Speaker 1: Hey there, folks. It is Friday, April tenth, and his
Speaker 1: own friend haint By in his story. But that welcome
Speaker 1: to this episode of Amy and TJ. Rose. We've kept
Speaker 1: a close eye on this story from the moment we
Speaker 1: heard that a Michigan woman went overboard and a dinghy
Speaker 1: with her husband in the Bahamas. He's now been arrested.
Speaker 1: We heard from the woman's daughter, who raids some questions.
Speaker 1: Now we are hearing from his friend, the accused friends,
Speaker 1: who quite frankly robes some of the stuff he said
Speaker 1: is more damning than anything we've heard so far.
Speaker 2: Yes, this was fascinating.
Speaker 3: First of all, why his friend would share these text
Speaker 3: messages he received from Brian Hooker, who, yes, has been
Speaker 3: under arrest since Wednesday in the disappearance of his wife,
Speaker 3: fifty five year old Lynette Hooker. He has not been
Speaker 3: charged yet, we should point out and police it's a
Speaker 3: little interesting what the Behamian officials said, but they said
Speaker 3: they had forty eight hours to either charge him or
Speaker 3: release him. That would be at some point today, But
Speaker 3: then they added they can also extend that for another
Speaker 3: ninety six hours if they think it's necessary, so he
Speaker 3: could be behind bars for a few more days before
Speaker 3: charges are filed. But these new text messages, whoo, they
Speaker 3: say a lot.
Speaker 1: And right now this case is a case of he said,
Speaker 1: and she can't say anything because she is presumed dead.
Speaker 1: This is a search and recovery at this point. But
Speaker 1: this was last Saturday. Robes Brian Hooker fifty eight and
Speaker 1: Lynette Hooker fifty five, fifty five. They've been married now,
Speaker 1: how long?
Speaker 2: Twenty five years?
Speaker 1: All right, So they go out in the boat. These
Speaker 1: are avid boat they know what they're doing on the water.
Speaker 1: His story is they go out on the water around sundown.
Speaker 1: She some kind of way falls over into the water.
Speaker 1: They get separated. He couldn't recover her. She has the
Speaker 1: key to the boat on her when she goes into
Speaker 1: the water, according to him, and then he has to
Speaker 1: essentially paddle back to shore. Took several hours. That's his
Speaker 1: story and he's sticking to it. Robes. Not long after that,
Speaker 1: the daughter of Lynnette started speaking and saying, this doesn't
Speaker 1: make She didn't flat out of cues, but she at
Speaker 1: least raised some questions. Okay, that catches us up. He
Speaker 1: is now in custody. His friend has now done in
Speaker 1: an interview Roads with CBS News and shared text messages
Speaker 1: he said he got from Brian Hooker after this whole accident. Now,
Speaker 1: I will let you know we will read this whole
Speaker 1: the text messages to you. That's one thing. The interview
Speaker 1: and the list of things the friend ticks off as
Speaker 1: to why his friend's story is bullshit. You have to
Speaker 1: pay attention it is.
Speaker 3: I actually couldn't even believe I was reading it as
Speaker 3: I was thinking to myself, this is his friend who's
Speaker 3: saying this. But yes, we'll start with the messages that
Speaker 3: he shared. His name is Daniel Danforth, by the way,
Speaker 3: and they met twenty twenty three, so they've been friends
Speaker 3: for a couple of years. They're all voting advocates and
Speaker 3: love voting, so that's why they have this shared love
Speaker 3: and that's how they all became friends. So he says,
Speaker 3: on Monday, he sees the headlines that Lynette has fallen overboard,
Speaker 3: so he reaches out to Brian and says, well, there's
Speaker 3: a little something before that, but we can get to
Speaker 3: that later. First of all, this is what Brian Hooker
Speaker 3: responded to him with, Yes, brother, I'm afraid so off
Speaker 3: the dinghy in some choppy seas. On the way back
Speaker 3: to the sailboat, the wind blew me away from her
Speaker 3: and she swam towards the sailboat, and we lost sight
Speaker 3: of each other pretty quickly. As it was just about sundown.
Speaker 3: I drifted and tried to paddle with one oar for
Speaker 3: the next seven hours until I washed up behind the
Speaker 3: shore of the next island over and was able to
Speaker 3: get some help. Finally, we are all still searching. A
Speaker 3: lot is going on right now, but I thank you
Speaker 3: for checking in on us. Being on the news is
Speaker 3: a huge burden, and I just had my first ever
Speaker 3: news organization call me a few minutes ago. He went
Speaker 3: on to say, our family is in hell right now.
