← Criminally Obsessed
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- [00:00]
A
Hey, everyone, I'm Anne Emerson and this is Criminally Obsessed. I believe an arrest in the Lynette Hooker disappearance could be imminent. She disappeared almost three months ago in the Bahamas with her husband. And I think the Coast Guard knows something.
- [00:15]
B
They recently searched a new area which
- [00:17]
A
reportedly they located because of digital evidence found on Brian and Lynette Hooker's boat and not from Brian Hooker's account of what happened on April 4th.
- [00:27]
C
The GPS, just like any GPS, just like your phone or any sort of device like that, it's constantly dropping breadcrumbs.
- [00:38]
A
That's underwater. Crime scene investigator Alex Beer, he looked at the images the Coast Guard released from that search. What stands out to him? Alex handles similar types of investigations and he's even worked with the same K9 that was sent to search for Lynette Hooker.
- [00:54]
C
Certainly if somebody was buried on land two months later, I would say it would be a good thing to have a canine dog like that.
- [01:01]
A
Brian hooker says his 55 year old wife just fell overboard, that he couldn't save her. Her body has not been found. Listen, he's innocent until proven guilty. But Lynette's family says something doesn't add up. The Coast Guard ended their search with no remains found. But did they find something?
- [01:19]
C
It looks like they're leaning in the direction, like they're, they're just putting their ducks in a row. Probably pursue, you know, some type of charge here.
- [01:26]
A
Be sure to like subscribe and turn on your notifications here at Crimly Obsessed because I don't want you to miss any of these updates. Now let's get into it.
- [01:40]
B
They've transferred the, the dinghy from Bahamas to the US for forensic examination. What kind of forensics can be recovered off of a boat that's been sitting in saltwater like that? And you know, why is it important to investigators right now if it's been
- [01:58]
C
sitting out in the sun, sitting in the water? All those things are terrible for preserving evidence. Right. It degrades the evidence that's available, whether that's DNA or trace blood or any of those things. Certainly the sun and salt water are both very damaging to preserving that. I don't know how the dinghy was kept, if it was in storage, if it was covered. But it's also partly to make, I think, make the investigation a little bit more whole. Like you have the boat, why don't you also have the dinghy? You know, everything that's involved, I think it's part of sort of fully taking over the case. Right. And if you're going to do that, you're going to want all of your evidence. You don't want a piece of your evidence sitting in the Bahamas and a piece sitting in the United States. If you're attempting to build a case or conduct an investigation.
- [02:54]
B
When they took the Soulmate, you think that they were able to pull electronic information off, off of the devices off the GPS tracking anything particular that would have gotten them into this new search area that, that, that you're thinking about?
- [03:09]
C
Well, the, the gps, just like any gps, just like your phone or any sort of device like that, it, it's constantly dropping breadcrumbs, right? It, it has to, it has to maintain its connection to, to track its place in the world. Whether you turn it off or you. It's powered down, it's still gotta do that. And typically it's still giving itself a location so that when you turn it on, it doesn't take forever to reacquire, right? So as it's doing that, it's leaving itself. And they can go back into that data, pull up those points and then lay that out on a map or a chart and go, well, wait a minute, it says it went from here to here via this route. And it drew a line on a map and they just said, follow that line. You know, that line shows a different route that the boat took. Now there's, you know, it can't. And it's also tracking time. Like, how much time did it stop? How long did it stop there? How long was it in this position? And that information is what drew CGIS back over there to check these new areas of interest.
- [04:34]
B
We got these pictures on June 8th. The Coast Guard had gone down to work on this mission to. They brought all of these supplies. They're looking for Lynette Hooker. They really feel like they ramped up the investigation. When you had a chance to first look over these photographs and the video from the Bahamas, what was your immediate read on the operation?
- [05:00]
C
Most of the pictures were sort of, you know, snapshots and some short videos of where generally they were and what methods they were trying to use to, I'm guessing, look for any sort of evidence that may be in the water. You know, looked like that brought an ROV with them, which, okay, that's a good piece of equipment. I don't know how useful, depending on what it was that they thought they were looking for, not maybe the most useful tool, sort of limited in scope as far as you're looking through the lens of a camera and you're only you know, there is a way to search with an rov, but it, it's not great when looking for small things, but not impossible either. So if you have the tool, use it. It looks like they were utilizing diversity, doing a couple different methods. Again, I'm not sure what it was specifically that they thought or maybe were thinking they were looking for. Using methods that I maybe not would have chosen for the purposes of like there's a particular part of the video where they're dragging two divers along the side of a boat and the boat sort of driving along and they're just holding on, looking down in the water. I think that's, that's a great technique. I mean, we don't use it as a search for like small things. You could use it for large things. I mean, people do it for lobstering all the time. But I think if you're maybe looking for something small or not recognizable after two months, I don't know that that would been the, my personal team's chosen method. But it helps you cover a larger area. So I, I understand that with good visibility, they were doing what they could to cover what appeared to be a large area. And then some of the underwater footage, it looked like they were just diving along, which I'm guessing that's great. The problem that I see with that is that to do a good, systematic, repeatable or methodical search of an area, free diving along is not the best method for that. But I don't fault them for that. I realize that the Coast Guard has divers, so they, they said, well, let's send our divers to go look. And they go through a lot of training. They're very competent, very well trained. They go to the training at Panama City Naval Salvage Dive School. I don't think that they train really in like human remains or that type of searching. And they do a lot of salvage type diving for ships and buoys and things like that, which is a different thing. It's. I'm a very experienced public safety diver, but I wouldn't necessarily volunteer or raise my hand to go on a cave diving rescue because I'm not a cave diving person. So, you know, all diving is not the same. So I think they, they use that, that they, they had, which were diversified. I just don't know that they had a really good plan on how to do that search in a methodical, systematic way. So I think they did the best they could. They're very, again, they're very competent. I'm just not sure that you're going to see Small pieces of evidence, I.e. bones, pieces, sunglasses that have been underwater now for a little over two months as you're being sort of swimming around. I wasn't. But you know, that's why they brought cadaver dogs in from other agencies because they don't have that asset. But they do have divers. So they thought a lot of times people in command positions go, well, a diver is a diver is a diver, but it's not all the same thing. And so being specialized in something is important when you're doing these types of searches.
