Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - OVERBOARD LYNETTE HOOKER: OMINOUS SPLASH & LIGHTS FROM HUBBY'S YACHT

Episode Date: May 20, 2026

Brian Hooker, an American man whose wife Lynette Hooker disappeared in the Bahamas. After vowing to "never stop searching" for his missing wife, husband Brian Hooker left the islands, returning he said to care for his ailing mother. He has not returned to the Bahamas to look for his wife.   The U.S. Coast Guard has seized the couple's 46-foot sailboat, Soulmate as evidence and is conducting an active criminal investigation.    New information is coming out that mysterious lights and large splash was heard coming from the boat.  What happened to Lynette Hooker?  Joining Nancy Grace Today: Blaine Stevenson - friend,   GOFUNDME PAGE for Karli/Lynette:https://www.gofundme.com/f/Lynette-Hooker-Missing-in-Bahamas  Josh Kolsrud - Criminal Defense Attorney and Former Assistant U.S. Attorney, Founder of Kolsrud Law Offices, website: kolsrudlawoffices.com, Facebook and YouTube @KolsrudLawOffices Dr. Rachel Toles  - Clinical and Forensic Psychologist, website: DrRachelToles.com, Instagram / YouTube: TolzHaus, Facebook: DrRachelToles  Brian Fitzgibbons  - Director of Operations for USPA Nationwide Security, website: www.uspasecurity.com, Instagram: @uspa_nationwide_security Vanessa Walsh - Host: Unmasked True Crime,   Facebook and YouTube: UnmaskedTrueCrime, X: CrimeUnmasked Dave Mack  - Investigative Reporter, 'Crime Stories' See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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It's a summer kickoff thing. Join today at Simonplus.com. Rewards program terms apply. See Simonplus.com for details. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. So-called overboard missing mom, Lynette Hooker. In the last hours, we learned about a loud and ominous splash and mysterious lights all from the vicinity of Lynette's husband's yacht. He wasn't even supposed to be on the yacht at that time.

He was supposed to be, according to him, out calling and calling into the dark night air for his wife who bounced off the dinghy. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. I want to thank you for being with us. The search has now moved to the land. There are torpedoes coming to his story over and over again. Obviously, authorities do not believe Lynette is in the water. Was she ever?

If the body's in the water, it could be anywhere in the Atlantic Ocean by now. Why were lights seen moving about on the husband's yacht when he says he's out in the water calling for his wife who bounced off their dinghy? And according to him, massive swells that suddenly came up off the edge of the land, basically on a sandbar where you could stand up. How did this happen? Why has her body never been found? Lights and a very loud and ominous splash was heard.

A lot going on in the case and more joining us tonight, a very dear friend of Lynette Hooker. But first to Vanessa Walsh joining us. She's a star of unmasked true crime. Vanessa, what do you make of the latest? Let's start with the splash. What splash was heard by whom? when and where? Well, Nancy, that's a really interesting development

because, you know, there's potential reports now of splashing in the water and even lights that were flashing near the anchorage that night, which does raise the possibility that someone nearby may have unknowingly witnessed, at least part of what happened. In a quiet anchorage that night, unusual sounds or sudden lights can stand out dramatically.

And that's why investigators appear to be so interesting, in identifying the nearby voters. You know, Josh Colesruh joining us, he's a veteran criminal defense attorney and a former felony prosecutor with the U.S. Attorney's Office. He's the founder of the Coles Rood Law Offices. We call them earwitnesses.

And ear witnesses can be invaluable at trial. What do you say to this? Do we have an ear witness to Lynette Hooker going in the water and does it contradict the husband's entire story? Well, not the way that it's being described right now. I mean, we don't even know who heard the splash. And, you know, when a boat is out on the water, you know, you're going to hear splashing and sounds.

And, you know, without more evidence to corroborate and kind of describe exactly what was heard, you know, I don't see it really having very much probative value. Now, you know, what everybody's doing right now is, you know, they're kind of looking back and looking at all the suspicious activity, right? You saw the comments from the daughter, you know, that he looks guilty. The daughter suspects him. Marriage have problems. You know, now there's a splash outside the boat. But you know what? We don't have, like we don't have a body. We don't have a cause of death. There's no crime scene. There's no forensic evidence. There's no eyewitnesses. And there's no independent evidence that Lynette Hooker died by criminal conduct. And what we do know is that Brian said that he was out on an eight foot dinghy. And he described 15 to 22 knot range of winds.

