy, help! I had it on my shoes, everything from work, being on air and jumped in and started swimming like that. Of course she was fine. She was absolutely fine. Praise the Lord. But I wonder what kept him from jumping in and trying to save his wife.

And that's what it doesn't make any sense to me, right? Like the bitterness, you could be mad or upset, but it almost seems like it was so premeditated with the things that Lynette said to her family or friends and then this actually happens and you know if he wanted to save her I felt I feel like he could have and he didn't do what normal people would do if they deeply love or care for somebody like if you wanted her to be here right now especially with his background too he could have swam her a half mile with the flotation device and held on to her if something didn't seriously happen. And it just, there's so many questions I have and it's just truly devastating. I feel so terrible for Lynette and the family. I just, I don't know what else to say.

Vanessa Waltz joining us, Star of Unmashtrue Crime Podcast. The sound that we just played, Vanessa, I'd like you to listen to it one more time, along with defense attorney Eric Fattis. I've got some points I want to bring back up to Vanessa. Walsh from Unmasked Tree Crime. Listen. And the ways were doing their thing, and you know, I saw her, I think, twice. I threw her a flotation cushion that we used to sit on the dingy, you know, right after she went in. But I didn't, I couldn't tell if she got it or not.

We've been looking for the cushion to the search and rescue teams. A small. A person is in two or three floaters and a 25-9 winds. And they're calling her. I could have never heard her voice. And a tower bill came by, and I raised my flashlight on my phone, and they were so fasted. You know, I didn't even see it.

And then there was another one came by right behind it, sort of. five minutes behind it and I had I grabbed the fliers by then. I had two flares and they didn't see the flares, I guess. And I, after, and I didn't know what the f*** do. I was basically, we were basically, by the time I got the anchor set, I was probably a quarter to a half a mile away from her. Wow, Vanessa Walsh, just so many things just happened to go wrong. Wait, so two power boats come by.

Neither one see him. He holds up his cell phone at one. The other one, he says he set off two flares. But you pointed something out to me very critical about the equipment in his dingy. What have you learned? Yes, so despite him saying that he did shoot off those flares to get the attention of the second boat, there were multiple reports that came out this weekend from the Bahamian news saying that not only were none of the emergency devices in the dinghy were utilized, but that also included the flares. They were not deployed.

Okay, I need to understand exactly what you're saying. Guys, Vanessa Walsh with a star of unmasked true crime. reports came out in the last 72 hours stating that the equipment, the life-saving equipment and the dinghy was not used. Did I hear that correctly, including the flares? Correct. And when I talked to his friend, he was extremely upset about that because as you just heard, that was specifically mentioned by him that he did set those off to try to get help.

But for whatever reason in his version, they didn't see. but I looked them up myself and they did report that the flares were not used that were in the dinghy. Janine Driver. Really? He waved his cell phone at a powerboat going by. Help me. Listen, Nancy, there's a lot of what I call linguistic dimmer switches happening here. The words he's using is like a dimmer switch, turning down the volume or turning down the light so we don't see what really is happening.

You know, another issue. Hold on. Guys, this is Janine Driver, by the way. Let me properly introduce her. She is a body language expert, CEO of the Body Language Institute, New York Times bestselling author of You Say More Than You Think, and she's a host of podcast in the driver's seat with Janine Driver. Okay, Janine, I've got more.

I want to play for you. But Vanessa Walsh, isn't it true that at the pier, where they had gone to the restaurant, and then they got in the dinghy, according to Brian Hooker, I want to confirm, hey, that they were ever at the restaurant to start with.

That said, isn't there a no-wake zone? I mean, in all my experience, diving, boating, fishing, swimming, there's a no-wake zone. And it's strictly enforced. So they would have still been in a no-wake zone.