- [09:02]
B
This is the remote operated vehicle, right?
- [09:05]
C
Yeah, that's a Video Ray Defender, is what? That's that model. What, what the rov. That is great piece of equipment. You can see there's a sonar on the front, it's got a camera, multiple thrusters on it. It's an excellent rov. Again, you can do searches with rov. I'm not sure what they're actually searching in that, but you know, that piece of equipment is good for, for looking for things. When you're looking for small things, you, you have to fly at a certain way to do a, again, a measurable systematic search. So typically when you search with an rov, you fly it in what they would call an S pattern at sort of, and sort of these lazy S turns. So you're covering the same ground and overlapping research area.
- [09:52]
B
Okay. And so, and as far as using the rov, do they do it before they actually put the divers in the water in those areas?
- [10:01]
C
It's hard to say. I don't know if they used it to pre check an area. Like we can use them sometimes. Like if we're going to dive, say on a, on a submerged vehicle or something, we may send it down to sort of get an overview of a very specific thing. But we wouldn't necessarily use it to fly an area we were going to search and then send divers after it. It's kind of a. Searching bigger areas with an ROV is a little bit more difficult and time consuming and sometimes it's okay, it's better unless you're looking for one specific thing and then you can kind of focus on looking for that. We would have just sent divers down to do that search.
- [10:44]
B
Well, I also saw in the pictures that they were using Unmanned Aerial Systems, drones, part of the search. Do you know how they use these drones in tandem with what's going on under the water?
- [10:57]
C
It's been my experience that aerial drones over the water, if they've got a polarized lens, they can, they can see okay. But they're not really going to make out details. And again, if you're looking for a car or sunken boat, that's one thing, right? You're looking for human remains or a pair of sunglasses. It's my opinion, not super useful. I've done flights, I've asked helicopters or AVH to look down and say, hey, can you see anything? They're like, no. Only to go out there and find, oh, you mean this car that's sitting right here? So it happens. And it's not the fault of anybody. It's just that cameras don't do really well looking into water. It's not that they're not useful or they can't be useful because we have used them to locate things. But typically it's larger objects that they're helpful with. And then depending on where they're at, where the sun's at in the sky, how, you know, how that reflects things like that. But that's where, you know, there's a lot of variables there.
- [12:08]
B
So they brought in canine from Broward Count county to go down there and do their work. Can you tell us? Because one, they're on land right, right here. But I know that they have them out on the boats as well. Why are they putting. Can you explain to our viewers how. How they. The canines work on water as well?
- [12:29]
C
I've worked with Maggie and her handler, and she's from the Broward County Sheriff's Office. And like I said, so that team right there, that handler and dog is an asset that or a resource that the Coast Guard does not have. So in their ramp up to this, they thought, well, we, we want to have one of these dogs, so where can we get one locally? And so they reached out to the Broward County Sheriff's Office, and the sheriff's office supported it and sent both the handler and dog over there to assist in this investigation. Dogs pick up scent on water as a body decomposes. In her case, she's a cadaver dog. A body decomposes, it. It releases a scent that breaks to the surface of the water, and then that's what the dogs will actually pick up on. And, and, you know, not all Maggie's a good dog or handler, is a great handler. Not all dogs are created equal, and not all, you know, dog handlers or dog teams are created equal, but, you know, their ability to, to pick that up. I mean, I, I don't know if she did any water searches while she was there, but, I mean, clearly in the video, she's on land, doing that tracking. And again, that was a resource at the sheriff's office, you know, and the sheriff's office is paying for that. But they're saying, yes, of course, you know, we'll help in any way that we can.
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B
We're coming after, you know, two months hot water, hot days, changing conditions. Conditions are changing all the time. How successful is it to bring in a dog that late?
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C
I mean, I think it depends. I think it's different. It would be different land based to water based. I don't know at this point there would be much of a scent to be found on the water. But certainly if somebody was buried on land two months later, I would say it would be a good thing to have a canine dog like that.
