Exposed: Brian Hooker’s Behavior May Be His Most Damaging Evidence Yet | Lynette Hooker Missing

Summary

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Drop Dead Serious With Ashleigh Banfield

Episode: Exposed – Brian Hooker’s Behavior May Be His Most Damaging Evidence Yet

Release Date: July 13, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this gripping true crime episode, Ashleigh Banfield applies her decades of investigative experience to the mysterious case of missing woman Lynette Hooker, focusing an unblinking eye on the conduct and interviews of her husband, Brian Hooker—now widely suspected of wrongdoing. Banfield is joined by renowned behavioral analyst Scott Rouse, who methodically dissects Brian’s media appearances and private calls for classic signs of deception and "consciousness of guilt." Throughout the episode, Ashleigh guides listeners through first-hand insights, forensic behavioral cues, and telling inconsistencies in Brian's shifting narrative, all while building the case for why his actions speak louder than words.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Introducing the Case and the “Consciousness of Guilt”

• Ashleigh Banfield opens by sharing a personal anecdote about concealing her late-night eating from her husband, segueing into the concept of “consciousness of guilt.”
  • Quote: “I try to not tell the truth about the eating at night, but he always knows… But it brings me to Brian Hooker. Because all roads right now lead to Brian Hooker, right?” (02:04)
• She compares her minor concealment to Hooker’s much more serious evasions, suggesting that suppressed guilt often leaks through behavior.

2. The Weather Lie and Implausible Story

• Ashleigh calls out Brian’s inconsistency:
  • Brian claimed his wife vanished due to “angry seas,” but weather data and area footage prove calm conditions that night (03:00–04:30).
    • Quote: “You lied about the weather the night you said there were two to four foot seas... It was calm glass. Like actually barely a ripple. We saw the pictures, saw the videos of that exact time.” (03:45)
• Suggests key forensic leads may lie in surveillance videos and what still remains on the sailboat.

3. Enter Scott Rouse: Analyzing Guilt and Deception

• Scott Rouse’s Credentials: Rouse is introduced as a leading authority on body language and behavioral analysis, trusted by government agencies (06:00).
  • Quote (Banfield): “The FBI turns to Scott Rouse… for his ability to analyze people and how they speak and whether they're telling the truth.” (06:32)

General Impressions of Brian Hooker (07:08)

• Rouse: Immediately looks for what’s missing—mainly, the absence of genuine grief signals and the “grief muscle.”
  • Quote: “Things that are missing are things like the grief muscle, real tears. The changes in emotion should be slow… but they’re not slow. They happen really, really quickly… He’ll go from a blank face into this emotional face… then he'll click right back into a flat affect.” (07:08)

4. Deep Dive: Dissecting Brian’s Interviews

A. ABC News Interview

Timestamps [09:32–10:18]

• Brian emphasizes feeling responsible for Lynette and describes his time in custody as “a different chapter of hell.”
  • Quote (Brian): “My one job was to look out for her. And that has not happened. And I’m going to keep looking out for her now as best I can.” (09:32)
  • Quote (Brian): “It was hell. It was a little a different chapter of hell and a giant hell that I'm in.” (10:00)
• Rouse Observes: Brian’s emotion is surface level and his crying appears faked; critical facial muscles (the “grief muscle,” chin quiver) do not engage.
  • Quote: “That's fake… what's missing from this is the grief muscle… None of that.” (11:15–13:27)
• Banfield: Wonders if military background could explain emotional flatness, but Rouse says typical grief cannot be so easily masked (08:05).

B. On Tense Usage – “Loved” vs. “Love”

Timestamps [16:56–17:10]

• Brian says, “Lynette and I loved each other the most…”
  • Rouse: Notes that referring to a missing spouse in the past tense so soon is a "big flag" (17:16).

C. The Incident Breakdown and Lack of Emotional Pauses

Timestamps [18:42–19:14]

• Brian’s retelling of the moment Lynette supposedly fell overboard is strangely calm and unemotional.
  • Rouse: “No emotion in it… There should be pauses... heavy breathing… but it’s all missing.” (19:14–20:09)

D. Verbal Diarrhea and Chaff & Redirect

Timestamps [30:27–36:15]

• In calls with boating friend Blaine Stevenson, Brian answers straightforward questions with unnecessary detail and irrelevant stories, e.g. explaining how to spell ‘Key’, describing beach bars, and multi-day old events.
  • Rouse: Names this tactic “chaff and redirect” — overloading the listener with minutiae to distract and buy time.
    • Quote: “He’s creating time there in those situations... hoping somebody will glom onto it...” (33:11–36:15)

E. Revelatory Language: “Met cool people the next few days”

Timestamps [37:35–40:47]

• Brian refers to meeting “cool people in the next few days” despite wife’s recent disappearance — suggesting either a slip of the tongue or lack of emotional focus on Lynette.
  • Banfield: “I can’t get past this. Like, I feel like he caught himself and changed what he was saying.” (40:33)
  • Rouse: Interprets this as evidence that Brian is projecting beyond the event and self-focused.

5. The Pattern: Inconsistency and Performance

• Rouse’s conclusion: Brian’s demeanor and story change slightly in every interview; this “inconsistency is the tell,” showing he’s always trying to act how he believes a grieving spouse should act.
  • Quote: “He’s fighting to hide his true emotions and trying to create what he thinks is sadness... that’s what we’re seeing.” (43:01)

6. Parallels to Notorious Criminals: The Chris Watts Comparison

Timestamps [45:56–48:41]

• Banfield draws a direct line between Brian’s behaviors and those of convicted murderer Chris Watts, who also appeared on camera professing anguish shortly after killing his wife and children.
  • Quote: “That’s the last guy I saw who had tells like Brian Hooker has. Same kinds of tells. Not saying that Brian Hooker did anything to Lynette... But he sure does look like he has a bunch of consciences of guilt.” (48:41)