And, you know, I looked up at the NOAA weather data. That is the national organization that keeps track of the waves and the winds on the ocean. And it corroborates Brian's story about when the waves came in. And when you're looking at, you know, who's telling the truth, you have to look at corroborating. Stop! Stop, please. Good gravy, man, I know what you're doing. I ask you a question about a loud splash that occurs not near the dingy, where it's supposed to be away near the restaurant, but outside the soul mass.

the yacht around 9.30 p.m. And you are throwing this stew, this stinky stew of other facts to get me off my question. In court, I would say, objection, not responsive. I asked the court to direct the witness to answer my question. But I don't have a judge to force you to answer. So I'm going to go to Dave Mack, joining us, Crime Stories Investigator Reporter. What can you tell me? And I've got to get to the lights.

I've got to get to the lights that we're seen on his, the husband's yacht, the soulmate. At the same time, he says he's out in the water looking for his wife on the dingy. Okay? I've got to get to that. But first, the splash. Dave Mack, what can you tell me about the splash? And then maybe, maybe we can get Josh Coles Rood to narrow his line of, monologue and give us a good answer. Hit it, Dave Mack.

You start with, we've got Brian Hooker, who is supposedly on the dingy the entire time. From the moment they leave the Abaco Inn and head back towards the yacht, towards the soulmate, they never make it. According to Brian Hooker, they never make it back to the cellboat, the soulmate. They're on the dingy. But we're hearing reports of a major splash, what is called a massive splash at 9.30 p.m. To hear a splash that loud on the water, Nancy, it's got to be a big splash. I mean, it's not just dropping a cup of water over the side here. We're talking about something loud enough to be heard above the normal sounds of the water. But again, remember, this is coming from the soulmate where nobody is on the boat. And that,

encompasses the light you mentioned a minute ago. Okay. Before I go to Blaine Stevenson, this is Brian Hooker, the husband's friend. He's also a boating expert. His wife very close to Lynette Hooker. I want to dispel something. I think I can dispel it. That Josh Colesrude said that when you're out on a boat, you hear splashes.

Well, that's not entirely. Let me see Coles Rood really quickly. Coles Rude, I've had the joy and the pleasure. Did you just take your glasses off? Yes, ma'am. I looked away for one moment. I see you yanking off your glasses. Josh, you look just as good with glasses on.

Just know that, feel confident about it. That said, Josh, I just had the pleasure of sitting out on the water for hours and hours on end, many, many weekends in a row, while my son can be. competed in bass fishing championships. Yes, his school has a fishing team. Who knew? That said, no, you don't just hear loud splashes. We sat there in silence.

I was not on his boat. Nobody needs their mother looming over their shoulder when they're trying to compete. But I was out there on the water and everything was dead silent. So hearing a loud splash in the middle of the night, I mean, these witnesses thought it to be uncharacteristic. So I'd like to hear your response to that before we move on to the lights that were spotted on his yacht, not the dinghy where he said he was at that time.

In fact, he said, I'm going to go back to Vanessa in just a moment, that it took him hours and hours, I guess, to what paddle with his hands and two teacups to get to the end of the island where he washed up. That's where he says he was. not on his yacht, the soulmate, blinking lights, but first address the loud splash, please. So, Nancy, that witness's account actually shows exactly why this case is still uncertain and why it's not solved, because hearing a splash and seeing lights on the water at 9.30 at night in rough conditions does not tell us what caused the splash or who was in the water, whether it was accidental, or whether any crime occurred. Remember, the timeline itself already involves a dingy in trouble after the dark and bad weather. So a witness hearing a splash in that environment is completely consistent with Brian Hooker's account that something went wrong on the water.

You know, and again, remember, you know, everybody is assuming his guilt. So when they hear a splash, it must be murder. They see lights. Well, it must be staging. You know, behavior, you know, his behavior must be guilt. But there's another explanation staring at everybody in the face. And that is his story is consistent with the NOAA and their description of the water conditions. And that wasn't an environment that he was controlling.