- [14:29]
B
There's like a lot of stuff that was going on with this, with this investigation. I mean, tell me how it works, actually. Do they all bring it all out on to one boat and they're like, okay, we need to bring this into the Abacos area and they just transfer it all on one ship and everybody comes out and, and there's like a set amount of time that they can, that they can do the search.
- [14:51]
C
It appeared that they had a large support vessel with them which probably would have brought all their dive gear and the ROV and all that equipment as well as the personnel. And then they were operating from smaller boats which could have been, you know, like tenders to the larger vessel. And I don't know what their arrangement was with the Bahamas or the Bahamian police about how much time they were allotted to be there or how long they planned to be there. I would tell you that based on some mapping that I saw of the new GPS sort of target areas that they showed, it was a big area, it would have taken quite a bit of time. I'm not even sure how many days they were over there. So it's a labor intensive, costly and high resource required mission. So I'm sure that they were sent there with some parameters about how much time they had and to try and get as much done in whatever that allotted amount of time was.
- [15:55]
B
I'm just really curious about the timing of this investigation, the way they've done this search too, because, you know, you had a huge amount of time in between. It's not like we didn't know that American was missing in the Abacos, you know, since April 4th. You know, why is it taking so long?
- [16:15]
C
Well, I think a lot of that has to do with the, the, the transfer of the, the investigation. So from the Royal Bahamian police to then the US CGIS getting involved and then taking possession of the boat, then doing their electronics tump and dig that they did to get the other information that they were acting on. That takes time.
- [16:42]
A
Okay.
- [16:43]
C
Once that happens, then for those that are unfamiliar with the Coast Guard, I mean, it's a, it's an organization, military type organization, although they're, I believe, under the Department of Transportation. But there a lot of people have to sign off on that. You know, those, the CS invest, the investigators are. Would be the ones that are like, let's go, let's go, let's go. And then they have to ask their superiors who then have to run it up the flag pole. Right? It's got to go all the way up to sector and sector's got decide and then they've got red tape.
- [17:19]
B
You're telling me there's a lot of red tape involved in trying to get
- [17:21]
C
a bunch of people out on the bureau? Yeah, there's a lot of bureaucracy and I don't want to call it red tape, but there's a pro. They have certainly much more of a process that they have to go through because people have to sign off on it. Because again, the thing that nobody wants to address is that, you know, it does cost money. I mean, it costs money for fuel to get the ship there, and somebody's got to pay for that. So they have to say, okay, well, we're willing to spend or put. And nobody will ever say, well, what's the price tag you put on a human life? What does that cost where you're willing to spend? If you're asking me, I would say, I don't know that I think it's priceless. And so I don't think that you. I'm not a person who worries about the cost of it. And at some point somebody's got to sort of, you know, draw that line and say, well, we've done everything that we've can to this point and how much more are we going to throw at it? And I think that you see that in all searches, whether it's on land or it's in the water, there comes a point where somebody has to make a decision that they cannot continue to allocate resources. Because I understand the public's perception is like, why are we not doing more? But on the other side of that, the public is also saying, oh, the police are spending all this money. Like, you can't have it both ways,
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A
Alex, when they say that they've concluded its mission.
- [18:48]
B
But the CGIS is continuing its investigation. Can you tell us what that means? It sounds contradictory, but it's not, is it?
- [18:59]
C
I think, and I don't know this, but I think what they meant was. Or what they mean is that portion of the. Through additional investigation or their mission. I think that part of it is what's concluded. And now everything's bringing the dinghy back and having everything back in the States. I think they'll probably focus on it from a stateside aspect. Not to say again, something else may come up and they may go, well, we might need to go back. And I don't think they're closing the door on it. I'm just thinking this initial foray to go over there to do the diving into the Bahamas is that part of the mission for them is over. And so now they're bringing resources back.
- [19:38]
B
With your experience, how likely is it that investigators are going to find something that at this point will get to the truth, that will be able to show that this was an accident or not? Are we getting there?
- [19:50]
C
I think we're getting there. I think we're getting. We're getting to a point where there'll be a conclusion. I mean, I think it's looking like, and this is just my opinion based on, on my observation from an. As an outsider, it appears to me that they're. It looks like they're leaning in the direction like they're, they're just putting their ducks in a row to, you know, probably pursue, you know, some type of charge here. I don't know that you. I think if they would have thought it was an accident, I don't necessarily think they would have gone to the length they've gone to so far to prove that. I think they're working towards what appears to me a logical conclusion of probably charging this gentleman with something. I would say on behalf of any investigator that it's been my experience that they want to see conclusion. They want to see one way or the other a definitive answer at the end, whether that's a crime or an accident. They don't want to leave it open ended. I believe they're working very hard to get there. And I think that. And something is certainly as public as this and sort of as big as this has become, they want to make sure they get it right.
- [21:14]
A
Drop a comment below. I want to hear what you think about this story.
- [21:17]
B
Do you think that they're getting close,
- [21:19]
A
like I do, to charges in the Lynette Hooker disappearance? Let me know what you think. Be sure to, like, subscribe and turn on your notifications, and I'll be updating this story and all of the big cases that you're obsessed with.