THE husband of an American tourist who fell into shark-infested waters in the Bahamas last week says he “should’ve known better”.
Brian Hooker staggered ashore after the horror ordeal, telling a security guard his wife Lynette, 55, had been “thrown” from their small dinghy into rough seas.
The pair had to contend with terrible weather conditions as they headed back to their 50ft sailboat in the Abaco Islands.
According to the Daily Mail, the night watchman Edward Smith claimed Hooker showed little emotion as he told him his wife had been “thrown out of the boat”.
“He wasn’t crying or anything. He didn’t seem stressed in that way,” Smith said.
“There wasn’t a lot of emotion. There were no tears.
“He expressed nothing that you would imagine in those circumstances. He was more exhausted than emotional because he kept asking for water.”
Smith also claimed the 59-year-old later admitted the pair were “very drunk” when the incident took place, the Daily Mail reported.
Hooker had been alone in the 8ft vessel after Lynette went over the side at around 7.30pm on Saturday.
Hooker reportedly said she took the engine’s kill-switch key with her, cutting all power to the vessel.
As a result, Hooker reportedly was forced to use a singular paddle to cover the seven mile journey to shore after “losing sight” of his wife.
Once he was within touching distance of dry land, Hooker ditched the dinghy and stumbled along the rocks until he found help.
According to the Daily Mail, when asked why the married couple decided to go out in those conditions, Hooker told Smith: “We were drinking, we were drunk.
“I should have known better, I shouldn’t have done it.”
“He said the last time he saw her she was swimming towards Hope Town on Elbow Key, but it was so dark he could not be clear. He then lost sight of her,” Smith added.
“He said after she went over a boat passed by and he shot up a flare. But the boat didn’t see it.
“Then a couple of minutes later another boat passed and he shot up another flare. They also didn’t see it.”
Hooker was interrogated by police in the immediate aftermath and was subsequently arrested.
He has now been taken to Freeport on the island of Grand Bahama for further questioning.
Unfortunately, there have been no signs of Lynette.
Former fishermen familiar with the area believe sharks will have attacked her within minutes.
One boat captain said: “Those waters where she went in are full of bull sharks, and they can be monsters.
“Everything round there is bull sharks. They’d get her straight away.”
The couple from Onsted, Michigan, were four years into a voyage taking them from Texas to the Bahamas via Florida.
There were no reports of tension between the pair despite accusations by Lynette’s daughter, Karli Aylesworth, 29, of a “history of domestic violence”.
Aylesworth told Fox News: “There’s a history of him choking her out and threatening to throw her overboard.
“So the fact that this is actually happening make me believe there’s more to this story.”
Hooker has since denied any wrongdoing, and local police said they had no history with him.
In a statement he wrote: “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.
“Despite desperate attempts to reach her, the winds and currents drove us further apart. We continue to search for her and that is my sole focus.”
Authorities now say an operation is ongoing to find Lynette’s body.
However, the same ship captain revealed the US Coast Guard’s high-tech imaging aircraft had scanned the area without any results.
“The water is super clear and only between three and eight feet in most places,” he said.
“That aircraft can see anything. And there was no sign of a body.”