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On body language deception:
  • “When people cry, they're not trying for you to see them cry. They're trying not to cry. That's what makes you cry... This guy, he's trying to cry.” — Scott Rouse (15:29)
• On past tense as a red flag:
  • “They’ll talk about them in the past tense... That's how important that is.” — Scott Rouse (17:22)
• On “Chaff and Redirect”:
  • “You throw out all that chaff in hopes that somebody will glom onto it… It’s his way to take up time, not only create time for the things that happened, so he could say, well, we did that but then it took us an hour to get there when it really could have taken three minutes.” — Scott Rouse (33:11–36:41)
• On “cool people” after disaster:
  • “In the next few days, your life ended. You shouldn’t have been hanging with cool people that you met on the beach. …I feel like he caught himself and changed what he was saying.” — Ashleigh Banfield (40:33)
• On investigative frustration:
  • “Somebody working on this case that sounded just like me… they're mad… because it's laying right there in front of you, and you see it, how fake it is.” — Scott Rouse (28:39)

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Important Timestamps

• [03:00] – Calling out Brian Hooker’s provable lie about the weather; potential evidence still with authorities.
• [06:32] – Introduction of Scott Rouse and behavioral analysis as a forensic tool.
• [09:32–10:18] – Brian’s ABC interview analyzed; fake grief indicators.
• [11:15–13:27] – Rouse breaks down the physical and verbal signs of inauthentic emotion.
• [16:56–17:10] – Brian’s use of past tense re: Lynette flagged as significant.
• [18:42–19:14] – Phone call to a friend: Lack of expected emotion.
• [30:27–36:41] – Blaine Stevenson phone call: “Chaff and redirect” in full display.
• [37:35–40:47] – The “cool people” slip and what it reveals.
• [45:56–48:41] – Chris Watts comparison; summary of “consciousness of guilt.”

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Final Reflections & Tone

The episode is acerbic, deeply skeptical, and emotionally charged. Banfield’s anchor is her gut feeling and “jaded” experience, combined with the clinical breakdowns provided by Rouse. Their joint conclusion is clear: Brian Hooker’s behavior reeks of concealed guilt. He consistently fails to exhibit authentic grief, and his wildly inconsistent and overly-detailed stories do more to implicate than exonerate.

• Ashleigh’s closing warning to Brian:
  • “You might want to start thinking about what kind of lawyer you got, because, bruh, you’re gonna need a hell of a lawyer. I think what’s coming your way is a world of hurt. It’s not just a matter of will he be charged?... It’s a matter of when. Tick tock.” (44:41)
• On the value of behavioral cues:
  • “I tell you what, it’s so funny because everything he says I feel. I just don’t know why I feel it. And then he actually puts the science to it…” (44:42)

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Summary

This episode of Drop Dead Serious offers a master class in the analysis of behavioral evidence in a high-stakes missing persons case. Banfield and Rouse systematically present why Brian Hooker’s words, tone, and conduct may be the most damaging evidence yet—and why those who lean in and listen closely may hear the truth beneath the lies.

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Transcript

[A]

Foreign.

[B]

Hey, everyone. I'm Ashley Banfield and this is drop dead serious. And I don't always tell the truth, especially when it comes to eating. I secretly eat late at night and I don't want my husband knowing about it because I struggled with eating my whole life. And I'm always on a diet. I'm always fasting and all the rest. And I don't tell the truth about always eating the night before. And I sometimes try to hide some of the stuff in the garbage. It's that bad? Yes, it is a terrible fault, but I don't think I'm very good at hiding it. I have something called consciousness of guilt. I try to not tell the truth about the eating at night, but he always knows. And he's really nice nice about it. I mean, he doesn't hold my feet to the fire about anything. It's really just me. I'm. I'm just the one who's like, wound up about it. But it brings me to Brian Hooker. Because all roads right now lead to Brian Hooker, right? My roads, Coast Guard investigative services roads are all leading to Brian Hooker, who I am wondering, what road are you on right now, Brian? You sure have gone underground. You're off the grid somewhere. Whether you were in Michigan at some point getting that lawyer of yours or in Sacramento saying, I need to see my sick mom, and your sister's there, the one who helped you in the Bahamas. Love to know her story. I would love to see your face now. Suddenly you're not giving interviews anymore. Why, Brian Hooker? Why are you not giving interviews? Because I think your consciousness of guilt might show because you have lied. You have lied about so many things. Provable. Let's just start with the weather. You lied about the weather the night you said there were two to four foot seas and, oh, out Lynette went, and I couldn't reach her. Because the seas were angry, my friend. And we got separated and I'm a former Marine and I can't deal with that. Seas weren't angry, my friend. It was calm glass. Like actually barely a ripple. We saw. Saw the pictures, saw the videos of that exact time of night in that exact place. So you're a liar. What else did you lie about? I'm investigating as well. Witnesses, things that were on board, maybe might still be on board, might now be in evidence. Behaviors, all sorts of things. Photographs, lots of things that show. Ooh, Brian, things aren't looking good for you. And one thing that doesn't look good is you. The way you look when you Speak. And when you try to tell everybody what happened, including your friend Blaine Stevenson, who recorded you because you started to sound like shite. Actually, he recorded you because your verbal logaria went on for 40 minutes and they just couldn't keep up. They just couldn't write this stuff fast enough. And then they started to realize what the hell is going on with this guy. The stuff he's saying is just preposterous and implausible. And you name it, thank God they recorded it, because now we have a record of your behavior and your lies. So that audio exists, which we can analyze. And also your interviews with cbs, ABC, and NBC the morning after you got bounced out of detention in the Bahamas because they just couldn't come up with enough evidence to keep you. I don't know how I could see it. I could see probable cause like that just by looking at the weather. And your bullshit story of. Of going from the Abaco Inn back to your sailboat. That stuff didn't match. I could have found. I could have found that within 24 hours. I could have found that. That that was a lie. I could have actually gone to all of those homes and asked for their surveillance video. But unfortunately, I wasn't there long enough. And that stuff records over. And by the time I had tracked down many of these homes, that stuff had recorded over. It doesn't mean that the agencies that actually operate those systems can't scratch some of those images, because I think they can. They did in Nancy Guthrie's case. Oh, Brian. Bad fact, right? Might be able to actually get the surveillance video from all the homes that overlook Aunt Pat's Bay, that saw your boat and maybe even your dinghy actually coming back to your boat that night instead of having a catastrophic incident a thousand yards away that blew you four miles to Marsh Harbor. Forensically, there's going to be a gold mine. But you yourself are a gold mine. That's my best Schitt's Creek imitation, by the way. The way you spoke to reporters who asked you simple questions speaks volumes. And it doesn't say the things you think you're saying, the things you said the way you said them. There are experts trained in the art and science of the way you speak. If you have, say, consciousness of guilt, the stuff I have with the food at night. So I have interviewed Scott Rouse many times. He's my go to guy. And some people say, oh, body language is science. It is not. Not if you believe our, you know, top law enforcement agencies and what they use and what they think about It. So the FBI turns to Scott Rouse and they look at his body of work and his ability to analyze people and how they speak and whether they're telling the truth or not. He's actually one of the top behavioral analysts because he's been training people alongside not just the FBI, but also the United States Secret Service and United States Military Intelligence. So, yeah, Scott Ross knows a thing or two about the science of how you speak, what happens with your face, your facial muscles, all of it. And when you're telling a lie, the things you do do unconsciously, subconsciously speak volumes that your words don't say at all. So I called up Scott Rouse to ask him to go through some of these clips of Brian Hooker's interviews and his Lugeria long, long conversation that he had for 40 minutes with Blaine and Marnie Stevenson to get his take on whether Brian Hooker is a big fat liar with a big dose of consciousness of guilt or whether he's a grieving man who just lost his wife. Boink off the back of the dinghy. Here's my conversation with Scott Rouse. Scott, what do you make of Brian Hooker overall, before we go granular, just generally speaking, everything you've seen and heard about the story and about what he has said actually happened.