Speaker 3: Search and Rescue just called and said they had searched
Speaker 3: a bunch of air is today and no joy. They
Speaker 3: are going back out tomorrow, but a storm is coming
Speaker 3: in Wednesday.
Speaker 1: Okay, So now let's go back up to the first
Speaker 1: part of that, and you tell me. Robes as he's
Speaker 1: describing to his friend in private and a text message
Speaker 1: that he thought would never get public, he's explained it
Speaker 1: to him what happened. How does that mesh with the story.
Speaker 1: At least authorities are saying that they were told. Does
Speaker 1: that match with what he told police about the incident?
Speaker 3: No, I don't think so, because, according to police, Brian
Speaker 3: Hooker told them that she fell into the water and
Speaker 3: they immediately drifted apart. He didn't say that she was
Speaker 3: okay when she got in the water and started swimming
Speaker 3: towards the sailboat. That is a completely new piece of
Speaker 3: information that if he told that to police, police did
Speaker 3: not reveal that publicly. So that is a very new
Speaker 3: and different version of what we've been told.
Speaker 1: Okay, the other thing in there had to do what
Speaker 1: suggestion did he make in there about weather? Because it
Speaker 1: was hard for people understand she immediately falls out a boat.
Speaker 1: Why can we just reach out and grab her. How
Speaker 1: did you all of a sudden get separated? So what's
Speaker 1: his description in the text, at least about weather?
Speaker 3: First he said that it was the choppy seas that
Speaker 3: kind of threw her overboard, which seems a little suspicious.
Speaker 2: I don't know if we had reports of wild weather
Speaker 2: where you would actually.
Speaker 3: Fall out of an eight foot hard bottomed dinghy. But okay,
Speaker 3: who's a woman who's very skilled in boating and swimming,
Speaker 3: and she's been doing it her entire life. Then he says,
Speaker 3: the wind blew me away from her, and she swam
Speaker 3: towards the sailboat.
Speaker 1: Okay, wait towards the sailboat. Yes, a different the.
Speaker 2: Other well, that's their yacht.
Speaker 3: So they were in the dinghy having just left a place,
Speaker 3: and they were on their way to the sailboat.
Speaker 1: I did not catch this before. Okay, that's different. When
Speaker 1: you were explaining this, I was reading it. I took
Speaker 1: it as he was swimming. She was swimming maybe trying
Speaker 1: to get back towards him and the ding He's saying,
Speaker 1: she fell out this boat that's closed by, and she
Speaker 1: tried to go swim to one that's farther away.
Speaker 2: Correct. Huh, it makes no sense.
Speaker 1: Huh. Okay, I didn't piece that together first time.
Speaker 2: Okay, yes, So then the friend, uh this is oh wow.
Speaker 3: The friend Daniel Danforth, then asked him if he had
Speaker 3: anywhere to stay. It was just kind of checking in
Speaker 3: on him, and Brian wrote this, I got the boat
Speaker 3: back to marsh Harbor yesterday after the fire department brought
Speaker 3: me back my dinghy. Notice I he was saying, my
Speaker 3: not our I'm on a moorning ball at a place
Speaker 3: called conk in on the boat. My sister and brother
Speaker 3: in law are flying in later this morning to stay
Speaker 3: for a couple of days. I'll probably stay with them
Speaker 3: for a night or two while weather happens, but then
Speaker 3: I plan on heading back out to the site and
Speaker 3: continuing to search. I will most definitely need help in
Speaker 3: the future, but I just don't know what it is yet.
Speaker 3: I'm trying to take it one day at a time,
Speaker 3: keep the faith. Search and rescue is out today before
Speaker 3: some big winds to come tomorrow. It's interesting because the
Speaker 3: friend says, Okay, well, I'm going to be getting a sailboat.
Speaker 3: We're going to be moving around, but let us know
Speaker 3: if we can help you, And then he just says,
Speaker 3: congratulations on your sailboat, captain, and thanks for your kind offers.
Speaker 2: I'll be in touch as events unfold.
Speaker 3: It just seemed a little Some people pointed out that
Speaker 3: just seemed a little strange, like, really.
Speaker 1: Tom seems off. But really, I don't want to suggest
Speaker 1: how anybody might feel if you just lost the love
Speaker 1: of your life in an accident in the water.
Speaker 2: Congratulations on the new sailboat, captain.
