See the messages Brian Hooker sent his friend after his wife disappeared in the Bahamas: “The wind blew me away”

The next day his wife disappeared while on a boat at night in the Bahamas, Brian Hooker told a friend that he tried to swim back to him following his fall into the water, but strong winds separated them “quickly,” according to messages reviewed exclusively by CBS News.

Lynette Hooker, from Michigan, has been missing since Sunday. Officials of the Bahamas arrest her husband He was arrested Wednesday night for questioning about his crime, but he has not been charged, according to his attorney, Terrell Butler. Hooker can be held for 48 hours until he has to be charged or released, Butler said, noting that officials can extend the time to 96 hours if deemed necessary.

Brian Hooker denies any wrongdoing. He previously told authorities that his wife fell off their boat Saturday night as the couple left Hope Town for Elbow Cay in the Bahamas. He said the strong currents of the flood and the locks of their boat which cut the power to the engine prevented him from reaching him.

He shared a similar account of what happened in Facebook messages to Daniel Danforth, a friend of the Hookers since 2023. Danforth told CBS News that he met them because of their shared interest in boating.

The text messages show that Danforth contacted Brian on Monday after seeing news of his wife’s disappearance.

“The wind blew me away from him and he swam towards the sailboat and we lost sight of each other soon as the sun was about to set,” Brian wrote in response. “I drifted and tried to row with one oar for the next 7 hours until I washed up behind the shore of the next Island and was finally able to get help.”

Bahamian police said Brian Hooker arrived at the Marsh Harbor Boat Yard on the island of Abaco at 4 a.m. Sunday morning, after rowing a boat to shore. They said he told his other wife that he was missing when he got there, and that person notified the authorities.

In the messages, he told Danforth that his family was “in hell” as searchers failed to find his wife.

When Danforth checked in again the next morning, Hooker said he had moved his boat to Marsh Harbor and had been sleeping there, but planned to move for “a night or two” to stay with his sister and brother-in-law, who had flown in to meet him. He told Danforth that he planned to “return to the site” afterward and “continue the search.”

“I’ll probably need help next time but I don’t know what it is right now I’m just trying to take it one day at a time and keep the faith,” he told Danforth, before congratulating him on his recent sailboat purchase.

“The stories don’t really add up”

Danforth told CBS News that he first met the Hookers three years ago, while sailing in the New Orleans area. Brian’s Facebook notification over the weekend first alerted him to the couple, before he started seeing articles about Lynette’s disappearance, Danforth said.

He got this notification because Brian liked his comment on a post Danforth’s wife shared about boating. Looking back, Danforth said the fact that her friend was scrolling through social media and liking posts at the time raised questions.

“You know, my wife is missing, Facebook is the last thing I’m worried about. You’re going to find me in the water riding,” Danforth told CBS News.

Danforth said he was concerned that Brian moved his boat off Elbow Cay, where it was moored, shortly after Lynette went missing. He also noted that, when comparing Brian’s account of Lynette’s disappearance to the emerging media reports, “the stories don’t really add up.”

While police said Hooker recalled his wife being swept out of the ocean, Danforth said his text messages indicated he was “swimming back to the boat.”

He also said the Hokas “always have their phones with them” and often post videos online, so he wonders why “Brian’s phone wasn’t working or why they didn’t have phones on the boat” the night Lynette went missing.

Danforth said his wife was friends with Lynette and had no concerns about the couple’s relationship, although there was a time when Brian and Lynette “were separated for a while,” he said.

“You know most of the time people get back together and you don’t want things to get complicated,” he said. “So we didn’t — I don’t get into personal business for those reasons.”

Daughter of Lynette Hooker, Karli Aylesworthtold CBS News in a separate interview that her mother and Brian Hooker had separated and gotten back together in recent years. Aylesworth said he wanted answers about the circumstances of his mother’s disappearance and said he doubted the sequence of events described by Brian Hooker.

For one thing, I don’t understand how he got the key,” Aylesworth said. “Brian always drives. So he holds the key. So the fact that my mother had it doesn’t make sense.”

In an earlier statement, Butler, Hooker’s attorney, said he denied the allegations made by Aylesworth, adding, “He has been cooperating with the appropriate authorities as part of an ongoing investigation.”

Butler spoke to Hooker on the phone and told CBS News that he was focused on continuing to search for his wife.

“That’s all he was talking about,” Butler said. “Yesterday… he made plans to go out and look for her again.”

The location of the boat key was a problem for Danforth, who said the photos and videos the Hooks take while on the boat never show one of them with the key, which is usually attached to a lanyard. But he said Lynette Hooker may have “reached desperately” to grab something as she fell into the water, and “it’s the closest thing.”

In the end, Danforth said he did not fully believe that strong winds and ocean currents could separate Hooker’s small boat from his wife so quickly. And, when he swam toward the boat, as Brian Hooker said in his messages, Danforth asked: “Why didn’t he try to get her?”