[C]

When I look at these things, as you know, I usually look for what's missing. That's the first thing I look for. And things that are missing are things like the grief muscle, real tears. The changes in emotion should be slow and the facial expressions with emotions should be slow, but they're not slow. They happen really, really quickly. He'll go from a blank face into this emotional face where he looks a little bit sad, and then he'll click right back into a flat affect. And usually those things, they'll morph from one emotion to another, but they don't morph. They just click really quickly.

[B]

So that's really. And I don't want to interrupt, but is there a difference between, say, me and I'm an emotional wreck half the time, and say a Marine, and I'm going to say former Marine because every time I talk about Brian Hooker, I don't think he espouses any aspects of Semper Fi or the, you know, the principles they live by. So he's a different animal already because he's got that sort of Marine background. And do you have to accommodate for

[C]

that in a way? Because there'll be things like surprises or something like that you'll take into consideration when you're talking about a police officer or someone in the military because of their background and things they've been doing and the things they're used to. So they're usually controlling their emotions and they don't want to show everybody how they feel at work, you know, when they're working on something. So you'll take that into consideration sometimes, but especially if it looks a little bit off, you can say, oh, here's probably why they didn't react to this in the way we expected, because that's a police officer and they see horrible things all the time or someone in the military. And we know they've had a background of violence when they were in the military. They were, you know, in combat and things like that. So you take those and firemen the same way. You'll take those things into consideration when you see something that's a little bit off.

[B]

Well, let me start with the first clip. This comes from ABC News. And as you know, he sat down a matter of hours. He got out of jail, detention at 8 o' clock at night. And the next day, secretly, unbeknownst to all of us, he's getting emergency passports in place to bounce out of the Bahamas. And he's sitting down with abc, NBC and CBS to try to, I guess, spread his word as wide as possible. But in the ABC interview, he talks about how his job was to look out for Lynette. Let me play this clip and then I'm going to talk to you on the other side.

[D]

I will always think there was something I could have done differently. My one job, my one job was to look out for her. And that has not happened. And I'm going to keep looking out for her now as best I can.

[A]

The husband of missing American woman Lynette Hooker, speaking out after he was detained in the Bahamas for five days in connection with her disappearance. What was it like being in police custody knowing that the search was still ongoing for your wife?

[D]

It was hell. It was a little a different chapter of hell and a giant hell that I'm in.

[A]

You're still in it.

[D]

Yes.

[C]

I don't have a wife. She belongs with me.

[B]

So many questions, but you just share your initial thoughts of all of that.

[C]

All right out of the gate. This, in this interview, I believe I'm right on this. The answer he's talking about there at the very first, where he starts just talking about, you know, he should be taking care of her and he's sorry he didn't get to. There was a question before that and the question was, what was the last thing you Two said to each other. And then he says all that, which has nothing to do with what they said to each other.

[E]

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[B]

Oh, no.

[E]

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[C]

So you have that, and there at the end you have that fake crying. I didn't mean to be smiling because it's, it's a bad situation, but it's so bad when you see that it's so not right because we don't see all the things engaging in his face emotionally.

[B]

You know it's fake crying.

[C]

Oh, yeah, that's. Yeah. And I'll tell you, every woman that watches this is going to say that's fake, as I'm sure you thought that as well. Because you all see things we don't see. And your brain gathers a whole lot more information than the male brain does a lot faster. And something tells you something's not right here. And I know that the women watching this are going to see that and go, oh, no, it's not right. Why do I feel that way? And that's why, because that's fake. And so what's missing from this is the grief muscle. This little muscle right here, these, the glabella, that little group muscles there. They'll group up and this one will push down and it makes this upside down horseshoe looking thing. And that's how you know someone's grieving. You see that when someone's lost a family member or when they're in a great deal of pain, they've been shot or hit by a car or something, you'll see that as well. So we don't see any movement in the chin, boss. This little section down here, that should come up when little babies start crying. That's one of the first things you see is that quiver. Yeah, a little chin thing goes up, makes another upside down horseshoe kind of thing there. Sore wrinkles a little bit. None of that.

[B]

So not even a quiver, but just an upside down horseshoe?

[C]

Yeah, you get a little. It's that thing goes first as the lips start to come down. Because those muscles all work in concert to make that that happens. We don't see Anything like that. We're not seeing anything engage for true sadness, the emotion of sadness in this. So he looks apprehensive. He's got these. We don't hear the things we're supposed to hear either when he's talking, you know, when he talks, there should be these gas gasps of air as you go through these. You know how it is when you think about something and you remember what's happening. You're discussing whatever the problem was and then you'll remember it again as you're talking about it. You'll go down through the conversation and all of a sudden you'll remember it again and they'll take gas gasps and he'll start hitting him again emotionally. None of that. So it's just pretty much straight. It's a straight fake affect he's got going on. There's sort of like a cloak of fake he's put on it because nothing really changes.

