EXCLUSIVE: Read Brian Hooker's 'Eerily Calm' Messages to Friend Immediately After Missing Wife Lynette 'Fell Overboard and 'Drifted Away' in Bahamas
Bryan Hooker sent an easy-going text to a friend after his wife vanished.
April 16 2026, Updated 6:28 p.m. ET
Just hours after his wife was swept out to sea, Brian Hooker exchanged text messages with a friend who saw him on the news, RadarOnline.com can reveal.
While the search was underway for Lynette, Brian described the scary situation with eerie calm.
'Rough Wates' Led to Doom
The sailor has paused his search and left the Bahamas to care for his ailing mother.
Lynette was last seen on Saturday, April 4, in the Bahamas with her husband. The two were taking a small dinghy from Hope Town to their yacht when, according to Brian, they encountered some rough waters and heavy winds, and Lynette was thrown overboard.
She hasn't been seen since.
On Monday, after news of her disappearance spread, a friend reached out to Brian to ask if it was true.
"Yes brother I'm afraid so, off the dingy in some choppy seeds [sic] on the way back to the sailboat," he responded matter-of-factly.
Brian's Story
"The wind blew me away from her and she swam towards the sailboat and we lost sight of each other pretty quickly as it was just about sundown," he continued. "I drifted and tried to paddle with one oar for the next 7 hours until I washed up behind the shore of the next Island over and was able to get some help finally."
Brian insisted at the time that he was busy looking for her.
"We are all still searching," he said. "A lot is going on right now but I thank you for checking on us."
'One Day at a Time'
The next morning, he sent the friend another message thanking him for his support, before providing another update.
"I got the boat back to Marsh harbor yesterday after the fire department brought me back my dingy [sic]," he said. "I'm on a mooring ball at a place called conch inn, staying on the boat. "
"My sister and brother-in-law are flying in later this morning to stay for a couple days and I will probably stay with them for a night or two while weather happens but then I plan on heading back out to the site and continuing search," he added.
"I Will most likely definitely need help in the future but I just don't know what it is yet I'm trying to take it a day at a time and keep the faith. Search and rescue is out again today before some big winds come tomorrow."
Lynette's Concerning Text Messages
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Wife Lynette sent her own texts to friends about their relationship.
Brian wasn't the only one to send out curious texts. Before her disappearance, Lynette sent chilling messages to a friend about previously splitting from him.
As Radar reported, the couple has a history of breaking up and then getting back together several times throughout their 20-year marriage. During one of those periods of separation, between January and February 2024, Lynette texted a friend and suggested all that time confined to a ship took a toll on her.
"I guess it was too much closeness," Lynette texted Marnee Stevenson. "We decided to call it quits. I'm not going back."
Lynette would later admit that their marriage had hit rocky waters out at sea.
"We were married 21 years. Our marriage lasted 6 weeks cruising," she said, adding that she was "starting over."
At the time, Lynette left Brian to stay with her mother in Florida. When asked about whether the two could reconcile, she told her friend, "It was real bad. I can't be out there with him."
