The U.S. Coast Guard has taken possession of the sailboat owned by the American man whose wife disappeared in the Bahamas last month, an official said Monday.
The official, from the Coast Guard’s station in Fort Pierce, Florida, referred additional questions about the Soulmate to the military branch’s Miami office, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday night.
A Michigan-based attorney for Brian Hooker did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Hooker could not be reached for comment.
Hooker told authorities in the Bahamas that his wife, Lynette Hooker, vanished after she fell from the couple’s dinghy on the evening of April 4 while they were traveling from Hope Town to Elbow Cay.
In a phone call to a friend, he said that they were not wearing life jackets and that she “basically just bounced off the dinghy” in 20 mph winds. She fell overboard with the key to the engine, forcing him to paddle, he has said.
Local authorities arrested Brian Hooker in connection with her disappearance on April 8 — the day a U.S. Coast Guard official said the branch had opened a criminal investigation.
Hooker was released five days later without charges.
“I’ve never harmed Lynette, and I would never harm Lynette, and I want to find Lynette,” he told NBC News afterward.
He returned to the U.S. shortly afterward to help his sick mother. Lynette Hooker has not been found.
It isn’t clear when the Coast Guard took possession of the Soulmate or whether the development is connected to the criminal investigation.