Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - "OVERBOARD" LYNETTE HOOKER LAND-SEARCH, HUBBY LAWYERS UP

Episode Date: April 27, 2026

The U.S. Coast Guard opened a criminal investigation into the disappears of Michigan woman Lynette Hooker. The 55-year-old went missing while boating in the Bahamas. 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 "bounced out of the dinghy", 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.  Now, the search for Lynette has turned inland. Royal Bahamian Police and the US Coast Guard say it's unlikely the Michigan mom fell overboard.  Joining Nancy Grace Today  Randy Kessler -  Trial Lawyer, Emory Law School Professor, Past Chair ABA Family Law Section, Author: "Divorce, Protect Yourself, Your Kids and Your Future", www.KSFamilyLaw.com, Instagram: @rkessler23, Twitter: @GADivorce Dr. Bethany Marshall  - Psychoanalyst, Author: "Deal Breaker,”  featured on Peacock and Bravo, www.drbethanymarshall.com , Instagram & TikTok: drbethanymarshall, Twitter: @DrBethanyLive Brian Fitzgibbons  - Director of Operations for USPA Nationwide Security, website: www.uspasecurity.com, Instagram: @uspa_nationwide_security Vanessa Walsh  -  Host of the podcast, Unmasked True Crime,  Facebook and YouTube: UnmaskedTrueCrime, X: CrimeUnmasked  Dave Mack - Investigative Reporter, 'Crime Stories'  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Overbore missing mom, Lynette Hooker's search has expanded. No longer in the water only, now expanding to a land search, torpedoing the story her husband gave when she went missing, claiming she bounced off the dinghy. This, as the husband seemingly leaves. his bedside vigil with his mother

and returns to Michigan and immediately lawyers up. I'm Nancy Grace, this is crime stories. I want to thank you for being with us. Brian texted me saying call me at 8.30 at night. Brian just said, hey, your mom's all overboard.

I threw her a light preserver, but I don't know if she got it. She's been missing since last night around 7.30. Something is off. Something is sketchy from that phone call. I think an interesting development has taken place today. There's been some reports from the ground in that elbow K that the searchers,

both from the Royal Bahamian Police Force as well as the U.S. Coast Guard, did not believe that Lynette is in the Sea of Abaco. The depth there is too shallow and that their search is being conducted extensively on land. From our friends at True Crime and Justice on YouTube, but let's hear it straight from the horse's mouth. Joining us, our friend, Brian Fitzgibbon's Director of Operations, USPA Nationwide Security, leading a team of investigators around the world, including the Bahamas, finding and extracting missing people. He is a former Marine Iraqi War vet. Brian, thank you for being with us. this is a torpedo to the husband's story that Lynette Hooker bounced off a dingy,

bounced off a dingy like she's a volleyball. He says he didn't know if the life preserver went in, if she got it or not, why not? He's looking right at her. The life preserver was one of those right there. Can we go back to that picture? According to Carly, the daughter, what she tells me, it was not a life preserver at all. It was a seat cushion. That can't hold anybody up. That said, I'm going to circle back to the life preserver slash seat cushion.

The torpedo to the husband's story is that the search has now moved to the land. Obviously, authorities do not believe Lynette is in the water. Was she ever? Why are they on the land? Did she wash up on the land? Explain what's happening. Yeah, and I think it's not the only torpedo to Brian Hooker's story. That's for sure. So this search being conducted on land, you know, number one, this would be routinely done anyways, right? So first and foremost, that would happen. But these sources are claiming that both U.S. Coast Guard and Royal Bahamian police are indicating that it's very unlikely that Lynette Hooker is in the sea of Abaco in that location that Brian Hooker said she would have fallen overboard for a number of

reasons, right? This is at its maximum depth about 15 feet. The water's crystal clear pretty quickly aerial searches were conducted. And you now have new information about the locations he's talked about, that drift of this seat cushion winding up all the way, four miles across in Marsh Harbor. there are torpedoes coming to his story over and over again. Torpedoes to his story. Randy Custler joining us, veteran trial lawyer out of Atlanta,

Emery Law School Professor, and former chair of the ABA American Bar Association Family Law Section for the whole country, author of Divorce, Protect Yourself, Your Kids, and Your Future. Randy Kessler, maybe I'm not stressing it enough. do you see the problem? The search has moved from water to land and sources there are stating. And I've dived there in the Bahamas crystal clear where they're talking about.

