US Coast Guard divers have arrived in the Bahamas and will soon begin their renewed search for missing American woman Lynette Hooker, whose disappearance has prompted a federal criminal investigation, a US official familiar with the investigation tells CNN.
Lynnette Hooker, a 55-year-old mother and sailor, has been missing since early April. Her husband, Brian Hooker, told authorities at the time that she fell from an 8‑foot dinghy while the couple was navigating rough waters near the Bahamas’ Abaco Islands, according to police.
The Coast Guard announced it had opened a criminal investigation into Lynette Hooker’s disappearance on April 8, three days after she vanished. No suspect has been publicly identified in the federal investigation and her body has not been recovered.
The renewed search effort was set in motion last week after investigators found inconsistencies between the husband’s location data and his statements to investigators about where to search for his wife and where they had traveled that evening, the official told CNN.
The Royal Bahamas Police Force granted permission to the Coast Guard to search an area of the Sea of Abaco, which envelops the island Brian Hooker said they were sailing to, Elbow Cay, the official said.
