Hey, folks, it is Tuesday, April fourteenth, and he said his wife fell off their boat more than a week ago.
She's been missing ever since.
He has been held by police for the past several days, but he is sticking to his story and for right now, police don't have another story to go with, and that's why he has walked out of jail.
Now.
With that, welcome to this episode of Amy and TJ. With the clock was ticking, deadline was approaching, they had to either charge Brian Hooker or release him. And Brian Hooker has been released now rose by Behaman authorities without chargers in the disappearance of his wife.
That's correct. He was detained for a full five days since last Wednesday. He was questioned for more than three hours on Friday, and his attorney said he was questioned again on Monday the same line of questionings. But Brian Hooker is sticking with his story and there is no evidence proving otherwise, according to his attorney, and that is why police were forced to release him. They kept pushing
the goalpost. First it was forty eight hours. Then they said we're going to extend it to I believe ninety six hours. But by law, they had to release him if they couldn't charge him, and so they claim he is still a suspect, but he is out of custody.
This is one of those cases, Robes. It doesn't matter how bad it might look into the public. It doesn't matter how many much the headlines are working against you. It does not matter how much people are talking about you on social media and thinking you are behind the disappearance of your wife. It does not matter if they can't prove it. And Robes, we talked about this from the very beginning. What can they prove if they do
not have this woman's body. All they have is his story she fell out, They robes clearly at this point can't prove anything otherwise. Are we only waiting to see if they recover her body and that's the only chance of charges here?
It seems like that is a possibility, because yes, they still have not found the body of Lynnette Hooker despite massive aerial and water searches. She is nowhere to be found. He claims he wants her body to found to be found. He claims he wants that for his own closure as well. He didn't respond, by the way, to reporters questions, says he was leaving the police station. Of course, can you imagine the scene We've been there as reporters shouting at him.
He didn't say a word. His attorney did come back and tell reporters that her client was very emotional and that he needed time to de stress from this horrible experience. That's the only word we heard directly from his attorney upon his release last night. But you can only imagine the folks who are going to be clamoring to get to speak to him. I'm sure they know where he's staying. His hell is still, he's in the midst of it.
This isn't over for him to be quiet for a while, because they are still looking at the possibility of charging him with something if they can't. The official statement we got from Behamian authorities yesterday did not say much, but they did let us.
Know he was being released. They were letting us know why enrolled.
I guess we get an indication of this search not necessarily is over. It is a search and recovery. But until in otherwise they find her body, don't know how they can move forward. But this was the official statement we did get from Behamian authorities about the release of Brian Hooker.
Yes, the decision to release the individual was made following consultation with the Department of Public Prosecutions, which recommended that no charges be filed at this time, pending the outcome of further investigations, and the police commissioner specifically told the press that Brian Hooker remains a suspect in this case. The investigation is ongoing, and look, yes, they need or at least they're hoping to find Lynnette Hooker's body, but they also did take some items from their boat, and
it looks like it didn't prove to be fruitful. So they had a search warrant looking at his video recorders, digital tablets, cell phones, related accessories, and they were hoping that it could be evidence to point maybe to premeditation or some sort of direction as to how why if he planned it. Nothing. Obviously, if anything had come from those devices, they would have been able to hold him and actually charge him. So that is of note that so far, at least nothing found on those devices led
police to be able to charge him. But there are some text messages that we're hearing about, and these are from Lynette with her friend and they were from January of twenty twenty four to February of twenty twenty four, and this speaks to what we have been hearing a lot about their relationship before leading up to her disappearance. And so we have some of those text messages where she was talking with a friend that they met through sailing about their marriage being over. She said, I guess
it was just too much closeness. We decided to call it quits. I'm not going back, she said. She was heartbroken, considering I quit my awesome career, sold my house and gave away everything I owned to cruise. Slapping my head stupid. Here's the really interesting text that Lynette sent her friend. We were married twenty one years, our marriage lasted six weeks cruising, and when her friend asked her if there was any possible way they could reconcile, not at this time.