[B]

Can I ask you, like, I know a lot of times I struggled a lot with 911 talking to people about 911 for many years afterwards, even now, honestly. And when I'm overcome, I go silent. I'm unable to get it out because whatever's going to come out will be embarrassing to me. It's going to sound choked and weird and funny. And I. I just don't feel like I'm in control of myself. And so it's hard to continue speaking. Is there any of that that comes out with him or is that just unique to me?

[C]

That's what he's trying to. To make you think is happening. That's why he does that coffin thing. He can't pull it off.

[A]

You're still in it.

[D]

Yes.

[C]

I don't have. She Belongs With Me. And so I've seen that thousand times. They'll do that and they'll cough like that like he does. And he does it a couple of times in other interviews as well. So that. That just does not. There's nothing for me that's. That's real in that at all. It's so. It's so bad that the acting in that is so bad. I can see why people would see that and say, oh, you know, like as he's maybe. Maybe feeling that emotion, but in real life he's not feeling.

[B]

I did hear some people say he did quite a job and he. He was very believable, did very good job on his interviews with the network television. But I don't think a lot of those people see things the way you do. And I don't think anyone's as jaded as me, living this career that I've lived and basically facing killers left, right, and center. Not saying he is one. He hasn't been charged with anything yet. But the other thing that I noticed is that TV cameras can make people behave differently. And that has never been a friend of ours. You know, that you bring out a big TV camera, and everybody behaves differently. And if you're grieving, couldn't that really interrupt and muck with the results a little bit as well? The fact that there's this live. You know, or what he feels like is this live moment that he has to be on in front of everyone with a reporter and a microphone, and it could jade the way the real emotion would be.

[C]

Yeah, that's. That goes back to what I'm talking about, why it's fake. Because when we. When that comes on, you try to hold back a little bit. When people cry, they're not trying for you to see them cry. They're trying not to cry. That's what makes you cry, because you can see what's happening. You get like that, too. But this guy, he's trying to cry, so there's that. That the TV or the camera being there doesn't affect him at all. It just makes him want to act more. He knows that everybody's looking at him, so that's the stress he's feeling. It's not the trying to hold the emotion back. So nobody will see the way I'm really feeling, if that makes sense.

[B]

It does. And I never thought of the fact that you just said most people are trying not to, and they're overwhelmed with the sadness, and it's. It just blurts out her ugly cry, you know, like it comes out in an ugly way. But you're right. I never thought of it that way. That most people are trying to hold it back no matter what.

[C]

That's why you can't talk sometimes, because you're trying to hold it back. When. You know, when it comes. If it gets loose, it's like it's gonna sound. You know, you don't want to sound that way.

[B]

Okay, here is another clip I want you to take a look at. And specifically, this feels like Forensics 101 to me. But if you refer to your spouse in the present or past tense, it can be very revealing. Let's look.

[A]

Family and friends have spoken about your relationship with Lynette. We've seen a police report of a domestic incident that left you with a bloody nose and her in handcuffs. Is there Anything that you want us to know about your relationship with Lynette?

[D]

I want you to know that Lynette and I loved each other the most. We've been together almost half our lives. My sole focus is finding Lynette.

[B]

So, Scott, he said Lynette and I loved each other the most. Is that meaningful to you?

[C]

Yeah, because he's been talking about. This is. How long. How many days has she been gone?

[B]

Oh, it's not even. I think, nine days at this point.

[C]

Oh. So. Yeah, so it's over a week. And he's still. He knows she's not coming back. So a lot of times what will happen is. And you see it all the time when someone is talking about someone who's missing and nobody knows for sure what's happened to them. They'll. They'll talk about them in the past tense. They do it with little children. They do it with husbands, wives, whoever it is. They'll talk about. They love them or they were. He was such a good boy, or she was such a sweet little girl. And they'll talk about them in the past tense. And when that happens, everybody goes, okay, here we go. And you. A lot of times, you'll. You'll change your protocol and start going down another path once that happens. That's how important that is.

[B]

Yeah. I've always felt like past tense is right away the flag that you look for, because that's the last thing in your mind you want to be real, is that it's over, it's done, she's never coming back. You would just refuse to believe that if you really didn't want to believe it. There's another clip where Brian talks about what happened after that terrible moment where Lynette just bounced out of the boat. I want you to see how he describes it and see if there's clues in there that I don't see.

[F]

Okay.

[A]

Brian says on April 4, he and his wife had drinks at this inn. Later, departing from this dock, Brian in his own words, describing the moment he says she fell from a boat due to bad weather in the Bahamas and was swept away.

[F]

The wind blew us apart so fast that I think. I think she tried to swim back to the sailboat, to her. Back to our sailboat, which was probably, I don't know, a thousand yards or something, but the waves were three foot in.

[A]

A phone call to a friend made the day before he was arrested. Ryan Hooker, saying he tried to rescue her.

[F]

I threw her a flotation cushion that we used to sit on the dinghy. You know, right after she went in. But I didn't. I couldn't tell if she got. She got it or not. I'm never gonna forgive myself.

[B]

So what do you make of that?

[C]

There's no emotion in it. I mean, that. That. That's not the emotion that comes with that phone call. When he's talking about the things that happen. You're talking about your wife falling off a boat and it's your fault and you don where she is. And he's talking that calmly and that quietly, even though he's in the military. That's his wife. That's different. There should be emotion there and there isn't. There should be the heavy breathing there and there isn't. There should be pauses there as he thinks about what's happening and that isn't there. He thought about what he was going to say, but he never said it out loud or structured it to make sense. So that's why it sounds so disjointed and so odd. It's because he thought I'd give this idea out. She fell off the boat and da, da, da, da. Okay, I got it. I can do it. That's what happens when you start delivering that kind of all that information at once when you really haven't structured it and thought about how it's going to sound. So that's the problem there. No emotion along with all that.

[B]

And again, he's a former United States marine, But this phone call is coming like within a day of Lynette disappearing in such a tragedy. So, you know, the proximate. The proximity of the event to the explanation of the event. Is there something to that?