You can see the bottom. They've done aerial searches. They've done dive searches. They're saying, according to sources, that she wasn't in the water. They've moved to the land. Don't you see the problem with that? I absolutely see the problem. And you know who it's a problem for?

The prosecutors, for people that prosecute, for people like Nancy Grace who are pinning it on this guy who has presumed innocent. They have not found the body. And it's going to be harder to find the body because they didn't find it in the shallow water from aerial searches. And like your previous guest just said, they would do this anyway. If you don't find the body in the water, you know, things move in the water. If the body's in the water, it could be anywhere in the Atlantic Ocean by now. But on land, if it washes up, it's not going to go. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, wait.

Kessler, the only reason for any delay was because the husband, Brian Hooker, delayed. He sat on the phone talking to his friends for three straight days without putting a toe in the water to find his wife. There's the delay. And let me stress, Brian Hooker is innocent as we go to air tonight. He remains innocent until. proven guilty by a jury of his peers. But very often, Randy Kessler doesn't give you the rest of that sentence. Presumed innocent unless and until the state pierces that presumption with evidence proving guilt.

That's the rest of that sentence. He very conveniently leaves off when he talks about the presumption of innocence. So Kessler, you're saying it's not his problem. It's the prosecution's problem that searchers are now on land. And what Nancy Grace has conveniently just left off is, yeah, until they appear to have been and prove him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. And I think we're getting to the tipping point. Maybe there's circumstantial evidence.

I just said that. I don't think you said it beyond. I didn't leave it out. Okay. Well, I'm glad we're in agreement. I'll do a playback. That said, continue forward. Yes.

It's looking like he's got more of an uphill battle. It looks more and more like maybe he did some things wrong in that may point to civil liability. But proving someone guilty of murder beyond a reasonable doubt, when you don't even have a body to show the cause of death, when you don't have a forensic accounting or a coroner or anybody telling you this is what happened to the person and how they died, you need a lot more than that to get somebody a guilty verdict.

Does it look bad? Sure, but he was the only one there. Of course, he's the only suspect right now. It's not a question of did somebody else do it, which is often the case. This is, was it an accident or was. Was it murder? And right now, if we can't prove murder, it's an accident.

He's not guilty, and he's not guilty yet, most importantly. Well, Randy Castle, you're right. If the state can't prove it, then it means nothing. Guys, I want you to hear what we have obtained from our friends at TMZ. This is Brian Hooker speaking to another boater. When we bought Ledd over the side, I paddled over to Marsh Island. And I landed on some crazy shore there. And we couldn't get yesterday.

You guys got to be around at all? Yeah, we'll be around if you need anything. I might, I'm going to ask the guys, but I might need one person to help me in sunny or I've never done it by himself. I don't have any switches to talk on me. Okay. Wow. So sorry. I got to get out.

I can't leave here without putting water under me. Gotcha. Yeah. Okay. All right. from our friends at TMZ joining us an all-star panel to make sense of what we're learning you know castler back to you again did you not notice how casual he is when we lost Lynette over the side i paddled over to marsh island i landed on some crazy shore and we couldn't get it yesterday what he seems so calm he's not even upset

you know he's been in dramatic situations he's been traveling the world by boat And yes, he does sound calm because he's not focused on that. He's trying to focus on fixing the boat, making sure he can get out of the dock. That was the moment to do that. You know, you tape him or you film him for 24 hours in a row. Guaranteed you're going to find a couple minutes of lucidity, some couple moments where he's actually thinking rationally about the task at hand. Because he talks rationally for 30 seconds on a sound bite means he's not remorseful or sorrowful or mourning the loss of his wife,

I don't buy it. I don't think that's enough. Again, maybe that's the way he reacts to this situation. God knows how I would react to this. But every minute of every second of every day following it, you have to be in a state of mind. Maybe it should have come out differently. Maybe it would be different if it was me or somebody else. But I can't find him guilty just based on that.

I don't like the way it sounds. It's not an, it's an only good sound like. Did anyone ask you to find him guilty? Did anybody pose that question to you? No, they did not. I asked you, didn't he see calm? You know what? Let's all of us, the viewer, the listener decide.