It was real bad. I can't be out there with him. That last sentence, I can't be out there with them is certainly haunting given the fact that now Lynette Hooker is missing.
I mean, it could be completely irrelevant.
Anybody in a relationship, a long term one and maybe their second or whatever marriage, they will go through all kinds of strife. Now you're taking that into context of her being missing. Now, yes, that can mean a lot, But I get it, and I get why those things are out there. I get why CBS is reporting that, But that to me, if she were not missing, wouldn't raise alarm bells. That if she were not missing sounds like a couple doing there back and forth. I understand
just in how that language sounds. I can't be out there with him. It sounded like these two people got along just fine, but forever reason they their personalities clashed when it came to voting to being out on the water together. And don't know exactly why, but yeah, I see why people would take that and maybe want to run with it.
You make a good point. I mean, think about how many marriages could handle being in those types of close quarters where there's a lot of stress about making sure
when you're voting. That's a high stress environment. So now you've got two people, even if you've been married for twenty one years, if y'all were used to having separate careers, separate lives, now all of a sudden boom, you're up on each other twenty four hours a day, seven days a week in a fairly stressful situation that could question or challenge a lot of people's marriages. So yes, you could look at it through that lens as well.
Well well yeah, but people are wanting to and I get it, And look we are here because I guess we're ten days removed from this incident, and the story being that they were out on their dinghy this April fourth. It wasn't quite sundown, it wasn't quite dark, but he just claims thore we some bumpy seas and she bumped and bounced, I believe is the word right off of
that dinghy on April fourth. And this is where robes this from that beginning where the story gets a little questionable, and we're not the ones questioning it is Lynnette's daughter and also Brian's friends who are questioning his account. But why is it she goes into the water and has the key in her pocket. Nobody can make sense of that. How does she get separated from him so quickly that
he couldn't reach out to get her. He had an or which he could paddle back to shore, but you couldn't paddle the direction of your wife who had just gone into the water. She was a good swimmer, so you're telling me she can't manage for just a moment to get back onto this boat. His claim is also that she started swimming towards their yacht and not back towards the dinghy. That doesn't make sense. But if she could go towards the yacht, why wouldn't he go towards
the yacht. None of this makes sense. That is the story. But Rose, you can't. It's always just a matter of what you can prove. And we're sitting here now talking about text messages and all. This really started bubbling and
rose to the level because the daughter robes. I don't think if the daughter had not come out and spoke as strongly as she had in questioning she stopped just short of calling her stepdad a killer, but she went a long way, and I think probably Behamian authorities listened to her and it raised a bunch of alarm bells, and she might have pushed this whole story forward.
Oh absolutely. She made an impassioned plea not only to police but to the members of the media, asking for an investigation. And that is what it looks like the Behamian authorities did. And by the way. The US Coast Guard heavily involved in this investigation as well, so they were assisting the Behamian police. And look, I say assisting as if it's over, it's not over. That's a really
important point. And the officials when announcing Brian Hooker's release, made it very clear that this investigation is not over, that it continues. They just weren't able to hold him any longer. Not sure yet if there are any restrictions about whether or not he can leave the Bahamas. His attorney hasn't given any details as of that yet, but certainly I did.
See that, Oh you did.
Okay, the attorney said, he's free to look, believe my goodness, free to go. That's at least what is attorney flat out told the reporters. He is a at this point, a free man, free to do whatever the hell.
He wants to do, my goodness, So.
Yeah, he leaves, how they going to get him back? And who's handling this investigation?
The US Coast Guard is holding So that is my question. Can they still charge him even if he's back in Florida, back in the States. But as he had pointed out so tearfully and certainly said to his friends, and we've heard him before he stopped talking to the press, saying that all he wanted to do even when he was in custody. His attorney told reporters all he wanted to do was assist in the search for his wife. So if he were to head back to the States, probably
not a good look. But we were saying regardless, even if charges are never brought against this man, this is somebody who is always going to have the shadow of, or at least the suspicion of being involved in his wife's disappearance.