That's chaos. That's chaos. And, you know, I've handled cases like this in island jurisdictions like Palau. And in rough water at night, people get disoriented fast. You know, distances become impossible to judge. Lights move, sounds carry strangely over the water. A single gust of wind or a wave can separate people. within seconds. So the witnesses account may help establish that there was activity on the water that night,

but it does not establish homicide. And that's the key point. Nobody has bridged the gap between something bad happened and Brian Hooker committed murder because we still have no body, no cause of death, no forensic evidence, no confession and no proof of criminal conduct. And until somebody produces that proof, that evident, this is a tragic case. And, you know, is the homicide has not been proven or shown in any way whatsoever. Get rewarded just for shopping with Simon Plus. Don't miss Memorial Day sales at Simon Premium Outlets and Mills. You can get points at scores of stores, access to exclusive offers, and exciting surprises.

You've got an extra day off, so make it pay off with the best deals from brands you love all in one place. It's a summer kickoff thing. Join today at Simonplus.com. Rewards program Terms Apply. See Simonplus.com for details. Crime stories with Nancy Grace. Joining me, Brian Fitzgibbons, he's Director of Operations, USA, Nationwide Security. He leads a team of investigators around the world finding and extracting missing people.

He is a former Marine and an Iraqi War vet. Brian Fitzgibbon's, you and I have had many conversations. with particularly, in particular, a death investigator and two medical examiners regarding Lynette Hooker. And isn't it true that we all concur, had she gone underwater unless she was weighted down, her body would have emerged by now because, as you and I know from homicide investigations, the body, when it decomposes, fills up with gas. For instance, when you have something in a plastic bag and it goes bad, you forget about it in the fridge, and the bag starts swelling up, that's the same thing with human body. Gases are created upon decomposure, and the enclosure, the sandwich bag, or the body, begins to swell, and if underwater, that body will come to the surface.

That's why we don't have Lynette's body. If it had been in the water, it would have come to surface by now. Agree or disagree, Fitzgivis. I agree, and that seems to be the consensus of search and rescue experts from the area who has spoken out publicly, that they don't believe Lynette's body is in the Sea of Abaco. And I'm going to add one thing to jump on what Attorney Colzer just said. I think that that probative evidence is coming with the seizure of the vessel and the data that's going to be generated from the systems on that boat,

that these eyewitness statements are now going to mean something when it lines up to events that took place on the soulmate that directly contradict the story that was given to police. I think that probative evidence is walking us down right now. I want to get to the lights that appeared on the husband's yacht, the soulmate, at the time he's supposed to be out looking for his wife. Vanessa Walsh, Vanessa, I want you to hear what Blaine Stevenson has to say,

but first, before we go to Mr. Stevenson, who's so kindly joining us tonight, I want to get a little refresher, as we say in court. Let's refresh the witness's recollection. Translation, the witness just screwed up on the stand and let me just jog their memory really quickly. Vanessa, where does? Brian Hooker say he was the entire night after his wife bounced off the dinghy.

Brian has said, as we've heard many times in those recorded statements, he was very adamant that he was on the dinghy with his one o'er paddling for eight hours to Marsh Harbor. He has never put himself on that boat. So anything leading to that would be in direct conflict with his own words of what happened that night. What was his explanation of what he did after his wife bounced off the dinghy? What did he do? According to Brian, he yelled for her for about an hour, but she never responded. He threw the one flotation device out to her that he wasn't sure if he got,

and then he just kind of hoped she swam towards the boat and then used his one or two go paddle for help instead of getting out of the boat in the four to 11 foot water and going to try to save Lynette. When we bought Lynette over the side, I paddled over to Marsh Island, and I landed on so crazy shore there, and we couldn't get yesterday. Farge Park was afraid to diggy to. So there you go. That's from our friend Harvey Levin at TMZ, and we've got so much sound of Brian Hooker locking himself into that story. He basically, you know, got a teacup, according to him, and passed. paddled over and it took him hours and hours and hours.