Speaker 1: Who am I to say? But it gets better now
Speaker 1: you listed at least I think four right things that
Speaker 1: the friend says that it actually goes through and says this, this, this,
Speaker 1: and this don't make sense. All right, take it from
Speaker 1: the top. These are all blew my mind.
Speaker 3: Okay, yes, this is why his friend, mister Danforth said
Speaker 3: he is very suspicious. First of all, he said that
Speaker 3: he thought of Brian around Sunday. I guess it was
Speaker 3: on the weekend, so it was after Lynette went missing,
Speaker 3: but before the headlines really started.
Speaker 2: So he just noticed Brian.
Speaker 3: He got a Facebook notification on his phone that said
Speaker 3: Brian Hooker liked a comment that his wife shared about boating.
Speaker 3: So he said, Brian was actually on my mind because like, oh,
Speaker 3: Brian's liking a comment my wife put on Facebook on Sunday,
Speaker 3: and then all of a sudden the headline started popping up,
Speaker 3: and so dead forthtold CBS News, you know, my wife's missing.
Speaker 2: Facebook's the last.
Speaker 3: Thing I'm worried about. You're going to find me on
Speaker 3: the water writing around, not on Facebook. So he thought
Speaker 3: that was first initially very suspicious, like that's so weird.
Speaker 3: He was liking my wife's comment while his wife was missing,
Speaker 3: was about boting. I just don't give something random about
Speaker 3: how she loves voting.
Speaker 1: It's odd even to be on Facebook, but that's one
Speaker 1: thing to go through and have them Okay, Yes, that
Speaker 1: is incredibly odd, even if you know you're going to
Speaker 1: be a suspect.
Speaker 2: It's stupid, it really is.
Speaker 3: Then he also questioned why Brian moved his boat immediately
Speaker 3: after Lynette went missing.
Speaker 2: He just thought that was a range thing to do.
Speaker 3: You're worried about repositioning your boat somewhere, Yes, the larger sailboat.
Speaker 2: He just thought that was strange.
Speaker 1: Why is that on his mind at all?
Speaker 2: Exactly?
Speaker 1: Maybe he needed to He was renting a slip for
Speaker 1: a little while and it was running out.
Speaker 3: This is an avid boater who just said, that's not
Speaker 3: something that makes sense. So that's what he was explaining.
Speaker 3: With his experience with boats, he just thought that was
Speaker 3: a strange thing. Then he also said that the messages
Speaker 3: he received did not jibe with what Brian told police.
Speaker 3: He said that, yes, Brian told authorities Lynnette was swept overboard,
Speaker 3: but then he wrote to me that she was swimming
Speaker 3: back to the sailboat. Those two things don't make sense.
Speaker 3: They aren't the same statement. So he pointed that out
Speaker 3: the differences between what Brian texted him and what police said.
Speaker 1: Brian report, Can I ask you to go back up
Speaker 1: to his statement? Yes, the text message. Yeah, How did
Speaker 1: he describe her swim? How did he say it?
Speaker 3: He said, the wind blew me away from her, and
Speaker 3: she swam towards the sailboat, and we lost sight of
Speaker 3: each other pretty quickly, as it was just about sundown.
Speaker 1: Go back for me. Second, how does he say in
Speaker 1: the text messes she ended up in the water.
Speaker 2: She fell off the dinghy in some chopping seas. Okay,
Speaker 2: she fell off in choppy seas.
Speaker 1: Swam to the other boat.
Speaker 2: It makes no sense.
Speaker 1: She fell and instead of getting into the boat she
Speaker 1: fell out of She swam a distance how far.
Speaker 3: Who knows, because he was drifting the winds were pulling
Speaker 3: him away from her. Here's the other thing I wanted
Speaker 3: to point out, because the way it was described to
Speaker 3: at least the way it had been reported, was that
Speaker 3: it was in the middle of the night.
Speaker 2: It was pitch black.
Speaker 3: He says it was about sundown, so he could see her.
Speaker 2: Why would he not?
Speaker 3: And well, this is what the friend gets into, he said.
Speaker 3: The biggest question for him Why didn't he try to
Speaker 3: go and get her. If he could paddle the boat
Speaker 3: with an oar, why would he not paddle towards her?
Speaker 2: Why would he paddle towards shore?
Speaker 1: Okay, Now I'm not damn. That's a good point too.
Speaker 1: Even if you don't jump into the water after her,
Speaker 1: you have the ability to he had a paddle to
Speaker 1: actually direct the boat that you're in. Okay, Look, I
Speaker 1: don't I'm not an avid see guy.
