The U.S. Coast Guard has unveiled fresh images showcasing the seizure of a sailboat owned by Brian Hooker, as the investigation into his wife’s mysterious disappearance continues.
Officials from the Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS) took control of the sailboat named Soulmate, owned by Brian and Lynette Hooker, approximately 40 nautical miles off Melbourne, Florida. According to a recent press release, the vessel was confiscated between May 8-10, as previously reported by a source to Fox News Digital.
Brian Hooker informed authorities that his wife, Lynette, fell from a dinghy near Hope Town, Bahamas, around 7:30 p.m. on April 4. He attributed her fall to turbulent waters. After the incident, Brian Hooker managed to paddle to shore, reaching Marsh Harbour by 4 a.m. on April 5, officials reported.
The couple, who enjoyed a lifestyle of sailing around the U.S. and Caribbean as documented on their social media, were en route back to their sailboat, which served as their retirement residence, when Lynette went overboard.
The Coast Guard has shared new photographs capturing the confiscation of the sailboat “Soulmate.” (Courtesy of the Coast Guard)
Brian Hooker hasn’t been charged with a crime.
The Coast Guard said the seizure was part of a “complex surveillance and interdiction operation.” Soulmate was taken to Coast Guard Station Fort Pierce, where investigators are processing the boat for potential evidence.
The Coast Guard on Thursday evening released new pictures after the agency seized Brian and Lynette Hooker’s sailboat. (Coast Guard)
“The vessel Soulmate is currently in the custody of CGIS as part of an active criminal investigation,” the Coast Guard said.
Images taken by Fox News Digital on Tuesday show Brian and Lynette Hooker’s sailboat taped off as it sits at the U.S. Coast Guard’s station in Fort Pierce.
Lynette Hooker and Brian Hooker seen in a picture taken in 2023 on a small boat. (John Waters)
The boat’s seizure comes about a week after the Coast Guard sought the public’s help in finding the owner of a sailboat that was moored near Brian and Lynette Hooker’s Soulmate sailboat in the Bahamas.
Brian Hooker left the island for the U.S. to tend to his ill mother, his Bahamian attorney previously said.
Coast Guard officials said the sailboat was seized 40 nautical miles off the coast of Melbourne, Florida. (Coast Guard)
Coast Guard officials said the sailboat’s seizure is part of a criminal investigation. (Coast Guard)
His Michigan-based attorney previously asked Americans to give him the benefit of the doubt in an interview with ABC News.
“I would ask those watching to treat him the way you would want to be treated, to give him the benefit of the doubt, and to consider that not all of us, nor you, considering your own relationships, the way you speak to one another, we all handle things in different ways,” Crystal Marie Hauser said.