And he washed up far, far away from the soulmate. Then how in the hay are there mysterious lights and loud splashes outside his yacht? Okay. Before I, again, before I get to the lights that witnesses saw on his yacht when he's supposed to be at the other end of the island washing up to Blaine Stevenson, this. This is Brian Hooker's friend. He is a boating expert, and his wife is very, very close with Lynette. Mr. Stevenson, thank you for being with us.

What do you make of this? What I make from all of reports that have come out is that there are people in the area. There were people overlooking the area. I've gotten calls from people who talk about different weather conditions in support and against his claim. But what we do know is there were people in the area. I do know that a human yelling is louder than any splash I've ever heard. So my problem is an hour of him yelling for his wife isn't heard, but a splash is in the same general vicinity.

My problem is that he floated over to Marsh Harbor in the same weather conditions, within three hours the same amount of time of that flotation device, which doesn't have the same windage as his boat, ending up within 300 feet of where he was. But nothing from Lynette ends up in the same spot. It's not the evidence that Brian did anything wrong. It's the absence of evidence to support his story. That's puzzling me.

For those of you just joining us, Lynette Hooker sold everything she had, used all of her savings for herself and her husband, Brian Hooker, to go around the world sailing on a yacht, the soulmate. And then

there, out in the water, actually not far from the water at all, you could stand up on a sandbar. He says they leave a restaurant, and yes, they're confirmed to have been there, that they get onto the dingy to go back to the yacht,

and somehow between the restaurant and the yacht, a swell comes up. She, not him, she falls, bounces off the dinghy. He tries to save her by throwing her a cushion that you sit on, although there were live preservers in the dinghy. But she apparently didn't get it, and she's never been seen again. Here's his story. She basically just bounced off the dinghy.

in the middle of a little blow, like 20-some-not winds they 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. Fancy. It was sundown and the sunset like basically 10 minutes after she fell over. Um, Dingy Key over with her because it wasn't clipped to anything or anybody. And she had the spare Dingy Key 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, to our sailboat, which was probably, I don't know, thousand yards or something.

Um, but the waves were free, for. and I was trying to ship the oars and one of the pins on the oars broken 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. That is from our friend Vanessa Walsh, the star of unmasked true, crime. Blaine Stevenson, is that the yelling that you are referring to, that nobody heard that, but they did hear a splash? Correct. I mean, the time of night, he says it happened at sunset in our community. That's when everybody's on the back of their boat. If you're home, if you're

a live aboard, if you're in the area, that's the best time to be outside because you're not getting beat by the sun. You're not getting, it's dinner time. That's sundowner time. If you're out, you're out at that time. The time, if I had to pick a time for a tragedy to happen on the water in an anchorage, I would pick that time because you're most likely to get help. You're most likely to be heard. You're most likely to be seen. So the fact that he screamed for an hour and we have no reports of that five weeks in but we have reports of people who are up and around and on land far enough away from soulmate but could still hear a splash um i'm trying to piece it together with the brian i know and i it's not working um and i really wish he would start talking and

explain it so that it makes sense to us blind have you asked him no he's he's blocked everything on social media. I mean, I can ask him right now. Brian, let's go to the Bahamas and look together, right? The easiest way to shut up all the haters, as you call them in comments, is let's grab me, you, Dan, let's grab the whole team. Let's go find your wife. Let's get closure. There's no reason for me to be on a computer and you to be where you are. Let's be in the Bahamas and let's go find Lynette. Blaine Stevenson, do you think he'll take you up on it? I hope so. The Brian I knew would have. This guy I've seen for the last five weeks, I don't know what that guy would do. But the Brian I knew would bring the people together, go fight the cause and go get the answers. And if in the process, it clears his name, great. You know, I don't, I don't want Brian to be guilty. I just can't mathematically make it work. And I think that's the misconception is nobody is going after Brian because they want to go after Brian.

Everyone's going after Brian's story because it's not working. When was the last time a body went missing in the water in the Bahamas and was not recovered in the Abaco area? So, yeah, the mathematics behind this is where Brian is a man of science. Brian taught me a lot about boating. the longer we go and a dry bag has not been found on shore, the longer we go and a blue Columbia jacket has not washed up. The longer we go, we get more information, we get more speculation. What we don't get is any more confirmation of his story.