And you bring up a couple, good points because we don't know if they actually ever went to dinner that we're aware of. I'm sure investigators are diligently piecing that together, but we actually don't know when the last time Lynette was actually seen or if they actually did go to the end for dinner and leave at that time. I did learn through the friends that there were that the people that more next door to the hookers were in that same area, in that same no-wake zone you're speaking of heading the same direction at the same time and they did not report the same conditions. In fact, they had their children in the dinghy and said that they would have never

had their children in the dingy if the conditions were poor. And the ways were doing their thing. And, you know, I saw her, I think, twice. I threw her a flotation cushion that we used to sit on the dinghy. You know, right after she went in, a tower bow came by, and I raised my flashlight on my phone and they were so fast, you know, they didn't even see it. Guys, we are listening to the husband, Brian Hooker, caught on tape. And I want to circle back to their neighbor back home in the States. Joining us is a very special guest, Jordan Plinz. Jordan, what do you make of what he's saying in that portion of his phone call?

He's got the phone in his hand. In his hand. And it's obviously working because he's using the light, so why wouldn't you just call the Coast Guard? you can Google that quicker than waving and then hitting flares, I should say. It doesn't make any sense to me. If his phone was working in charge, why didn't he just call the Coast Guard? They could have been right then and there exactly.

You're the criminal defense attorney. You're the one who wins all those cases in court. Why didn't he just make a phone call? He yelled at her for an hour when he could have just dialed 911 for Pete's sake. Nancy, two things. You know, a phone's capacity to have the flashlight activated is not the same as the phone being able to have connectivity, you know, in the middle of a large choppy body of water, you know, drifted sea. Those are two different things. I just want to come to the flares.

You know, we don't know exactly how many flares this dingy had on it. We don't know if a person could have brought additional flares, discharged them, and then the remnants of that discharge was no longer on the dingy. So I think it's important to explore all plausible explanations in this. And I think that's hopefully what law enforcement do it. Let's see the map that Vanessa was given. It was originally provided by the husband, Brian Hooker, trying to explain what happened. Because look at that.

It's not out in the middle of open sea. It's between those two little islands. Look. Look. that. He's not out at open sea. You know, and Eric Fattis, you did bring up a really good point, and let me go to Vanessa

Walsh on this. I know he said he shot off two flares that amazingly nobody saw in that small body of water, that small stretch there, nobody saw the flares. Other reports state that have emerged in say the last 36 hours that the flares were still on the boat.

Could there have been more flares? Did he say he had two flares? Did he say he had two flares and he used them or that he just simply used two flares and there were others he didn't use and if he didn't use them why didn't he use them great question and if i recall correctly i mean i mean it's possible of course but if i recall correctly i believe he does say in the audio that he had two flares that they had actually he has another excuse for that that they had slipped and he finally got to them and then he lit the flares i believe he does say that in the audio but i would have to double check.

Ouchy, I hate when that happens, don't you, Eric Fattis, when your client speaks voluntarily to friends and blows his defense? I had two flares and I shot them. And then there they are sitting on his boat. No, from a purely legal perspective, you know, I would certainly advise him to stop making statements. What's going to happen is exactly what's happening today. Those statements are going to be picked apart.

They're going to be compared to objective evidence to see if they corroborate those statements. or refute them. And so it's certainly not his best legal interest to be doing this. But on the other hand, if a person was completely innocent and their wife had fallen overboard, it wouldn't be unusual for them to be discussing that, voicing what happened. So, you know, is this behavior consistent with someone who's innocent or not?

I think there are multiple interpretations of that. Curious, U.S. Coast Guard requires three players minimum for vessels under 16 feet. Going forward, let's listen to more of Brian Hooker. On tape. At that point, I was slightly closer to something, which has a few houses on it, and I decided I had to go get help. But I could not get to the island, one paddle.