Speaker 2: Ye Okay.
Speaker 3: And then the other the other question he had was
Speaker 3: where were their phones? He said, every time he has
Speaker 3: spent any moment with them on the water, on the land,
Speaker 3: wherever they are, they always have their phones with them,
Speaker 3: both of them, Because he said, they're always posting videos online.
Speaker 3: Their phones are never ever away from them. How is
Speaker 3: it that these two people were on a boat and
Speaker 3: neither of them had a phone, because obviously he could
Speaker 3: have called nine one one, He could have called for
Speaker 3: help and they could have immediately rescued her.
Speaker 1: People don't have phones. I wonder if they know where
Speaker 1: her phone is, if it's been recovered, she would have
Speaker 1: taken a phone.
Speaker 2: They haven't found her, and I don't know if she
Speaker 2: had her phone with.
Speaker 1: You know, we don't know, but he didn't have his his.
Speaker 3: And he's saying that is incredibly suspicious. Why would he
Speaker 3: not have his phone? It took him seven hours, according
Speaker 3: to Brian, to paddle back to this island that where
Speaker 3: he was able to eventually get help, and the reason hours.
Speaker 1: But the reason he had to paddle and that didn't
Speaker 1: make sense either. That the friend, this was a big
Speaker 1: part of Brian's story robes. He told the authorities, I
Speaker 1: had to paddle back because I didn't have the key
Speaker 1: to the boat.
Speaker 3: So the friend says, that is a his daughter first
Speaker 3: of all, or his stepdaughter. Her daughter also said that
Speaker 3: was strange that she never had the key, and the
Speaker 3: friend reiterates this and says, okay, the key is usually
Speaker 3: in the boat with a lanyard on it, like that
Speaker 3: is where the key stays. No one has the key,
Speaker 3: no one wears the key. That's not what you do
Speaker 3: as a boater or a boating enthusiast. You have the
Speaker 3: key in the nition with a lanyard. His thought was,
Speaker 3: he was the only thing I could see happening is
Speaker 3: that when Lynette was either being pushed off or if
Speaker 3: there was some sort of an altercation or a fight
Speaker 3: that in a desperate attempt to try and stay on
Speaker 3: the boat, or at least to stop him from leaving her,
Speaker 3: she grabbed the keys as she was going overboard. And
Speaker 3: when he said that that made so much sense. We
Speaker 3: don't know but it. But to say that she had
Speaker 3: the keys on her is a weird thing.
Speaker 1: The daughter had said, Brian is the one that always drives,
Speaker 1: he would always have the key. That made sense, first
Speaker 1: of all. But robes, you do not have to be
Speaker 1: a big time avid boater. If you've gone and rented
Speaker 1: a pontoon boat on Lake Oconee in Georgia, you get that.
Speaker 1: You don't even touch the key. When they take it
Speaker 1: is in the ignition and it is turned and stays
Speaker 1: in that position.
Speaker 2: Correct.
Speaker 1: Nobody takes a key and puts it in your pocket.
Speaker 1: Now what would happen? You would drop it in the water. Yes,
Speaker 1: it just doesn't have You're right. And those things also
Speaker 1: have little attachments that even if you do drop it,
Speaker 1: it's still attached to something.
Speaker 2: Correct.
Speaker 1: Rose, The key part got me. I was like, wow,
Speaker 1: I did not think about that. Nobody is sitting in
Speaker 1: a dinghy with the key to the dinghy in your
Speaker 1: pocket where you could drop it. Nope, nobody does that.
Speaker 3: So he pointed that out, and I just thought everything
Speaker 3: that Brian Hooker's own friend, Daniel Danforth had to say
Speaker 3: just suddenly made sense because his story hasn't up until now.
Speaker 3: But do we want to know what's going on with
Speaker 3: Brian Hooker right now? He is behind bars and his
Speaker 3: attorney got to meet with him in person for the
Speaker 3: first time on Thursday. We will tell you what his
Speaker 3: attorney is telling us about Brian Hooker right now. And
Speaker 3: welcome back everyone to this episode of Amy and TJ.
Speaker 3: We are talking about that mystery in the Caribbean near
Speaker 3: the Bahamas, where we have a missing fifty five year
Speaker 3: old Michigan woman, Lynette Hooker. Right now, her body has
Speaker 3: yet to be found. Authorities have been searching it now
Speaker 3: for searching for her body for nearly at least searching
Speaker 3: for her for nearly a week now, and this is
Speaker 3: certainly a recovery effort at this point. Her husband was arrested.