You mentioned 2019. Why? So I was trying to figure out, I want to believe, Brian. I want to understand so that I can keep my wife safe. I want to make sure that the cascade of failures that he went through, we don't go through. But I can't find a scenario that fits anybody falling off a boat and their body not being recovered in that area. There is an incident in 2019 where a gentleman left his fishing boat and was never found again. But even that report shows like the gas tanks were tampered with or something. So there was some jinky stuff with that one.

But the search and rescue guys when they're being interviewed, everybody who's being talked to, this just doesn't happen there. And I do believe all the sailors who say anything can happen at sea. I've been a part of it. Brian got me through a hurricane. But it doesn't fit the terrain and it doesn't fit the night. It doesn't fit the time of his story. You stated that you have a mathematical issue. You can't mathematically make his story work.

And I agree with you. What I would like to happen is that we find Lynette alive. I don't think that's going to happen. I hate to put that out there and in the search for her alive, but I think she would have been in contact with her daughter by now if she were alive and if she could reach her. Which makes me go to the next logical step is that she is dead, and I'm examining his story.

And I want him to. be telling the truth. I don't want him to be guilty as well, but his story doesn't add up to me. So what about it? You can't mathematically make it work. Two and two is not equaling four. What is the issue that concerns you the most? The issue that concerns me the most is we do know that the weather, like the lawyer said, at some point that evening got bad. We have people that I trust that were boating in the area that report, hey, the weather got squirrelly that night. But the sea of abaco and the Ant Pat's anchorage and that area is completely different, right? So I talked to a gentleman who owns a house on Elbow K, and it looks out over the sea of abacco,

and he said, yeah, you know, it got pretty choppy out there. But that's over where that yellow line is in your picture, not over where the red arrows are in between the two land masses. and if the weather and wind was that bad and he's in a dingy and the wind is blowing him to Marsh Harbor, the time frame to get to Marsh Harbor doesn't add up to me. And the fact that when search and rescue was out three hours later, they see the green float he threw, how does the float within three hour time frame of the dinghy? To end up within 300 yards of each other, 300 feet of each other, as he says, you know, I went out and I

tried this. I threw a dry bag off of my boat and I seen how fast I separated from it. And a dry bag has more windaged than that green float. And my deanie drifted away from it at a rapid pace. For both of them to end up in Marsh Harbor within three hours of each other, the math isn't math. To Dr. Rachel Tolls joining us tonight, Forensic Psychologist, author of a book, On the Cus, Publication, Inventing the Psychopath. Dr. Rachel, thank you for being with us. We know that Lynette had taken all of her savings, everything,

and it was all being used to fund this trip with her husband. We know that she had left him on multiple occasions, and we know there had been domestic violence in their past. What do you make of what you're hearing? Well, Nancy, I mean, in my opinion, the most damning evidence in this case is the fact that two years ago, Brian allegedly choked her and threatened to kill her and throw her overboard. Her daughter, Carly, said he threatened it

multiple times. She describes him as kind of having a bit of a Dr. Jekyll, Mr. Hyde personality, which we see in a lot of homicide cases, meaning that in public with strangers, he was charming, he was nice, people liked him, and they would never imagine that he would be like this, but behind closed doors, he was a completely different person. So here are some facts to understand. Prior domestic violence is present in the majority of intimate partner homicides. Multiple studies have found prior abuse histories in roughly around 80% of homicide cases. So that's important. Non-fatal choking is one of the strongest predictors of future lethal intimate partner violence. And one landmark study found that women who had previously been strangled by a partner were over seven times more likely to later

become victims of attempted homicide by that partner and significantly more likely to become homicide victims. Okay, so strangulation is a demonstration that someone is willing to violate physical boundaries and dominate another person threatening their life with their own hands. So there's a psychological willingness to cross that line. And the overwhelming majority of intimate partner homicides. are preceded by prior violence, escalation patterns, coercive control, threats, strangulation, or separation conflict, and every single one of these markers is allegedly present in this case. And of course, then there's the part where we hear about him allegedly joking his daughter in the past.