Let's hear it one more time. I paddled over to Marsh Island, and I landed on so crazy shore there, and we couldn't get yesterday. You guys got to be around at all? Yeah, we'll be around if you need anything. I might. I've got to ask the guides,

but I might need one person to help me in Sunday, or I've never done it by himself. I don't have any switches to talk on me. Okay. Well, so sorry. I got to get out and it's not getting out and it's not getting out of putting water under me. Gotcha. Yeah. Okay. All right. Oh, my stars.

Is he anchored? Why isn't he out looking for his wife? Why is he anchored waiting for someone to bring him a dingy, Kessler? And why is he talking normally and why is he talking rashly? He acted rationing that conversation. Why is he anchored? I don't know. Maybe that's what you have to do to keep your boat there when you're going into town to get more help or to get more supplies. I don't know for that moment why he was anchored at that moment. Okay, that doesn't mean that he didn't care about the loss of his wife and that he's guilty. Kessler, did you not hear what he said? He said, I may need help getting unanchored. He's not there for just that moment. He's just sitting there. He's not briefly anchored. He said he couldn't unanchored by himself. So he's not just for the moment.

He's anchored doing nothing. He's not looking for his wife. That was two days after she went overboard. That boat was anchored, but other boats that he's been out on. And the dinghy wasn't anchored, right? You didn't travel by boat back and forth to the shore. How did he get around? The boat was anchored.

I mean, I thought they were anchored there for a while, right? When they're in port, when they're living there, and then they're going to unanchor and leave. You're amazing. You're amazing, Kessler. That's why you win so many cases. No matter what I throw at you, you come up with a new story. It's incredible.

Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Dr. Bethany Marshall joining us, renounced psycho Alice out of the L.A. jurisdiction. She's the author of Deal Breakers. You can see her now on Bravo and Peacock and find her at Dr. Bethany Marshall.com. Why is he anchored having a P.B.N.J. You know, Nancy, there are so many wrong things about this story. First of all, he's refining his story to the story. fellow boater, unaware that that voter is actually taping him. So one question in my mind is that

his fellow seafarers are apparently already suspicious because they're taping these conversations. When he says he cannot leave without a foot of water underneath him, he's confessing to how shallow those waters are. And if his wife really bounced off the boat, as she said, she could have easily stood up in that kind of water. The other thing that stands out, Nancy, he's feigning helplessness. I can't unanchor by myself. So what he's already doing is he's pretending that he can't possibly cope, cannot possibly unanchor without another person there, i.e., he can't make it without his wife, which if the allegations are true and he did have something to do with her disappearance, he's doing just fine without

his wife. You know, Nancy, something else really bothers me about this story, and that is I hear like the Gabby Petito Brian Laundrie. situation. There was a 2015 domestic in which he's drinking heavily, calls 911. The responding officers are told that Lynette has hit him five to six times. They take her, they remove her from the situation, even though she claims that he choked her and hit her in the forehead. She is the one who's blamed for the domestic. Now, at the end of the day, they can't prove it. So she is released.

But this is what Brian Laundry did with Gabby Petito. Remember in the van life where the police pulled them over? Oh, she's hitting me. And the police believed it. So we have, oh, and by the way, he was heavily drinking in that 2015 incident. So we have sort of a behavioral trail here that I would want to follow to better understand what happened on the dinghy when she bounced off. Back to you, Brian Fitzgibbons.

aside from his demeanor, the fact that he has left, remember he left town, he left the Bahamas to go because his mom, according to him, was in critical condition. Well, he's left that bedside vigil in Sacramento, and now he's in Michigan and immediately lawyered up. That's a whole other can of worms. I want to talk about this search expanding to the land. What more can you tell me about the water? search that was conducted for Lynette Hooker.

Yeah, so there was an extensive water search conducted between the Royal Bahamian Defense Force, the Hopetown Fire and Rescue, which is a volunteer organization with a number of vessels, and then an aerial search assisted by the U.S. Coast Guard, which, you know, they're the best in the business, best in the world at that. And I want to add one thing that really hasn't been talked about too much. Brian Hooker has released a number of statements, made a number of communications, okay? And in not one of these statements, does he reference attempting to make a phone call after Lynette went overboard? Okay.