Any might have had absolutely nothing to do with it, and this was the accident that he describes. But I will listen to his daughter. I will listen to his friend who suggests, as people who know him and know that relationship, that this is not right and this something is wrong, not just from their history, but in the actual story that.
Is being told. They said this, none of this adds up.
That's correct, But in the story that he's told. When we come back, we're going to tell you what Brian Hooker sent to his friends and to fellow voters that he claims will back up his story of what happened that night when his wife fell Overboord and welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ. Brian Hooker the man who has been held, been questioned for hours and been in custody for five days surrounding the disappearance of his wife, Lynette, who he claims fell overboard in
rough seas in the Bahamas. He is now a freeman. He was released last night. It was the Behamian law. They could only hold him for a certain amount of time and unless they were able to charge him with murder charges, they were forced to release him. And it's interesting because we heard his attorney even just the day prior, given the questioning he was facing, she actually told reporters she felt like her client was likely going to be
facing murder charges. So this was look But as the hours ticked on and the days went on and no charges were brought, it seemed pretty obvious that authorities just didn't have the proof. They didn't have the evidence they needed to actually formally charge Brian Hooker. And they certainly went through what you would imagine police would do. They they got evidence, they went through hours of exhaustive interrogations. But if he's denying it, there's no evidence showing anything else.
They don't have the body of Lynnette Hooker and there were no other witnesses. What can they do? What options did they have?
Yeah?
Let me I guess I don't know how heated and how dedicated they're going to be to the search moving forward, But I guess that's just going to be key. That might be it whether or not he faces charges as whether or not they find her body, and even if they find her body, is said mean there is evidence of wrongdoing?
Yes, And that is the big question now. Brian Hooker, before he was taken into custody, sent out some maps that he rendered and he sent this to his friends, he said to Feller voters, and there were screenshots from his GPS and he marked the route where he says his dinghy went and he marked where Lynette went overboard, and he said he made them to aid in the search and rescue. But a lot of folks are looking
at this that. Yes, he's getting very specific and very detailed about what happened and if evidence if they find her body when they looked at the boat, if anything, if there's anything that isn't reconciled with what he very clearly marks that could be used against him. He's hoping it bolsters the story that he says, this is exactly what happened. But he shows that he traveled four miles before he landed on the shore of another island seven
hours later. And it's just as you point out, questionable why he wouldn't have made his way if he could paddle, yes, slowly, but if he could paddle, why couldn't he paddle to the boat? Why couldn't he paddle towards the same direction his own wife, he says, was floating. If the current was taking her there, why couldn't it have taken the boat there as well? With the paddle. It's very puzzling that his boat went in the opposite direction of his wife and the opposite direction of their sailboat.
And that's why he won't do any interviews because somebody's going to ask him all those questions and it's going to be difficult to answer. So bottom line for him, if he's not going to be charged, I mean, he's going to go on with his life and I don't expect to see him. I mean, what's the right thing to do. Get in front of cameras and say, help me find my wife. That's not We're not in a situation where the he can call for the public's help.
So the only reason to get in front of a camera is to improve his own standing in the public, and that's going to backfire.
Yeah, you feel for Lynette Hooker's a daughter, for her family members, for her friends, because obviously people just want answers, They want to know what happened. And look, we even heard and I think this is really important from Brian Hooker's stepdaughter. From Lynette Hooker's daughter, she has said it often.
She hopes this was just a tragic accident. She wants to believe that her stepdad had nothing to do with this, and so without without finding Lynette, without getting some of those answers, then not knowing will most likely be the hardest part, not just for Lynette's daughter, but if Brian Hooker had nothing to do with this, he'll never probably escape the suspicion of it, and so this is going to be a tough story going forward if there aren't
any answers. Of course, we'll continue to follow any of the developments that come out of the Bahamas, but for now, Brian Hooker is a free man and Lynette Hooker's whereabouts is still unknown and without everyone. Thank you for joining us. We always appreciate you listening to us. We've got morning run coming up in just a bit, so look for that. But in the meantime, thank you as always. I made me Robock alongside TJ. Holmes. We'll talk to you soon.