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The search for missing American mom Lynette Hooker is set to restart after Bahamian authorities approved a request to comb new areas in the sea, reports said.
The move comes after GPS data on a marine navigation app used by her husband Brian Hooker’s cellphone appeared to contradict what he first told cops about how his wife went overboard on their yacht “Soulmate” on April 4, sources close to the probe told Fox News.
A source said Bahamian authorities have granted permission that will allow a team of divers to be dispatched.
They are set to focus on an area within the Sea of Abaco, which has around 25-foot-deep waters. Data from the GPS suggests Hooker’s cellphone was in areas that have not yet been searched.
Hooker’s lawyer Terrel Butler refused to comment on the development when approached by NBC, but Lynette’s daughter Karli Aylesworth said she provided DNA to Coast Guard officials.
The FBI is reportedly processing evidence at a lab in Quantico, Virginia, one official said, without sharing any further details.
The major development comes almost a month after the US Coast Guard appealed for information about Michigan mom Lynette’s disappearance.
The Coast Guard said it was looking for the owner of a sailboat moored near to the Hookers’ yacht Soulmate.
Brian returned to the US on April 15, more than week after Lynette vanished — and he fled even though he said his sole focus was to find his wife of 25 years.
The Hookers left Hope Town at around 7:30 p.m. on April 4, traveling through rough waters near Elbow Cay off the Abacos.
Brian claimed his wife fell overboard with the boat’s keys, cutting off the engine. He said he paddled to Marsh Harbour, arriving at around 4 a.m. the next morning.
He turned up at the Marsh Harbour Boatyards and encountered security guard Edward Smith, who told Fox News Digital he was “exhausted” and was “asking for water.”
Brian then told the guard what allegedly happened.
“He said he was on a cay, like at a bar, having something to eat or drink, and they came out to go to another place or back to their boat, but somehow they got out in the rough weather, and they had that incident, the lady [went] overboard,” Smith recalled.
Smith probed him on why Brian didn’t raise the alarm while at sea – to which he claimed he sent up two flares that passing boats didn’t respond to.
“I asked him, ‘So, where is the lady?’ He says, ‘She’s in the water,’” he recalled.
Brian claimed the wind pushed him away from his wife, according to Smith.
Brian has strongly denied any involvement relating to his wife’s disappearance — despite being held in custody for five days.
Four days after Lynette supposedly went overboard, he wrote on Facebook, “I am heartbroken over the recent boat accident in unpredictable seas and high winds that caused my beloved Lynette to fall from our small dinghy near Elbow Cay in the Bahamas.” That post is now unavailable.
The Hookers’ documented their experiences on their yacht online – but in the days following Lynette’s disappearance, details came to light suggesting a violent relationship.
Lynette was arrested in 2015 following a domestic incident at her Kentwood home – and Brian had blood pouring from his nose, according to an arrest report seen by NBC.
Brian claimed Lynette had punched him four to five times in the face during the bust-up. Lynette alleged Brian hit her once before choking her.
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