Why is that important? You know, you've got reporters all over this area right now, live streaming from a ferry that's going across the Sea of Abaco in the very spot he was in. you know, a rudimentary search can show that, you know, there, there is some cell reception there. It might be spotty at points, but at least an attempt ought to have been made. I'm just pointing that out. At no point does he even discuss this. Well, as a matter of fact, Brian Fitzgibbon's, you're right. And by his own words, I can place his phone in his hand when Lynette goes overboard.

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 floaters and 25-noughts. And so. after an hour of calling her, I could have never heard her voice.

And that 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 grabbed the flares by then. I had two flares. and they didn't see the flares, I guess. And I didn't know what the fuck to 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. What you're hearing there is sound from Unmasked True Crime. The star of Unmasked True Crime is with us. Vanessa Walser, going to go to her in just one moment. Fitzgibbons, did you not hear him state? He had his phone in his hand, according to him, and tried to use the phone flashlight, the lamp, to get the attention of a boat. He had the phone in his hand, Brian. Yeah, and I'm sure Attorney Kessler would agree with me here that, you know,

these numerous statements from Brian Hooker are not advisable at this time. Right. Everything he's saying, the text messages to friends that are being immediately shared with the media, it all provides contradictions to reality. Okay. Numerous experiments, I should say, have been done to prove, hey, same time the Hope Town Fire and Rescue, somebody went out in their boat under the same conditions. They threw a dry bag just like Lynette's overboard to see what would happen to it. Now, first of all, under the same exact conditions, which there is a perfect record of this, there are no two to three foot swells in that area. Everything he's saying is being contradicted. Presumed innocent, presumed innocent, presumed innocent. I can't say it enough. However, I will point out that his story somehow morphed into him throwing a life preserver overboard. Because those were the latest reports, but that is not what Lanette's daughter, Carly, tells me.

It's not even a life preserver. It's something that you kneel on or sit on. Let's like for gardening is something you kneel on, and it doesn't keep a 150-pound person afloat. And it was supposedly found like 400 feet from the dingy when it washed up to shore, when he washed up to shore in Marsh Harbor. so I don't really believe that he threw it to her. I'm just thinking maybe he threw it off to the side to make it look like he did something to save her. I don't believe that it would wash up right next to you, but my mom suddenly washed the other way. It just doesn't make sense. Straight out to Vanessa Walsy star of Unmasked True Crime, the hit podcast, who obtained the sound we were playing earlier,

that tape recorded conversation with Brian Hooker, instead of out searching for his wife on the phone, pushing his story about what really happened. Again, presumed innocent, presumed innocent, presumed innocent. Vanessa Walsh, he left the Bahamas, just as Lynette's bio daughter, Carly was landing, did not wait to see her to brief her on the case, to give her a download about what was happening, turn tail and ran to go to his ailing mother's bedside. Now, reportedly, she's in, has kidney problems, kidney failure. But she's in Sacramento and he's in Michigan.

That bedside vigil didn't last very long. You know, he said from the very beginning over and over to everyone that will listen that his sole focus in this is to find Lynette. Yet his actions have never lined up with his words. And if his sole focus was truly finding Linette, when he would never have left the Bahamas. And in that TMZ footage, what I thought was really interesting and important is, yet again, we're getting to see even more examples of how Brian behaved in the immediate

aftermath of Lynette's disappearance. And I thought it was also interesting that that footage was taken on Monday, April 6th, which was the same day of the other recorded call that was leaked. And in this footage, just like the other call, Brian's completely calm and monotone like you mentioned. And it's like he's talking about the weather, not the fact that his wife of 25 years has just gone missing 24 hours earlier. So again, we're hearing this controlled, almost rehearsed kind of explanation of events. And my question is, you know, is this the behavior of someone who's in shock or someone who's practicing their story? Because that's the impression I know that some of his friends had the last I spoke to them.

Vanessa Walsh, I couldn't agree more, but I also agree, believe it or not, with Randy Kessler, veteran defense lawyer. because someone's behavior, their genuine empathy or not can be construed many, many ways by a jury. But hard evidence is what I would be looking for. Now, he says he has to leave the Bahamas and leave the search to which he has dedicated his life for his wife to get to his mother who lives in Sacramento. We believe. This is what Carly tells me. Have you spoken to him since he turned tail and left? No, he hasn't even reached out either.

