Case of missing Michigan wife who vanished off Bahamas boat takes a new direction as cops search fresh area and 'Soulmate' sailboat to be combed

The search for a missing Michigan woman who vanished off a boat in the Bahamas has taken a new turn as officials authorize the search of the vessel she shared with her husband, along with a new area of water. 

Lynette Hooker, 55, fell off a dinghy in rough waters while she and her husband, Brian Hooker, 58, were heading back to their sailboat, the Soulmate, on April 4. 

Their boat was seized by the US Coast Guard and taken to Fort Pierce, Florida. It has been relocated to Fort Lauderdale, where officials will eventually take it to a warehouse to investigate it for any clues, a source told Fox News Digital. 

'Any sort of digital devices that you can take, any computer systems that you can extract, anything of that sort [will be taken in],' former FBI agent Nicole Parker told the outlet. 

A new section of the Sea of Abaco will also be searched, as Bahamian officials gave the Coast Guard permission to dive on Thursday, Fox News Digital confirmed. 

It is unclear when the dive team will begin its search. 

The Coast Guard reopened the search after new GPS evidence from the boat contradicted what Brian told authorities about his whereabouts after his wife went missing. The husband claimed he had to paddle for several hours to get to a nearby island after Hooker fell off. 

Investigators now say they searched the 'wrong area' for Hooker, NBC Chicago reported.

Brian has not been charged in the disappearance of his wife. 

'I've never harmed Lynette, and I never would harm Lynette, and I want to find Lynette,' he told NBC News in April. 

Brian's attorney Terrel Butler previously told the Daily Mail: ‘He categorically and unequivocally denies any wrongdoing.' 

Butler declined to comment further when approached by the Daily Mail on Saturday. 

Brian had been detained by Bahamian officials for five days before being released. He has since returned to the US.

'The reason why we have the vested interest is because the suspect is Brian, and he's a US citizen. The victim is Lynette. She's a US citizen. The vessel in which they were on, when the incident occurred, is a US vessel, and it's flagged in the United States,' Parker said. 

'That gives the United States jurisdiction.'

Brian could also face US charges even though his wife vanished in international waters. 

'People go on these trips and they think: "Oh nothing’s going to happen, I’m in a foreign country," and they are wrong,' Parker told Fox News Digital. 

Lynette and Brian were headed toward their sailboat when he claims rough waters knocked her off the small vessel at about 7.30pm on April 4. 

Brian managed to paddle to shore and arrived at Marsh Harbour on the island of Great Abaco at about 4am on April 5.

He told police he tried to search for his wife by paddling for hours around the water where she vanished.

However, the couple's friend, Daniel Danforth, questioned Brian's version of the events and claimed that he failed to inform investigators about a high-tech camera known as a FLIR system, which may have helped in the search.

Danforth told Fox News earlier this month that the camera 'would have been my first choice like if I was trying to rescue somebody,' but claimed that Brian did not appear to have told investigators about it.

'I told them about it and they were very interested,' he said. 'That was the first they had heard about that system being on the boat. And so they told me that they were going to file for a warrant of seizure for that because it has a serial number.'

Danforth previously shared messages between him and Brian in which Brian said he saw his wife swimming 'toward the sailboat' before they 'lost sight of each other pretty quickly.'

'I drifted and tried to paddle with one oar for the next seven hours until I washed up behind the shore of the next island over and was able to get some help finally,' he Facebook messaged Danforth. 

Danforth told the Daily Mail he has not heard from Brian since, despite reaching out several times. 

Local experts previously told the Daily Mail they were skeptical of Brian's version of events, pointing to what they said were puzzling inconsistencies that could reveal mysterious ‘missing hours.' 

Brian was first spotted after Hooker went missing at 3.35am on April 5 on security surveillance footage at Marsh Harbour Boat Yard - some four miles from where his wife vanished.

He had tied up the dinghy half a mile south in an area called Calcutta and walked over dangerously rocky shoreline terrain and through dense mangrove before reaching the yard.

The footage, which is in the hands of the Royal Bahamas Police and has not been released, has been seen by the Daily Mail.

It revealed Brian wandering almost nonchalantly around the yard wearing a blue shirt, dark shorts and flip flops, with a cowboy-style hat perched squarely on his head.

In the footage, he walked up to the security fencing and raised his arms to attract attention, but there appeared to be little sign of panic.

The husband, wearing a yellow ‘dry bag’ to keep items free of water damage, calls out: 'Hello, I need help. Hello. Help me.’ At another point, he also casually glances down at his watch.

But at no point in the footage seen by the Daily Mail does he immediately raise the alarm about his missing wife.

When he calls out, he doesn’t appear to be yelling. There is no apparent sign of panic, of desperation, of urgency, or of alarm for his missing wife.

The Hookers, married for 25 years and from Onsted, Michigan, were four years into a voyage they were documenting on social media that had started in Texas and drifted to the Bahamas via Florida when tragedy struck. 

The Daily Mail has reached out to the FBI, the Bahamas Police, and Parker for comment.