[C]

Yeah, because what you're. You're dealing with emotionally. And I keep. I keep focusing on emotions because that's what we should be dealing with. Unless we're dealing with it. I don't think this guy's a psychopath. But there should be more emotion there. Everything is. There's nothing there. That. That. That should be there or how I should word that everything is missing that should be there. In other words, you know, there's nothing. There's nothing there. From what he's talking about to what he's delivering to the way he's acting. Nothing's there.

[B]

Yeah. And by the way, the fact that he went on and on and on and on to Blaine and his wife Marnie. I mean, look, some people are chatty Cathys, but in your grief, would you just have verbal logaria for 40 minutes straight?

[C]

No. No. You'd say what happened over and over. If you're going to keep talking. She fell off the boat. This happened. I was just standing there. She fell off the boat. I'm sorry, I didn't mean, you know, she fell off the boat. That's what would happen. But he's trying to sell what he wants everybody to think happened. So he keeps setting up the. That's what I was saying about earlier. He didn't structure this. So he's got points he wants to make and he's trying to make sure that it makes a picture in their mind of what happened to her. That's why we keep hearing those repeated phrases. Sometimes he's trying to tell them his side of the story when there doesn't need to be a his side of the story yet.

[B]

You know, there's something interesting about that. Jim Todd from Fire and Rescue went out with him that morning. You know, he washes up at 4am Fire and Rescue pulls him on board at about 7:30am from the harbor where he had. Marsh harbor where he'd washed up. And they immediately take him to his sailboat where he spends an hour down below deck with a police officer and then they go searching and. And they're looking for the story from him. Jim goes up on the bow where, with Brian Hooker saying, is it here? Is it here? Is it over here? Where on. Where did it happen? You know, where do we start? You know, like, give us some. Give us some help here. And Jim says to us it was so strange that all he would keep answering is, I was just so confused. I was just so confused. I mean, I was just so confused. And they weren't hammered. They'd only had two drinks over the course of three hours at the Abaco Inn. So what do you make of the fact that he's in broad daylight when this supposed incident happens and he's back 24 hours later, not even 24 hours later, he's back 16 hours later in broad daylight. And I was just so confused. What do you make of that?

[C]

Well, if you have the minutiae worked out, if you start telling the little bitty things that happened, everything that worked that happened up to that point, that's a big deal because you're saying things nobody will remember. If he can't remember what side of the boat it was on, he can't remember what the basic details the police are asking him after a situation like that. No, that's not right. So again, he hasn't thought out what happened or how he's going to. He's thought about what happened, but he hasn't thought about his.

[E]

Lots of places can expose you to identity theft.

[B]

Oh, no.

[E]

That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity, which is way more than anyone can do on their own. If we find anything suspicious, like new loans or changes to your financial accounts, we alert you right away. All through text, phone, email, or the LifeLock app. Get the alerts that could make all the difference. Save up to 30% with promo code

[C]

[e-mail] terms apply defense on that. His alibi, in other words, he doesn't have that thing worked out yet. It may be a situation where he planned the whole thing, or it may have been a situation where he just saw his shot and took it. But he hasn't got everything planned out yet. Everything's structured to talk about. So that's why they'll say. They'll say, I don't know, I was just so confused. And when you hear that, that's why if he kept pressing him for other questions, hoping you would break him for something there for a minute, see if he could get something else out of him. Because quite often you can get in there and make them angry and certain personality types will pop off and they'll start saying other stuff and they'll let other things slip as they're mad, as they're yelling or getting all stiffened up and saying little things, defending themselves against that police officer.

[B]

Well, listen, this is fire and rescue. And at this point, nobody knows that this isn't tr. They're just thinking, oh, my God, we got to find this woman. Help us. Where? Where did it happen? Is it there? Is it there? Is it here? And you know, the fire and rescue guy has been through this rodeo a lot, right. He's had to go out and help find people. And he said, what struck me about this one was that he seemed to have so much else down pat later on, but this very large detail. He just couldn't seem to, you know, come up with something to tell me. Almost as though he wasn't expecting this question and was trying to think through all the possibilities of how it might not screw his other story.

[C]

Yeah, because when you lie, the first thing that happens, you have to have something that triggers your lie, and then you have to deconflict that lie. You have to think about, what have I said so far? Or what am I going to say that would conflict with what's actually already happened? What do they know? How am I going to. What if I say something that Conflicts with what they already know. So you've got to deconflict. And then after you deconflict it, you create your answer and then you send it out. So it takes a couple. There's that delay there. So I'm sure during all that, he's thinking about how he's going to deliver this and try and decide whether, how much they actually know. I know it's just the rescue guy, but you never know in a situation like that because he hasn't. He's probably not the smartest guy in the world because he hasn't thought that.

[B]

I guarantee you that. I guarantee you that. You know, fired from AT&T for cheating and lying and, you know, masking his GPS so that company didn't know where he was. You know, multiple times he was. They attempted to fire him three times he beat. He beat at them two other times to, you know, fight the firing. And then the third time was the charm. But the, the fire guy has been incredible. Like, boy, oh, boy, the fire and rescue Jim Todd has just been so good with his memory, with details. What he was wearing, how he was behaving. All of this stuff has just been like a, you know, it's been a gold mine for investigators. I want you to see this clip from CBS again. This is the parade of all the interviews where he was telling everybody how sad his life was. This was about continuing the search for Lynette. It's been again about nine days since she, so and so to speak, went missing off the back of the boat. And I want you to listen to his, his answer and how he answers.

[D]

I won't be able to stop looking.

[G]

Hours after being released by Bahamian police last night, Brian Hooker fought back tears as he sat down with CBS News and told us he wants to resume the search for his missing wife, Lynette.

[B]

You want to keep looking for Lynette?

[D]

I'm going to need somebody with more authority to tell me to stop.

[G]

Do you believe that Lynette's still alive?

[D]

I do. I believe. I've been told that people have lasted in the Bahamas after falling overboard for days and even weeks. My goal is to go back and speak with the Hopetown Fire and Rescue volunteers. They have been, I believe, still looking whenever they can.