I know he flew her to Atlanta, but where he went after that is I don't know for certain, but I think it's in California. Where's mother? Do you have any indication she's in the hospital? Yeah. I don't think he's in the hospital because she was going to get a kidney transplant, but she declined, so I don't think she's going to be. Okay, Randy Kessler, that was a really short bedside vigil.

I mean, all they saw of him and Bahamas was elbows and tailhole, running to catch his plane. Bam! Out of there. And he knew Carly was landing. But he left to go to a critical bedside vigil with his mother, and then oops, had to go to Michigan to hire a lawyer. Thoughts. Guess he's guilty. He left to go see his sick mom.

You know, he's not running away from the law. There's an extradition treaty with the Bahamas. If he's, you know, accused, if he's charged, they'll be able to get him back. But he's doing what he can in this world. You know, what can he do there? He's not the experts, the authorities are the experts. The Bahama Coast Guard, the investigators, they're going on, but he's got a sick mother who he can help. He can't help his deceased wife anymore.

You help where you can. I'm not here to judge him. I'm here to figure out. Put him up. Okay, I'm up. Kessler, if you thought your family member was floating in the ocean and you just said on camera you're devoting your life, you're not going to leave until you find them,

then suddenly you hightail it. I mean, then you claim you're going to your mom's bedside, but you don't. You leave there too and go hire a lawyer. Speaking of lawyer, here's Crystal, Marie Howie. I would ask those watching to treat him the way you would want to be treated, to give him the benefit of the doubt. I imagine that is where his heart is, but I can't speak on whether or not that's what he will be doing. Okay, so his heart is in the Bahamas. That's my friends at WZZM-13. His heart is in the Bahamas, but his rear end is in Michigan.

His mother is sick. We're no one's disputing that. And we don't know what advice his Lord gave him. Maybe his Lord told him there are legal reasons why he should not be in the Bahamas. He obviously talks a lot. He obviously gets recorded a lot. I'm sure his lawyer does not like that. So maybe this was just good lawyer by saying, listen, if you're under a cloud of suspicion, you don't need to be further indicting yourself, making statements that people are judging you. I don't like his tone of voice when he's talking. He sounds very matter of fact in every conversation that you've played. I don't like that. If I was his lawyer, I would say, please don't be talking to people about this. don't talk to anybody. Maybe getting him out of there makes it easier to keep him away from the media, away from people that were taping him. Who knows what his advice is from his lawyer, but I would not be shocked if that was partially his lawyer's instruction, which is remove yourself, get away from anybody that might try to find a way to accuse you or prove that you had something to do with this. As much as you want to help, you're not able to help being there. According to reports tonight, husband Brian Hooker has left his mother's bedside vigil

gone to Michigan and hired a lawyer. This is stark contrast to what he said earlier. I won't be able to stop looking. You want to keep looking for Lynette. I'm going to need somebody with more authority to tell me to stop. Without, there's no point in being in any of it, I don't even... You let me know what you're good at. She wouldn't stop in our luggage.

I think that's all I can really do, understand. Thank you, Brian. Thank you for your time. Thank you. From our friends at NBC and CBS, straight back out to Vanessa Walsh, the star of unmasked true crime. That was him saying he went on to say he was dedicating his life to finding Lynette. What more can you tell us about him leaving the Bahamas, going to Sacramento, we think, and then leaving quickly from the bedside vigil onto Michigan to hire a lawyer? The only thing I've been told by his friends is they're not even sure, you know, if he did that. They just know that his mom is sick and in California where his sister is located.

But we don't know that, you know, really any of the details of him going to sit with his mom. We do know that he went to Michigan and hired a lawyer who's now asking the public to give him the benefit of the doubt, which is getting harder and harder to do. Back out to Dr. Bethany Marshall joining us, we're now psycho analyst. in on what you're seeing and hearing, Bethany? I'm seeing and hearing lack of empathy for the victim. So one of the things we do in forensic interviews when we interview a potential perpetrator is how do they talk about the victim? Are they loving?

Are they worried about where the victim is? What is missing from all these interviews is references to where she might be. Imagine one of your loved ones, Nancy, has disappeared at sea. You'd be like, oh, my God, what if they're still alive? Is she floating out there? Are there sharks? Are there predators in the water? Are there sea creatures?