Speaker 3: He is behind bars. He's been there since Wednesday and
Speaker 3: he has not been formally charged. But his attorney was
Speaker 3: finally able to meet him. They had an interesting story.
Speaker 3: His attorneys shared about Brian's arrest.
Speaker 1: Didn't make sense either. I mean, was it? And when
Speaker 1: I said, why even tell that? What was the point?
Speaker 1: And you said, whoa is Brian?
Speaker 3: Yes, poor Brian, and so yes. His attorney is telling
Speaker 3: the story saying his client almost drowned falling in the
Speaker 3: water as police were taking him into custody.
Speaker 2: That's what he said. He used those words. In fact,
Speaker 2: I have his exact quote.
Speaker 3: He said, Brian had a really traumatic experience being transported
Speaker 3: here to Grand Bahama. He was taken to his vessel
Speaker 3: for a search, and when he went there, he was
Speaker 3: handcuffed and he was told he could have a change
Speaker 3: of clothes, and he was requested to disembark while handcuffed.
Speaker 3: When he fell overboard, he had to be rescued by officers.
Speaker 3: So he's saying he actually needs to get medical attention
Speaker 3: because he was injured. And he's claiming that he's asking
Speaker 3: for his client to be looked at because it was
Speaker 3: so traumatic. He went on to say, Brian appears completely
Speaker 3: heartbroken and deeply distressed. His primary concern and source of
Speaker 3: intense frustration is his inability to continue to search for
Speaker 3: his wife of twenty five years. The trauma of her disappearance,
Speaker 3: coupled with his current detention as a suspect, has left
Speaker 3: him in an extremely fragile state.
Speaker 1: So we should have something, know something one way or
Speaker 1: another today because they are running up against that forty
Speaker 1: eight hour deadline to see what happens. Look, just because
Speaker 1: he is in custody, it does not mean he is
Speaker 1: going to face a charge. It doesn't. And what evidence
Speaker 1: do they have Romes, besides the circumstantial stuff, What evidence
Speaker 1: do they have besides what might be on that boat,
Speaker 1: What else do they have?
Speaker 3: It's unclear right now, But what I do think is interesting.
Speaker 3: His attorney addressed a lot of news outlets are reporting,
Speaker 3: and this is verifiable that there was a domestic dispute
Speaker 3: between Brian Hooker and his wife in twenty fifteen, and
Speaker 3: actually Lynette was the one who is arrested and spent
Speaker 3: a night in jail. But they said both of the
Speaker 3: spouses were deeply intoxicated, accusing each other of assault, and
Speaker 3: there was some visible injuries on Brian Hooker, and so
Speaker 3: that's why Lynette was actually taken into custody. But his lawyer,
Speaker 3: it was interesting, said this, he is the only witness
Speaker 3: to what transpired, and he has said he has done
Speaker 3: nothing wrong. So to refer to allegations of abuse or
Speaker 3: a tumultuous relationship does not explain what happened on the
Speaker 3: day and indicate whether or not he was somehow culpable
Speaker 3: for anything that may have happened to her.
Speaker 1: I think that is one hundred percent true. That is okay,
Speaker 1: but it doesn't look good and it will be brought
Speaker 1: up if there were to be a trial. So this
Speaker 1: is why stuff like this does become really well with
Speaker 1: the nature of their relationship. This leads to all kinds
Speaker 1: of motives and all kinds of things. But just because
Speaker 1: they could have had the worst, most abusive relationship ever,
Speaker 1: it doesn't mean he pushed off a boat, and it
Speaker 1: doesn't prove he pushed off a boat the man. It
Speaker 1: sure goes a long way in explaining what is right
Speaker 1: now an unexplainable accident for a woman who is very
Speaker 1: knowledgeable in how to behave on the water.
Speaker 3: You just said it, and the question will be can
Speaker 3: authorities somehow have enough evidence to actually charge him with
Speaker 3: a crime without Lynnette's body, without another witness.
Speaker 2: That's tough.
Speaker 3: That's a tall, tall, tall mountain to climb, but we
Speaker 3: will let you know. We'll keep our eye on the
Speaker 3: story and let you know what the Bahaman officials say
Speaker 3: later today when it comes to Brian Hooker's detention there
Speaker 3: in Grand Bahama. But in the meantime, thank you as
Speaker 3: always for listening to us.
Speaker 2: Everyone. I'm Amy Robach alongside TJ. Holmes. We'll talk to
Speaker 2: you soon.