[G]

Hooker says he and his wife left the restaurant at the abaco Inn around 7:30 the night of April 4th and boarded their dinghy to return to their sailboat, which was anchored a short ride away. He says Lynette fell into rough waters and started swimming towards their sailboat. While he drifted away from her on the dinghy.

[B]

What was it like to sail together?

[D]

Fantastic. We were more like co captains.

[B]

Well, that is convincing to someone like me, because it feels like he's catching his breath in sorrow and grief and frustration. Looks like he's real committed to this task, which, by the way, I guess 12 hours later, he's on a plane out of there. But we didn't know that at the time.

[C]

Yeah. What's he saying, though? I mean, I understand what he's saying. We understand what I'm saying, But that's just so cornball. You wouldn't get that. Cornball at that. In this time, in the timeline of things, when she's gone and you're here saying, I'll need someone with more authority to keep me.

[D]

Need somebody with more authority to tell me to stop.

[C]

Come on, man. You say, I'm gonna. Because nobody talks like that. He'd say, I'm gonna keep looking. I'm going right now. You know, if y' all want to come with me, you should come with me, because that's where I'm going. This guy should be. He should be a little bit jumpy, a little bit goosey trying to get out of there, and he's not. If he's that concerned about her, he would be sitting there trying to play up everything. And again, the things that are missing from there, it may look real. It may look somewhat real, but there's nothing there. That. There's somebody that's working on this case that sounded just like me. The. The me of that case. They're mad. They're all worked up and angry, too, and frustrated because it's laying right there in front of you, and you see it, how fake it is. So I. I'm getting worked up because it's. It just looks. It just looks so fake.

[B]

Oh, it's so bad, winding us all up. And here he is saying that he's gonna need a higher authority to keep him from searching for his wife. And he is behind the scenes of this interview. He's getting his emergency passport, and he's on the plane the next day.

[C]

Ah, yeah. So exhibit A, your honor. So. And again, these are just my opinions as well. I'm not saying those are facts. I'm just saying that's the way it looks to me.

[B]

Okay, so there's something else I want you to see. And this is Blaine Stevenson. These are the dear friends of Lynette and Brian's, who Brian has called to say, well, this happened. And Blaine, who is a Mariner and a live aboard. Right. Lives aboard his boat, knows everything about this kind of potential disaster. Is peppering him with a lot of questions and trying to get like clarity on something that just doesn't sound, you know, plausible. And here is the phone call again. You're just going to hear audio because it's a recorded phone call with Brian Hooker trying to explain what happened to his friend Blaine Stevenson. Have a listen.

[F]

So where were you guys coming from and going to? Because that's what I couldn't figure out in any of the Facebook articles I was reading, like how to do a grid pattern search. Like, I don't really understand the occurrence and tides here. I kind of rely on hope Toown the. Okay, so off of a place called Elbow Key and that's called Elbow, spelled Elbow K C A Y. And we were kind of in the middle of the key and there's a place called Tahiti Beach. It's really popular here. And it's a beach that dries out at low tide and so a barge runs up on it and serves drinks all day from there. And there's a lot of mana rays, won't go around your legs and everything and all of that. And so we really like that spot. And we had been kind of stuck in the harbor for a while, so we were getting out and about. We had to go to a different island called Great Guanaki to refill our scuba tanks. And it was going all right. And yeah, I mean, it's been strong Easterlies. And that's what you get here is the trades. Basically, you know, we're at the top of the trades. And so we were having, you know, basically 20 knot winds, steady all day with a couple gusts here and there. And where we were anchored was pretty quiet. But when we came out of this bar called the Abaco Inn, we came out of the channel and instantly got into the. Into the chop. So you guys were anchored outside Abaco Inn, like by White Sound or Joe's Kid? We were anchored out by just. We were anchored out, I would say a half mile south of the. Of the channel, the White Sound channel on Elbow Key towards Tahiti Beach. It's in a. We were at the south end of something called On Pat's Bay, like, like California and state and you know, westerner state and. But

[B]

okay, there's a lot to go over. The detail that comes out of this guy's mouth that has nothing to do with the question, which is very simply, so what, what exactly happened? Where were you coming from? And Going to. And suddenly he goes into. Several days ago, we were getting our scuba tanks filled at Great Guana Key. And, and, oh, and you spell key C a Y here. And the, you know, the, the. The Californians will say Aunt Pat's babe, but it's Aunt Pat here. I mean, what do you make of this unbelievable verbal diarrhea that has a

[C]

name, and it's called Chaff and Redirect. And one of my partners, Greg Hartley, is the one that actually put a name to it. And what that does is, for example, when a plane, fighter plane, is flying and they shoot missiles at it, it shoots chaff out of the back of the plane. Little things are on fire. Metal, aluminum things. So hopefully the rocket will think that's the plane. As these things fall away from the plane, the plane goes to the side and they're hoping that the rocket will chase the chaff and not the plane. So what happens is you throw out all that chaff in hopes that somebody will glom onto it like he did. He said he had to go back to. You were anchored where. When they started talking about that. So that is working for him. But at the same time, there's so much information there. You still have that big glob of here's all the things that happened that I've been talking about. Here's all the things. And he's creating time there for himself because he's saying, we're over here for this one part. And then he'll talk about how far away it was or what the water's like and what kind of fish are there. But he's creating time there in those situations. So when they left the place to when they got here. How long does that take? Well, he's talking about things that happened in between there.

[B]

So he's talking about days ago. I mean, they, they were filling up their scuba tanks at least two, maybe more days before all of this happened. Why would that even enter into the picture here?

[E]

Lots of places can expose you to identity theft.

[B]

Oh, no.

[E]

That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity, which is way more than anyone can do on their own. If we find anything suspicious, like new loans or changes to your financial accounts, we alert you right away all through text, phone, email, or the LifeLock app. Get the alerts that could make all the difference. Save up to 30% with promo code [e-mail] terms apply.

[C]

Because he's trying to get this guy to talk about something else. And he's got what's called inner dialogue going on up here when you hear those kind of things. We went and filled up the tanks and it was a beautiful day. He's trying. That's when you have that double thing going on where he's talking, but he's thinking about what he's got to say next. He didn't structure this thing. That's what I'm saying. He wasn't ready for any of this. Even after somebody's talked to him about it, he still didn't sit down and say, I've got to say it like this.

