The daughter of a woman who fell overboard on a Bahamas boat trip says her mother’s disappearance “doesn’t add up” and fears the worst.
Lynette Hooker, from Michigan, vanished on April 4 while travelling between Hope Town and Elbow Cay in the Abaco Islands, the Royal Bahamas Police Force said.
Described as an experienced mariner, she was travelling with her husband of 25 years Brian at the time, who told authorities she fell into the water with the boat keys.
Without the keys the engine shut off, Hooker was said to have been carried away by the strong current and has not been seen since. Her family have been speaking to the media about their concerns as the search to find their loved one continues.
“She loves exploring,” her daughter Karli Aylesworth told CNN. “They’ve always wanted to sail the Bahamas, and so now they finally did it.
“The more time that goes on, the more I disbelieve that she will come back alive. I don’t think you can tread water for that long. But I hope maybe she’s on a little island somewhere.
“It just doesn’t add up why she was swimming away from the boat or why she had the keys.”
Adding that she has been “privy to very little information” so far, Aylesworth said her sole concern was to find out what happened to her mother and make sure a full and complete investigation is carried out.
Hooker’s mother Darlene Hamlett told CNN the family still had a number of unanswered questions but she was trying to obtain a passport in order to reach the Bahamas.
“Our family is still in shock,” she said. “We are still holding on for a positive outcome to this tragedy.”
Bahamas police says that they were informed about the disappearance on April 5. Hooker’s husband said he and his wife had left Hope Town a day earlier at around 7.30 p.m. while travelling on an 8ft hard-bottom dinghy, the RBPF said.
The couple shared updates from their travels on a social media account named @the_sailing_hookers. In a post uploaded before the disappearance, they said they had headed to Great Guana Cay to have their scuba tanks filled.
Richard Cook, the fire team lead at the Hope Town Volunteer Fire and Rescue, told CNN that Hooker had “bounced” off the boat, which was named “Soulmate.”
Cook said her husband tried to row to the shore, but winds of 18-22 knots prevented him from making headway. Upon finally reaching Marsh Harbour Boat Yard at 4 a.m., he told an unnamed individual about his wife’s disappearance and the authorities were notified.
In an update, the RBPF confirmed that a major search-and-rescue operation had been launched with the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, the Bahamas Air Sea Rescue Association, the United States Coast Guard and local fire and rescue teams. The search was carried out with support from drones and professional divers.
Speaking to PEOPLE, Cook confirmed that officials “don't suspect foul play at the moment.”
“It was just a lot of bad decisions,” he continued. “Night time, very windy, no moon out yet so it was pitch dark and very rough conditions for the small boat they were in.”