I mean, he was acquitted for that, but are these women just making up the fact that he's choking them? And, I mean, even in the police reports, they found that the daughter's neck, the marks on her neck were significant with strangulation or choking. 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 in her neck. So and then that's when she packed a bag and left. And she only left him for like a couple of 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 his. 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 to. To Blaine Stevenson, this is Mr. Hooker's friend. His wife is very close to Lynette. Is that the Brian Hooker that you know, were you aware of any of that? I was aware they broke up in late 20, 23, early 2024 that she left.

My wife was more aware of the intimate details. She gave me the man version, which is, hey, they're not together anymore. And then when we moved Anchorage's, then they were back together. And at that time, and before I've learned all I have about domestic violence, it was none of my business. You know, and so I didn't think anything of it. But what it does tell me is when he was doing his interview, and I've never been away from my wife for more than 10 days. It's not a crime to lie to your friends and lie to the,

the news and everything else like that. But it's pretty damning to us when we know you separated for over a month, at least, I think it was almost two months, while you're boating with us, and yet then you're saying, I've never spent 10 days away from my wife. Like, he's choosing to lie. I don't know this guy. He's choosing to lie for no apparent reason. Why hold an interview if you're just going to lie? There's history of him choking her out and threatening to throw her overboard.

So the fact that this is actually happening makes me believe there's more to the story. I've seen him choke out one of his daughters before and we had to go to court for that. And I was only in third grade. So he's just repeating patterns. From our friends at Fox and Friends, that's daughter Carly speaking. And like Dr. Tolls told us in one of those incidents, it actually went to court and he was acquitted on one of the choking incidents. Blaine, again, thank you for speaking out tonight, your wife very close with Lynette. What is she making of all this new evidence?

She is handling it in the way that Brian, soulmate, and the Coast Guard are in Florida. That's one portion of this. Her friend is in the Bahamas. And so be it. Let the Coast Guard do their job. Let Brian hide under wherever he wants to hide if he doesn't care. We want the permission. We want to be able to search the Bahamas.

We want the closure Brian doesn't want. The closure he wanted with his mom but doesn't want with his wife. That's what my wife wants. I see that's a really good point, Blaine, because he left, just as Carly, the daughter was touching down, he left the Bahamas and came back to be with his illing mom, who is apparently still alive. He has left her bedside pretty quickly, so he came to see her while his wife is still missing in the Bahamas. Which means closure is important to him. you would think, but his mom has not passed away.

So I don't know what closure we're talking about when it comes to that. But then closure for Lynette would be just as important. Exactly. Yes. Yes. Dave Matt, what can you tell me about the lights aboard the soulmate at the time Brian Hooker was allegedly, according to him, out in the water desperately looking for his wife? Nancy, this is the part that is difficult to explain away. Remember, from the time that Lynette and Brian Hooker left shore to head towards their soulmate on the dinghy, nobody was on soulmate. Nobody was on that boat from there on out, according to what Brian Hooker tells us. So lights are not just seen, Nancy.

These lights are actually part of a security video. 17 minutes after leaving. AvaCo Inn. Security footage of the soulmate captures a bright flash of light. That's flash of light number one. A second bright event occurred around midnight and multiple witnesses subsequently reported seeing flares being fired off the sailboat around 8 p.m. a horizontal flare, not vertical. The stress signal goes up. Weapon, horizontal. around 8 p.m. So there's your shocking lights and flares, Nancy, on the soulmate. Vanessa Walsh joining us, star of unmasked true crime who has dedicated weeks and weeks of

investigation into Lynette's disappearance. Vanessa, what more can you tell us about the lights that appeared on the soulmate, the yacht, when Brian Hooker says he's out far, far away, in the dingy, trying to save his wife, who has disappeared in the water. Well, Nancy, there's a lot of intriguing theories I've seen about this. It will be interesting to see if they can corroborate that because it is an intriguing theory to think about the fact, was there an argument on the boat that he said they never got back to? Was a flare gun shot in defense or as a potential just out of desperate and as a weapon? We don't know the answers to these questions, but that has been floating around quite a bit online. but it'll be interesting to see what they can pull from those witnesses that they were trying to locate and the digital evidence on the vote.