And the tide carried me right on the first house and then the second house. And so I ended up drifting in pad. Many hours until I landed on the Marshall Island to about four months. miles away. The dinghy key was not attached to me. You know, so when we were around trying to get back in the boat, the sun was falling when it kind of dropped out. It was a magnet key, you know, for the electric motor. And it was a cascade of failures, and it's something I'm never going to forgive myself for. And then, so this happened like Saturday night during all day at the place called Tahiti Beach, and there'd have a beach part that pulls up on a barge.

and, you know, we hit the next stop. We stayed too long. We left too dark. All kinds of shit. No life jackets. I had the two that used stuff, you know, under the seats that nobody ever wears for, you know, Coast Guard purposes. But we used to wear these life jackets all, we had these other ones all the time. Vanessa Waltz, I thought he originally said they left in daylight hours and that within about 10 minutes it began to get dark.

Now he's saying a cascade of failures caused Lynette to be lost at sea, including the fact that they left the restaurant too dark, that it was dark when they left. Right. It's more like a cascade of inconsistencies because that was one of the first things I caught when I was listening to this. And one of the things I talked to his friend about because he did say that they stayed too long. They stayed too dark. But at the same time, in the same audio, he says that, let me. that fell overboard 10 minutes before sundown. So there still would have been adequate light and you would have been able to see her in the water. Sundown at 727 p.m. Later on, he blames the moon for not coming up for several hours. It rose at 10.05 p.m. Back to Janine Driver, body language expert and CEO Body Language Institute. What about it, Janine? Well, where to begin? Just because someone is

talking to law enforcement or talking even more so to the media doesn't mean they're telling the truth. See, in our world, my world of detecting deception, Nancy, liars try to convince us of something. Truthful people convey. So let's start there. Secondly, if we just listened to that clip you heard a second ago, Nancy and listener at home, he said, you know twice and then the words, and then, you might as well say, and once upon a time. And then means. you're skipping information. And then, well, what happened here? It's like yada, yada, yada from Seinfeld back in the day.

He also said, I decided. Listen, Nancy, people, I decided to do keto and lose our 100 pounds at New Year's five years ago. It never happened. Decided does not mean we executed on our decisions. So when someone, think about the New Year's resolutions, I decided to quit smoking, I decided to do this. There's three stages of decision making, research, reasoning, result.

Decided happens in that middle stage. It does not mean I executed on it. You ask someone, hey, do you do drugs? I decided 10 years ago not to do drugs. It doesn't mean you're not currently doing drugs. You're not answering the question. So him deciding something means nothing. I want to know did he execute on getting her help.

That's not what it seems to be with his language. He does start, stop sentences. When there's start stop sentences, it's the person saying, wait a minute, I need to turn here. He also becomes a magician. Like the magician says what? Look what's happening over here so you don't see that. I'm pulling this magic rabbit out of this hat. He says what? We used to wear life jackets all the time. I mean, when we used to have them, we had them all the time. This is smoke screening. Lyers will often spend

more time telling us things that were truthful. And then the actual incident gets really small and tiny. In other statements here, Nancy, he says the word basically. Basically, if you're vegan, And you go to a restaurant and you say, hey, I'm vegan. I want to make sure this meal has no meat in it, no eggs in it. And the waiter says to you, well, basically, there's no meat or eggs in your meal. Would you check the box? Okay, I'll order that then. No, basically means there's more to the story here.

You're either pregnant or you're not pregnant. Basically, I'm not pregnant. Basically, you're not pregnant. I remember I went on a ride years ago in Universal Studios and I was in Florida and I was pregnant. And they were squishing the lock on pretty tightly. And the guy goes, hey, I got to make this tighter. I go, no, but I'm pregnant. He goes, well, if you're pregnant, you can't be on this ride.

Well, basically, I'm not pregnant. I literally said it because I wanted to go on the ride. I'd been on the ride 10 other times earlier, so I knew I'd be okay. So I say, pay attention to this linguistic dimmer switches. When someone says, basically, we used to see here Johnny Depp's ex-wife, Amber heard, say, kinda. I say, anytime you hear this, kinda, there's more to finda. These are all linguistic dimmer switches so we don't pay attention to what is important here.

By the way, one last word, Nancy, just. She basically just hit her head on the dingy or whatever it is. Just is a minimizing word. So when someone says, I'm just an accountant, I'm just a body language expert, I'm minimizing my value. When someone in a case like this says just, they're minimizing what, how you just banged her, she just banged her head on a buoy. Basically, we've got a lot of hotspots here.