[F]

Right?

[B]

I mean, listen, he. He talked about. First of all, he said, well, we filled up our tanks. We've been stuck in the marina with bad weather again. This has nothing to do with the last two days that they've been on Elbow Key. They've been stuck in two days ago on Elbow Key and went to Great Goana Key, at least before that. And then he talks about. We were at Tahiti beach all morning. This has nothing to do with anything because they'd have to go all the way back and into Abacoin. And now. Now it matters because they've been on land for a couple hours having drinks. Now they get into the dinghy and head out through the white sound channel, and hell breaks loose. But he's just gone over everything that had nothing to do with this sort of crisis.

[C]

Yeah. Because he wants to talk about those things. He's hoping this guy will say, okay, which he did tell me about when you left there. Well, he would want to ask that question, but there's all those other things out there that he would hope that he would glom onto and say, what about this, what about that? And it's his way to take up time, not only create time for the things that happened, so he could say, well, we did that, but then it took us an hour to get there when it really could have taken three minutes.

[B]

So the famous phrase, thou dost protest too much kind of fits here, doesn't it?

[C]

Yeah. Yeah. Because there's just. There's too much there to fit into the story. Nobody talks like that. Nobody tell we. When. If I were to ask you what it was like when you went over there, tell me about that first day, you'd say, we did this, this, this and this. You'd know exactly what happened. You know exactly when it happened. You wouldn't be going on about the minutiae of stuff, you know, you wouldn't go on about that.

[B]

I wouldn't tell you about the flight over, that's for sure. The other thing with the. With the comments that he makes about Tahiti Beach, I am very disquieted by one of the comments about Tahiti beach. And you have to really catch it. So I'm going to give some advance notice so that everybody catches it when it happens. But he says we'd been at Tahiti Peach, it's popular. We'd hung out there all day,

[A]

met

[B]

people that later in the next few days, cool people. And you know how it is. People who. This is the thing that caught me. Met people that. In the next few days, cool people. Well, the next few days you've lost your wife. You're not thinking about anybody you met. And what happened with cool people in the next few days. Let me play it and let me get your thoughts on the other side.

[F]

Okay. And we had gone, whatever, half a mile or so, three quarters to Tahiti beach, where. That's the popular place. Hung out there all day, met people that later. The next few days later, cool people. And I. I remember, you know how it is. People that don't do what you think. Marty and Lydette, they think we're awesome. And I wax pontifical about having an authentic life. And it's authentic because there's risk. And then I lost my life that same night and probably feel like the gods were listening in. So you guys were anchored outside Abaco Inn, like by White Sound or Joe's

[H]

K.

[F]

We were anchored out by just. We were anchored out, I would say, a half mile south of Zoe, the channel, the White Sound channel on Elbow Key towards Tahiti Beach. It's in a. We were at the south end of the. Of something called On Pat's Bay, like. Like California and state ant. You know, Western or state ant. But. And we had gone whatever, half a mile or so, three quarters to Tahiti beach, where. That's the popular place. Place. Hung out there all day, met people that later. So the next few days later, cool people. And I. I remember, you know how it is. People that don't do what you. And Marty and Lynette, they think we're awesome. And I wax pontifical about having an authentic life. And it's authentic because there's risk. And then I lost my life that same night and probably feel like the gods were listening in.

[B]

Okay. So much there. There's the whole cool people, you know, that in the next few days, cool people. I want to talk about that first, and then I'm going to talk about the next part of it after that. What do you make of that whole cool people in the next few days?

[C]

That's. That's about him because he thinks they're cool people because they liked him. You remember what he talked about earlier? We said, I've lost my wife. And again he talks about, now I don't have my wife. It's all centering around him. So there's no. It doesn't sound to me like there's much empathy for her because he doesn't talk about her. And really, until the end there, you know.

[B]

But I mean, cool people in the next few days. What? In the next few days, your life ended. You shouldn't have been hanging with cool people that you met on the beach. I can't get past this. Like, I feel like he caught himself and changed what he was saying.

[C]

That will. There'll be someone looking into this will say that would suggest he's looking into the future before this. You see what I'm saying? So he's looking about. Once all this is out of the way, he'll be remembering what happened. So he's clocking these cool people, the people that liked him and those kind of things, because he's already placed himself away from this problem. He didn't think this was going to be a problem for him. He didn't think. He didn't think it would get this much attention. And everybody look at him and say, hey, wait on. Hang on just a second there, pal. Nobody says pontifical. I could.

[B]

I mean. I mean. So the. The rest of that is also really interesting because I think where he was going was in the next few days, maybe he had conversations with them, the cool people that he'd met on the beach, about this authentic life that cruisers live aboards have. I mean, they are living on boats for years on end. And a lot of people on the outside are very, you know, amazed by their ability to live this way. And Brian immediately goes to. It's authentic because there's risk. And I lost my wife that same night. I feel like the gods were listening. What is. What does this mean? This is only within, like two days of. Of this entire thing happening that he's saying these things.

[C]

Yeah, it's odd. It. It. Everything goes back to him. It's about how he feels, his feelings toward those people. Those feelings. Feelings of those people toward him. He lost his wife. You know, it's all about him. It didn't say, you know, my wife is. It just doesn't read right. Nobody talks this way when you're supposed to feel when those emotions that are supposed to be there, are there. There's just none there. From an emotional aspect, there's nothing there.

[B]

Overall, Scott, look, there's not a lot that we have on him. We've got these three interviews with the, you know, with the major networks and recorded phone call to his friend. But just overall, is there anything about the way he behaves that just could be unique or strange or, you know, a quirk with him where he just doesn't act like everybody else that we could be wrong in thinking, man, he sounds guilty.