I just can't imagine her being out there lost and alone. I have not heard one reference like that. So in cases like this, it's not what the person says necessarily. It's what they leave out. It's the story holes. It's what they're not saying that begins to concern me. Back to tonight's discovery that the search has shifted from the water to the land. Take a listen to what daughter Carly, this is Lynette's Bayou daughter, tells me.

We looked where she fell in. The whole thing is like a giant sandbar. She could have swam a couple feet and then stood up. So I don't see how she could have flown away and drowned in. she used to run all the time, ran a half marathon in a 25K, so she was pretty fit. She could swim. They've done this for 10 years, so she knows all about the water. Kessler, they were on a sandbar.

You know what a sandbar is, right? You can stand on it? In most places, yes. Yeah. I mean, what you want to say? You don't know exactly where the sandbar. I mean, the sandbar is two feet. then it goes to six feet deep, then it goes away.

You know, if he, if it was right in the middle of sandbar, then he would have found her and she would have been, you know, saved, of course. You know, he's all confused. I don't like his tone when he talks, but you're not going to convict him because you've got a discrepancy in what he said to a friend versus what he said to a reporter versus what he said later. You know, yeah, if we were on a sandbar,

there wouldn't be a search, it'd be over because she'd be right there. Also, water's move people. right? You try to push two feet of water over a bunch of sand. It moves quickly. Otherwise, you know, you'd have a lake instead of an ocean. Okay. Spoken like a true navigator, you'd have a lake instead of an ocean. Look, Kessler, I don't blame you. I know you're scrambling. Back out to Brian Fitzgibbon's Director of Operations, USPA, nationwide security, you heard what the daughter said. Now, I want to go back to where the search is happening now. When it began leaving the water, according to what we've been told,

it started on the edges of the land where her body could have floated after going overboard. But it's past that. Yeah, at least, Nancy, we know that extensive canine searches have happened not only over the water. These canines are able to detect anything coming up from over 30 feet of water, believe it or not. So that search took place. They searched the shoreline, and they also extensively searched Abaco Island, Elbow K, where they were in their final reported moments together. So, you know, a lot's going to unfold here.

I'm keen to find out the digital evidence in this case. Explain. I want to know if Brian attempted to make a call during this multi-hour period. that he was traversing or allegedly traversing from Abaco to Marsh Harbor. So did he try to make a call? Is there any information from Lynette's recovered Apple Watch that according to some photos posted online were with her at the Abaco Inn just moments, minutes before she would have gotten onto this dinging? And then the last piece of information is, did that soulmate vessel move?

And does it contradict anything Brian gave in his multi-hour statement to police? You were talking about canines searching land and water. Here's K-9 specialist, Dave Moyer. First of all, can a cadaver dog pick up the scent of a dead body in water? Yes, ma'am. They absolutely can. As a matter of fact, there's a whole extension of the cadaver discipline that focuses primarily primarily on dogs, on boats, being able to detect people in the water column.

The circumstances of this case make it exceedingly difficult for these canines to actually be able to accomplish this. Due to the duration, since this event actually occurred, and all of the live dynamic action of that saltwater, shallow, warm salt water is just full of all kinds of predatory creatures, currents, and environmental conditions that, quite honestly would bring a body to the surface very rapid. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. In a shocking twist, the Bahamas searched for Missing Mom Lynette Hooker takes to the land, takes to the land. To Vanessa Walsh, joining a star of unmasked true crime,

I can only assume they're looking near the Abaco Inn. they may be tracing digital. I think that's where Brian Fitzgibbon's was going. If the digital can be triangulated on his phone, on his smart watch, on her smart watch, where they were on land, my guess is that's where the land search will be focused. I agree. And I also wondered when I heard that it switched to land if they maybe got a new tip or if some of that digital evidence is changing his narrative and changing his timeline. And I also agree that it will be very interesting to see if his boat moved at all, because there is that critical window of the eight hours when he was allegedly, you know,

drifting, kind of paddling to March Harbor. But there is some indication that his boat was offline for about 11 hours starting at 9.30 p.m. So maybe they found out more about that as well. Leaving Kima. I think we're going to leave him off. It's only been four months. The sales are up, and we're getting ready to leave Galveston Bay. Front window, our head cell.