You can either support or contradict Brian's story that night. Brian Fitzgibbon's joining us, Director Operations, USPA nationwide security. The witnesses, and there are more than one witness, that states the lights being seen from the soulmate, while the husband says, Brian Hooker, that he was far away trying to save his wife who bounced off the dinghy. What would the working theory be that they were back on the soulmate and that's where an argument took place? I believe so. And I want to point out one thing. Brian Hooker very quickly made a public statement and included, kind of casually included, that he set off an emergency flare. When witnesses are now coming forward, eyewitnesses saying

that they saw a flare, not necessarily at the same time he said he shot it and not in the same location, right? Now we have two flare stories. This is something that I'm watching very closely is if the CGIS can verify that they indeed went back to that boat. theory that you just mentioned was correct, that, you know, they left the restaurant, they went to the boat, whatever happened happened there, and then, you know, the cover-up began. That's all

going to be based on can CGIS pull data from this boat? Is there security footage? Did somebody's phone or watch connect? The data here is going to be everything. Get rewarded just for shopping with Simon Plus. Don't miss Memorial Day's sales at Simon premium outlets and mills. You can get points at scores of stores, access to exclusive offers, and exciting surprises. You've got an extra day off, so make it pay off, with the best deals from brands you love all in one place. It's a summer kickoff thing. Join today at Simonplus.com. Rewards program terms apply. See Simonplus.com for details. Crime stores with Nancy Grace.

The ways were doing their thing and you know you 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 she got it or not we've been looking for the cushion to the search and rescue teams um how small a person is in two or three floaters and uh in 25-noughts and uh calling her I could have never heard her voice Artmo came by, raised my flashlight on my phone and they were so fast. And then there was another one came by right behind it sort of. Five minutes behind it and I had grabbed the flasers by then. It came with, I had two flares and they didn't see the flares, I guess. And I, after, and I didn't know what 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. And to you, Blaine Stevenson, Brian Hooker's friend, there you hear him describing, as Brian Fitzgibbons recounted, shooting off the flares. But, according to other reports, when the dinghy was searched, no flares were missing. And the life vests were right there in the floor.

Now you've heard him talking about shooting off flares. What does that mean to you? And what do you make of multiple witnesses seeing lights and even flares, one being shot horizontally off the soulmate? At the time, Hooker says he's out looking for his wife on the dinghy. Well, I've got kind of two separate thought processes on that. One is he talks about two boats coming and he finds, fired a flare for the first one and it didn't see it.

And then he fired a flare for the second one after it passed him and didn't see it. And I can understand a boat going by and not seeing a flare if it was shot behind him. They're not looking behind him. The second boat that came five minutes later would have saw the flare he fired for the first boat, though, right? Because it would have been heading towards the flare in his story. As far as lights and flares and the activity on his boat, I don't know what, could have been, I mean, I don't know when his sister showed up. Was she on the boat that night? We got reports if he had family in town. He stayed with them. She's seen in a video.

Maybe they were on the boat the whole time and that's okay. Or maybe Brian's just so unlucky that he got robbed at the same time he lost his wife. It makes as much sense that he got robbed while he lost his wife off the back of a dinghy as it does his story. Where are you getting the Rob theory? If he's not on his boat because he's on a dingy, somebody broke onto his boat to cause all those lights to shoot off a flare on his boat. He's just had a bad string of luck. Yeah, it's as it's as probable as the second boat not seeing the first flare. 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's one paddle. and the tight carried me right on the first house and then the second house and drifting in pad lands around to about four miles away the ding and 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 uh there's something I'm never going to forget myself for. And then, so this happened like Saturday night, during all day at the place called Tahiti Beach,

and they had a beach bar that pulls up on a barge. And, you know, we hit the next stop. I mean, we stayed too long, we left too dark, all kinds of shit. No life jackets. I had the two that you 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. at these other ones all the time.

That is from our friend Vanessa Walsh at Unmasked True Crime, but there's more. I said I've never harmed Lynette, and I never would harm Lynette, and I want to find Lynette. No one has told me not to stop looking, and I'm going to keep looking.

From our friends at NBC, that is not what the daughter, and when its mother say, back to Blaine Stevenson. This is a longtime friend of Brian Hooker's, given the loud and ominous splash that was heard, given the lights on the soulmate at the time he says he's in another place, what is your message to Brian Hooker tonight? I feel like the world's painting you in a bad light.