I think that at the end of the day, this is going to be a story. We're going to talk about and analyze at my class and certainly on your programs for our many, many years to come. I'll be calling back to this story 10 years from now. I mean, Jordan Plentz, so many things went wrong. I guess fate. We can blame fate, Jordan, because after two flares, he said that he, ignited. Nobody saw them. Nobody saw his phone flash night. Suddenly, the blue, even though they were

just leaving a no-wake zone, the waves suddenly towered to three feet. In those maps, and they are his maps that he, Brian Hooker, provided, so only seven feet deep. I mean, everything went wrong. He couldn't find the life jacket. She wasn't wearing. She wasn't wearing. the life jacket. The anchor got tangled up. His oar broke. So many things just seem to go wrong. It's kind of hard to believe. It's fantastical. I agree. I mean, we also, too, being born on the lake, like, we are taught ways to handle situations, right? And I just think it's weird that he did not call the Coast Guard. She doesn't need a life jacket if she's only half mile away. So we can just throw that out of, out of the way. And the fact that he made it for me,

miles away on his dingy but couldn't make it a half mile to his sailboat. That doesn't make any sense. Why would you paddle away from the sailboat? Why are you paddling towards shore? And even then, why are you walking to people's houses to tell people, why wouldn't you just call? I mean, I just looked up on my phone to see if I could find the Coast Guard number and it took me two seconds. So he could at least called somebody, a family member to say call. And that Lynette just fell over. I need health. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Guys, more of

Brian Hooker on tape. Listen. I can't explain nothing to us, you know. I threw the dinghy out last, the anchor out last instead of first. Because the dinghy was all tangled up in the bottom. It was underneath of another cushion.

And I was just trying to get to her. and I was going to row. But it is ridiculous to think you can row of a dinghy, especially a fiberglass dinghy against the wind and two foot to three foot swells. I can't really explain it. You know, I just know that I hate this voted and she doesn't come back.

I'm never getting on this. I'm going to sell this. There and go here. Every single thing that's good on it came from her. Every cute idea and awesome idea. I just fix you. But she really creates. We still.

wouldn't wear a life jackets and we could have got run over, you know, in the dark by these, some of these Bahamian drivers are crazy and, and they wouldn't see his stupid headlight, headlamp instead of a dinghy light. And we just kind of take all these little things for fucking granted because almost all the time it works. And it did not, there's a lot of, it didn't work. I guess that worked was that there was an island in the way of me drifting out. to sea and I landed on it and then I you know somehow got to shore for. Vanessa Walsh joining a star of unmasked true crime podcast. Interesting how the only thing that went right was to save his life.

That's exactly what I was just going to say. The one thing that went right, thank God, you know, was that he got to that island. And I guess we're just to believe that this six foot four ex-marine with probably extensive of water safety and water rescue training, that all he did during this whole ordeal was throw a cushion to her and then stand in the dinghy for an hour and call for her, because that's about all he says on that audio that he actually did. Okay, Eric Fattis, veteran defense attorney joining us out of the Denver jurisdiction. Eric, it's Fishercut bait time. They've either got to charge him or let him go. Unless they ask for another extension, remember in Aruba how

when Natalie Holloway went missing, translation was murdered by Yorne Vandersluat, they would arrest Vandersluet and the Kalpo Brothers and then release them, and then re-arrest them and release them. It went on and on and on while the case went cold. So in this jurisdiction of the Bahamas, they can arrest you, and when it gets time where they have to let you go, they can renew the information. But they're at a deadline now. They've got to do something. In the U.S., once you're arrested, there is literally a clock ticking before you have to appear before a magistrate and you're told with what you were charged and a lot of other information, or the case is thrown out if those procedures are violated. So they've got to do something one way or the other.

