Brian Hooker, husband of missing American woman, Lynette Hooker leaves Bahamas after promising he’d stay until she was found as Bahama officials admit he is still being viewed as a suspect but had been forced to release him for lack of evidence tying him to the Michigan woman’s presumed death.
The boater whose wife was reportedly swept out to sea in the Bahamas has left the country just hours after he insisted he would stay on the island until she was found.
Brian Hooker, 58, left the Bahamas on a commercial flight Wednesday ‘because his mom is very ill,’ his attorney Terrel Butler told NBC News.
Butler said he plans to return to the islands, but did not indicate when. She also did not disclose where he was flying to.
Brian Hooker speaks about wife’s Bahamas disappearance: “I won’t be able to stop looking”
The attorney declined to disclose the destination of where Brian Hooker intended to travel.
The revelations comes amid ongoing speculation that the spouse, who allegedly had a fractured and abusive relationship with his wife may have caused his wife to go missing, including causing her death.
Bahama officials are still searching for Hooker’s wife, Lynette Hooker, 55, after she vanished on the evening of April 4. Brian Hooker told police that she fell off their hard bottom dinghy boat into the water while they were traveling from Hope Town to Elbow Cay, according to police.
He said his wife had the keys to the boat when she fell, which caused the dinghy’s engine to shut off. He paddled for hours before making it to Marsh Harbor Boat Yard, where someone called the police, he told authorities.
Lynette Hooker assures he would never harm wife after promising he’d help look for missing woman
Brian Hooker, 58, was taken into custody last week and was released on Monday night after the expiration of a deadline to either press charges against the husband or release him. Unable to recover Lynette’s body (since presumed dead), authorities were forced to release him.
Hours after he was released by police, Brian Hooker told NBC News that he ‘would never harm’ his wife and his focus was on finding her. Despite assurances that the husband intended to remain on the island in assisting authorities, Brian Hooker’s attorney notified media that he had instead left the island.
‘Following his release from custody without charge, Mr. Hooker is now facing another emergency. In addition to the trauma of his wife of 25 years being missing, Mr. Hooker has received urgent word of his mother’s grave illness,’ Butler said in a statement. ‘He has traveled to [the] United States of America to be at her bedside during this critical time.’
Butler said the police have been informed.
Brian Hooker still remains suspect in case but is freed for lack of evidence
Royal Bahamas Police Commissioner Shanta Knowles previously said authorities released him after meeting with prosecutors, but that he remained a suspect in the investigation.
The official also told press that Brian Hooker is free to leave the Bahamas, adding: ‘He has no restrictions on his travel.’
Knowles noted that Hooker can still be extradited back for questioning at a later date if he does return to the US.
‘If he leaves the country, and we need to see him again, we do know that our US counterparts will assist us with that,’ Knowles told NBC Today.
Lynette Hooker’s step-daughter, Karli Aylesworth, who alleges previous episodes of domestic violence between the pair has questioned her stepfather’s version of events, telling Fox News earlier this month that she had ‘a hard time believing’ her mother fell off the boat.
‘It’s hard to see the people you’ve grown up with and care about possibly doing something like this. I just want to know the truth,’ she said