I feel like there is a bunch of information coming out that makes your story, myself included, makes your story not true. Let's get together. Let's go find Lynette. Let's prove your story right. Let's give finality to everybody. You're doing no good in Michigan. Let's go find Lynette and let's get the solved. That's what needs to happen. To Josh Coles Rood, veteran trial lawyer, what's your advice for Brian Hooker? Keep hiding under the bed? Well, I think that his attorneys are doing the right thing, which is instructing him not to make any statements to the media. and frankly to keep his mouth shut. You are under a microscope. All of your actions and words are going to be scrutinized to the very letter.

Now, you know, there are going to be pundits that say, why aren't you out there, you know, searching for your wife? But, you know, you have law enforcement doing that. And, you know, you're going to be blamed regardless of what you do right now. So, you know, his attorneys are doing a good job. They need to make sure that he doesn't incriminate himself. and frankly needs to be prepared for an arrest and maybe charges down the road. Oh, my goodness. So you're not recommending that he go post-haste back to the Bahamas and try to find

his wife? Absolutely not. No, it's a foreign jurisdiction. Bahamas have primary jurisdiction in this case. It's a third-world country. You do not want to get stuck in the justice system in any country, especially one that's outside of the United States. And to you, Dr. Rachel Tolls, what is your advice for Carly, her daughter? Yeah, I mean, this is incredibly tragic, and I'm sure she's still in shock. And I think that for her, it's just, again, taking care of yourself. Mother's Day, obviously, just passed recently. And so it's an incredibly hard time for her, so just be kind.

There's no, obviously, you know, when your mother or someone you love is missing, you can't really grieve it. because you don't really have that closure. And so you can't even say there's no right or wrong way to grieve because, you know, but it's unfortunately likely that she's, she's passed, you know. And so if she, whatever she feels is totally normal. She feels angry, you know, just do whatever it takes to take care of yourself right now because this is an incredibly, probably going to be the hardest time of your life. I do know one team is trying to solve the mystery of Lynette's disappearance.

Vanessa Walsh. Star of unmasked true crime. Earlier, we heard Brian Fitzgivans refer to C-GIS Coast Guard Investigation Services. They have the boat. Why? And where is it? So what we know about that is that, you know, Brian and Lynette's yacht was being surveilled by the U.S. Coast Guard.

And as it was en route from the Bahamas headed back to the U.S., it was seized by the Coast Guard. There are reports that there were two unidentified males on the vote at the time. I don't think it's been verified who they were, but it's been widely assumed that those are people that Brian hired to bring the vote back. The fact that the Coast Guard seized only tells us that the investigation, this has moved far beyond a routine missing person's investigation. That boat is very possibly a crime scene, and investigators clearly believe that there may be evidence. on the boat, that's worth processing and preserving. Brian Fitzgibbon's USPA nationwide security, what do you make of the Coast Guard seizing the boat, the yacht, the soulmate, as it's on its way back to the U.S.?

Yeah, I think they're going to want to go through with a fine-tooth comb, everything on that vessel that's creating digital forensic evidence. You know, you're going to have navigation systems. It's been reported now that there were multiple security cameras on the boat. So did those catch anything? You know, Wi-Fi, any type of communication device. And I've even heard that these batteries, some of the batteries and power equipment, generate a log that will indicate when events took place on the boat. So that's going to be the number one thing.

The second thing is obviously, you know, doing. a deeper dive on that vessel to see if there were cleaning agents used, to see if there was blood spatter or any type of physical evidence of an altercation taking place there. If you know or think you know anything about Lynette's disappearance, please call toll-free 800-424-8802. Repeat, 800-4-24-8802 for the U.S. Coast Guards. We remember an American hero, Detective Kerry Orozco, Omaha PD, Nebraska, just 29, shot in the line of duty after seven years on the force, living behind a husband-turned-witted, Hector. and children, Olivia, Natalia, and Santiago.

American hero, Detective Kerry Orozco. Nancy Grace, signing off. Goodbye, friend. Get rewarded just for shopping with Simon Plus. Don't miss Memorial Day sales at Simon Premium Outlets and Mills. You can get points at scores of stores, access to exclusive offers, and exciting surprises. You've got an extra day off,

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