They do. And, you know, it's really based on the principle that when something suspicious happens, you can detain someone. Law enforcement can detain them. They can even arrest them in the Bahamas and try to question. them, but we can't just hold them indefinitely, especially if law enforcement has not acquired the requisite evidence they would need to bring a charge and pursue a prosecution. So that judgment call is coming up very swiftly. And these authorities are going to have to make a decision, hey, do we think we have enough to really go after this guy or not? Or are we going to renew our

request to detain him longer so we can hopefully meet that threshold? So I'm sure those discussions are happening literally as we speak. Jordan Plants, neighbor of Lynette and Brian Hookers, back home in the U.S. Jordan, what do you make of texts that have been unearthed where she was texting stating that she was leaving him? I mean, I believe when she says that she was going to leave, but who's to say that he didn't uncover those texts and then that frustrated him because she's speaking out or reaching out saying, hey, like this is not working, and then what? it turns into something like this, you know, it's just, it's just sad because this could have been probably prevented and, you know, she could still be here and the family wouldn't be mourning the loss. So it's pretty devastating to hear.

To Janine Driver, I'd like to hear your response on that last sound that we played of Brian Hooker caught on tape and his story about what happened to Lynette. Well, let's start with, I can't explain. happened to us two times he said in that statement nancy two times i can't explain what happened to us we hear this a lot we heard something very similar with a guy that staged a hate crime over in chicago named jussie smollett i can't explain what happened to us yeah guess what the brain doesn't want us to lie so it will come out in words if we pay attention i was going to row all right so we're looking at tense changes so he was going to do it i was trying to

I was going to try, try means fail. We know that from Star Wars with R2D2 back in the day. Everybody knows try means fail. If I say try to catch this dollar, try to catch it and you catch it, you failed because you need to try to catch it. I don't want you to actually catch it. I just know, so we hear just again that minimizing word, that minimizing work.

Hey, Nancy, can I ask you just a few questions? I don't need to say just. I can say Nancy. Can I ask you a few questions? When I add just, I'm saying I'm uncomfortable with what I'm talking about I'm minimizing the ask that's coming. And kinda. I told you earlier, linguistic dimmer switches are basically kinda.

I said with Amber Hurd, she said, he kind of did this. He kind of put me on a table and kind of did this to my body. And I say kind to push me down the stairs. When there's a kinda, there's more to find a. So kind of take these little things for granted. Oh, and guess what else? He's going to sell the boat. So what is this guy doing?

He's telling us, if we can't find her, I'm going to sell this boat. Yeah, no kid in your selling the boat, bro, because you don't want them looking all around the boat. So when this boat goes all of a sudden for sale in the next two weeks, don't be surprised that you saw it coming. See, when people are going to do something, oftentimes they'll let us know. They'll give us a little sneak peek. They throw the bait at us. And so right here, I think he's telling us, don't be surprised when this boat gets sold really quickly. He wants to get out of the boat situation.

So a lot of suspicious behavior and words here. And I think it's indicative of a lot of cases we've talked about here before. Listen, you're innocent until proven guilty. Let's see what happens right now. He's not doing a really good job of saying to people like you and me and people who can spot deception that this is a truthful person. There's more to the story here. Of course, at this juncture, he is innocent until proven guilty. He has not been formally charged in her death.

Her body has not been found. A lot happening right now as a deadline. looms to Vanessa Walsh, star of unmasked true crime. What is your takeaway of these recordings? My biggest takeaway from his audio is that all of these little things might seem small when you just look at them as singularly, but I think that when you put it all together, it paints a pretty compelling picture that just it doesn't fully line up. If you know or think you know anything about about Lynette Hooker's disappearance. Please dial 242-300-847-7. Repeat. 242-300-8477. Let's stop and remember. A real American hero, Deputy Sheriff Jose Anhelle Dillon, Warren County Sheriff's North Carolina, just 24, killed in a vehicle crash, responding to Adomrell, a domestic-relation violence.

call, survived by his loving partner, Anna, and son Kingsley, who is sentenced to life without his father, American hero, Deputy Sheriff Jose Ahelle Delion. Nancy Grace signing off. Goodbye, friend.