This is how we do laundry, too. Got groceries. Delivery. It's a way of life, man. In seemingly happier times, but now this. Were you surprised he left? Yes, because one day he's saying I'll never stop searching for. her and crying on camera and then leaves the very next day, which to me that just shows his

character on how much his word means and just who he is as a person. You're going to go see your mom who's been ill. She's been ill for a while with chronic kidney failure. So I'm not saying like, don't see your mom. But what's going on right now? Why leave now? I don't think he wanted a part of me feels like he didn't want to face Steve and I. I'm glad he's. left, though, because I did not want to run into him. I didn't want to say something, you know, I regret or something. And tonight, allegations of violence in the home arise. She told me two years ago that he choked her and was threatening to kill her and throw her overboard. And she said he choked her so bad that she felt something like pop at her neck. So, and then that's when she got,

packed a bag and left. And she only left him for like a couple months. She went back to him, sadly. I don't know why she went back. I think she's always known that she needs to leave him, but she cares about him a lot, and he can be a great person. Like, he's been there a lot for me

and always gave me advice too, because I was in a group chat with him and my mom. I got along with him for my mom, really. really. I always didn't want her to be with him. Every time they broke up, I was like advocating for her to stay away because it feels like he like tried to like take her away and like made herself the house. And I know that she wanted to do that eventually, but I don't think that she was like ready to do it yet. She says when she's not with him, she feels like she needs to go back to work for a little bit because she retired at 49. So she's going to stay a little longer. Did you see the photo of the bruises all along her lower back? Yeah, I know her friend had that picture. I didn't see that until after all this happened. Like, she doesn't really tell me much about what goes on in the relationship

until after she thinks she's going to leave him. So I just hear from my grandma and from Rachel, her friend. Vanessa Walsh joining us, Unmasht True Crime Podcast. asked, what do you know regarding corroboration of those times Lynette would leave? So there were a few things I noticed in their social media as far as their posting that could point to some potential red flags leading up to her disappearance. So I went through the Hooker's YouTube channel post by post, and their pattern of posting was pretty consistent. It was every one to three days up until March. So on March 10th, Lynette's posts, she posts a normal video.

And then the channel goes completely dark for nine days, which is the longest gap by far going back months. Burnett's mother says that Lynette purchased a one-way plane ticket to leave Brian that was scheduled for March 11th the day after that post, but she never gone on the plane. And then after that nine-day gap, Lynette starts posting again like normal on March 19th. So my question was, you know, what happened during those nine days? Did Brian find out that she was going to leave? Did he find out about the plane ticket? Did this cause even more tension in their already troubled relationship? I just thought it was an interesting gap from their normal posting. Dr. Bethany Marshall, weigh in. There's so many risk factors for violence here. One noteworthy one is that he choked her to the point where she felt a pop in her neck. Nancy, selling her house, if she sold it to make him happy and she did not want to sell it, That tells me that he's liquidating her assets so he could potentially have access to them. How do they afford to be out on the water for 10 years not working? She wants to go back to work, but he is discouraging it.

And this is what abusers do to the victims. They isolate them from their friends and from the rest of society so they can have control over them. And they do discourage them from having their own separate resources. So as this case progresses, I'm going to ask a few questions and look, did he have a girlfriend? What were his online habits? Was he chatting with somebody? Looking at pornography excessively. Who had access to her bank account?

Did he have access? Was there money being moved around at the time of her death? I asked Brian, where's Lynette? And he said, well, we're not getting along. We're separated. And I don't know when we're going to. get back together if we get back together. Basically, I don't think Lynette and Brian should have been together. It just seemed like it got bad. Lynette should never be in that water and I feel for her

daughter and I can't even imagine it. I can't even imagine it. That is Donna Hooker, Brian Hooker's stepmother from our friends at WZM. Tonight we are learning. The search has expanded to on the ground, most likely in areas that can be proven digitally where they frequented just before Lynette Hooker disappears. We wait as justice unfolds. If you know or think you know anything about the disappearance of Lynette Hooker, 242-300-8477 repeat, 242-300-8477. We remember American Hero Officer Russell Croxton, Dubach, PD, Louisiana, killed in the line of duty after 17 years living behind a wife turned widow, Jennifer, and two daughters, Heather and Amanda. American Hero Officer Russell Croxton. Nancy Grace signing off. Goodbye, friend.

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