[C]

Well, if you had, you could say that. If he was consistent with that, with his. With his feelings throughout these interviews, even though we haven't seen a whole lot of them, that it's been different every time. One, he's kind of coughing, he's talking, you know, he's getting a little. Looks like he's getting emotional. He doesn't sound like he's getting emotional. Other ones, he sounds a little emotional, but physically he's not emotional. It's not the same thing every time. When you have a case like or situation like that, there'll be the same thing every time. And this isn't. Everything's a little different every time. So I think that's because he's fighting to hide his true emotions and trying to create what he thinks is sadness and the things he thinks, a person who's missing a family member, how they should feel and act. That's what we're seeing him act like, what he thinks they should act like. And what do you think? It's not that. It's not it. What he's doing isn't the way to do it. So he hadn't done his homework, number two. And number one, I don't think he's a very smart guy. I think that's going to be the part that gets him, if that's just my opinion. But if he was to get nailed for all this stuff, that's going to be the thing that does. They'll be able to talk to him back, you know, block him in really early.

[B]

Well, and again, hasn't been charged yet. He's innocent until proven guilty. But I yell the word yet as loud and as often as I can because I don't see this guy having a lot more free time to roam about the cabin around the United States, that's for sure. Scott, thank you so much for this analysis. It's so helpful. I feel like you put your finger on the trigger with science of what I'm feeling in my gut.

[C]

Oh, well, thank You. That's what I'm trying to do. So I appreciate that, and thanks for having me on here. I really appreciate it.

[B]

Not the last time, that's for sure.

[C]

Oh, thank you.

[B]

My great thanks to Scott Rouse. I tell you what, it's so funny because everything he says I feel. I just don't know why I feel it. And then he actually puts the science to it, and it makes perfect sense. And so, you know, if Brian Hooker's watching or if, I don't know, his sister is watching or any other family members supporting him, you might want to start thinking about who it is you're supporting. Might want to start thinking about what kind of lawyer you got, because, bruh, you're gonna need a hell of a lawyer. I think what's coming your way is a world of hurt. It's not just a matter of will he be charged? Because he's not charged with a crime, right? Brian Hooker's not charged with any crime. Innocent until proven guilty. Not a matter of will you be charged. It's a matter of when. Tick tock. Sorry about the salty language. I just can't help it. I honestly am just so angry at this man. I can't stand people like Chris Watts who lie. And I'm not saying he's Chris Watts, but Chris Watts did do a bunch of media saying, my wife and children have left and they're missing, and they probably just left on their own.

[F]

Liar.

[B]

Liar.

[C]

What's going on right now around your house?

[H]

Right now, it's got canine units, the sheriff's department. Everybody's like, they're. They're doing their best right now to figure out, like, if they can get a scent, see where they went. If they went on foot, they went in a car, they went somewhere. And right now it's just like they've. They've been on point. They're going through the house trying to get a scent, and hopefully they can and pick something up to where it's gonna lead to something.

[C]

What happened?

[F]

Your wife came out.

[H]

She came home from the airport 2:00am and I left around 5:15. She was still here. And like about 12, 10 in that afternoon, her friend Nicole showed up at the door. Like, I had texted Shanann a few times that day, called her, say, you know, but she never got back to me. But she wasn't getting back to. Of her people as well. And that's what really concerned a lot of people is, like, if she's not getting back to her, like, she doesn't get back to me. That's fine. Like she gets busy during the day, but she get back to her people, which was very concerning. And Nicole called me when she was at the door and that's when I came home and then walked in the house. And nothing vanished. Nothing was here. I mean, she wasn't. She wasn't here. The kids weren't here. Nobody was here.

[D]

What's your wife's name?

[A]

Shannan.

[H]

That's the H A N N N Bell. And Celeste.

[A]

Celeste.

[H]

C E L E S T E.

[E]

How old are you?

[B]

How old are your daughter?

[H]

Four. Bella's four, Celeste is three.

[C]

And so how many times did you try calling her?

[H]

I called her three times, texted her about three times just to say, you know, what's going on. Like, I didn't. I could that for that, for the after I called her and text her once. It's like maybe she was just busy. Like she just got back, you know, like everybody's probably calling her from her trip. She just got back from Arizona and I figured she was just busy. But when her friend showed up, that's what it was. Like, it registered like, all right, this isn't right.

[F]

Do you think she just took off?

[D]

Do you think?

[H]

I mean, right now I don't even want to just like throw anything out there. Like, I hope that she's somewhere safe right now and with the kids, but I mean, could she have been, could she just taken off? I don't know. But if somebody has her and they're not safe, like I want them back now. Like that that's what's in my head. Like if they're safe right now, they're gonna come back. But if they're not safe right now, that's what, that's the not knowing part. Like if they're not safe. Last night I was at every light in the house on. I was hoping that I would just get just ran over by the kids running in the door and just like barrel rushing me. But it didn't happen. And it was just a traumatic night trying to be here.

[B]

You strangled her. You suffocated your own little daughters and then you stuffed their bodies into nine inch openings in oil tanks. I can't even get into the grisly nature of what it did to their bodies when you stuffed them through a hole, they were too big to go through. But it's disgusting. You did it to your own babies. And your wife was pregnant with a boy. And he professed to anybody who was listening. I just want her back. I just miss her so much. I miss them I wish they could come back. That's the last guy I saw who had tells like Brian Hooker has. Same kinds of tells. Not saying that Brian Hooker did anything to Lynette. He's not charged with it. But he sure does look like he has a bunch of consciences of guilt. Sure doesn't act like a grieving husband and father. Who would care so much about Lynette's daughter who he raised since she was three. Oh no, no. Ghosted her. Hasn't had a word to say since he left the Bahamas where he would stay forever until he found Lynette. Hasn't said a word to Lynette's mom, his mother in law for the last several decades. Not a word. Is that a grieving man or is that somebody who might tuck away the ice cream wrappers late at night? Consciousness of guilt. Tick tock Brian. So again, drop dead series infomail.com and thank you, thank you, thank you for being a part of our community. Don't forget to subscribe. It is huge. I know it doesn't seem like a big deal, it's super easy and it's free. But it is really big to us when you subscribe. And also like if you can hit the thumbs up, that's a huge thing for us as well and then join our members membership. That's big, big, big. And we have these really fun sessions where we, we do ask me anything goes on for like an hour and a half but it's a lot of fun. We've got a really great little community with Drop Dead Serious and you guys have helped so much in crowdsourcing this crime. Like cried crowd solving this crime and I say it's a crime. Then again, he's not charged with a crime yet. Don't forget, truth isn't just serious, it's drop dead serious.