Last Photo of Missing Wife Alive Raises Serious Questions In Husband's Story | Lynette Hooker

Summary

Drop Dead Serious with Ashleigh Banfield

Episode: Last Photo of Missing Wife Alive Raises Serious Questions In Husband's Story | Lynette Hooker

Date: April 20, 2026

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Episode Overview

In this gripping episode, Ashleigh Banfield investigates the mysterious disappearance of Lynette Hooker in the Bahamas, focusing on the inconsistencies in her husband Brian Hooker’s account of what happened. Through detailed conversations with Jim Todd, a respected Hopetown Volunteer Fire and Rescue worker who spent significant time with Brian post-incident, Banfield dissects timelines, witness accounts, and physical evidence to question the plausibility of Brian’s story. The episode captures the tension between possible accident and suspicious circumstances, making listeners rethink how justice and search efforts unfold in real-time on a close-knit island.

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Key Discussion Points and Insights

Setting the Scene – The Day of the Disappearance

• Events Leading Up (05:11+): Brian and Lynette Hooker spent April 4th at Abaco Inn on Elbow Key, drinking and relaxing by the pool. A photo, timestamped at 6:34 pm, captures them sitting together. Surveillance video places them leaving around 6:38 pm.
• Brian’s Story: He claims Lynette fell overboard from their dinghy on the return trip to their anchored sailboat, Soulmate. He floated for hours, finally reaching shore at 4am. Cadaver dogs and search efforts began soon after.

Critical Timeline Inconsistencies

• Conflicting Departure Times (07:16, 60:04)
  • Brian asserts they left the Inn around 7:30 pm, though evidence shows them leaving closer to 6:40 pm, leaving more daylight than his story suggests.
  • “If the departure was notably earlier…then that’s different. The first version was leaving at dusk going to dark, but the new time set might make it from daylight going to dusk. And that’s really a completely different equation.” – Jim Todd [60:04]

Interview with Jim Todd – First Responder Perspective

• Initial Search & Observations (11:18–16:29):
  • Fire and Rescue mobilized early, found Brian with police at the dinghy spot before 6am.
  • Todd describes Brian as “like he had been hit by a truck or was in shock,” but not incapacitated. [13:54, 14:22]
• On the Bow with Brian – Contradictory Accounts (17:00–18:06):
  • Todd probes Brian on location details; Brian’s stories to the rescue team differ from those to friends and relatives.
  • Brian struggles to consistently locate where Lynette “went over” or which direction she was swimming.
  • “Brian said something along the effects of, ‘I can’t, I’m not sure. It’s just so confusing.’” – Jim Todd [18:06]

The Dinghy Incident – Technical and Probabilistic Issues

• The Controls, the Lanyard, and the Dry Bag (27:16–33:54):
  • Analysis questions the physical plausibility of Lynette grabbing the lanyard and dry bag as she falls unexpectedly.
  • “Virtually impossible. It’s approaching an impossibility.” – Jim Todd on grabbing the lanyard while falling out [29:33]
  • The dry bag, supposedly overboard, was never found despite being large and bright green.
• Life Jackets and Actions Not Taken (74:12–75:57):
  • Two life jackets present in dinghy—Brian could have grabbed one and jumped in or thrown anchor. Neither happened.
  • “Everybody would do it. The other is, short of panic and not being able to see the boat, nobody would ever swim away from the boat.” – Jim Todd [76:39]

Search and Rescue – Misdirection and Missed Details

• Crucial Missing Information (69:50–72:47):
  • Brian only ever described Lynette as wearing a black two-piece bathing suit, omitting her light green cover-up seen in the photo.
  • “No green cover up at all from beginning to end.” – Jim Todd [71:41]
  • Omission impacted search efforts and messaging among rescuers.

Weather and Conditions

• Real Sea State and Local Knowledge (36:59–39:03, 67:10):
  • Jim, dining nearby, recalls strong wind and rising choppy seas after 7:30 pm, speculating no boater would set out at that hour.
  • If weather was unsafe, Brian would be unlikely to have Lynette at the helm, conflicting with his narrative.

Brian’s Behavior and Emotional Responses

• Post-Incident Demeanor (46:00–49:57):
  • Brian presents as subdued, but “not inconsolable”, which Todd finds surprising for someone who just lost a spouse.
  • Only visible emotional distress: a silent sob, apparently unobserved by police, which Todd believes was “sincere.” [52:46–56:06]
• Lack of Initiative in Search (51:04–52:46):
  • Brian does not ask Todd for search team contacts, coast guard numbers, or search updates—the kind of desperate engagement one might expect from a spouse.

Timeline Revisited and Impact

• Sunset and Boatcraft Safety (61:42–66:36):
  • Daylight at 6:50 pm implies Brian’s story of sudden darkness and losing sight of Lynette doesn’t hold.
  • “Anyone who’s been around the water…is going to be careful to not go out in darkness.” – Jim Todd [61:42]
• Change in Todd's Opinion (60:04):
  • New info about timeline and cover-up compels Jim Todd to question the story's plausibility: "Some of the things of the story just don’t hold up."
  • “If you accept the story, you have to suspend belief on so many things that don’t add up.” – Jim Todd [78:11]

The Community’s Response and Human Impact

• Tribute for Lynette (79:33):
  • Local women hold a memorial with flowers on the Sea of Abaco, underscoring the community’s empathy and solidarity even for a stranger.

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Notable Quotes and Memorable Moments

• On discovering discrepancies:
  “The stories that Brian Hooker told Jim Todd on the front of the the search and rescue vessel, they're not the same as the stories that he told his friends on recording.” – Ashleigh Banfield [07:55]

• On not mentioning the cover-up:
  “Brian only ever described Lynette as wearing a black two piece bathing suit. No green cover up at all from beginning to end.” – Jim Todd [71:41]

• On ordinary rescue protocol:
  “If the green thing was close at hand, you throw that, you would immediately see that it flew into the air and didn’t do anything. You grab the second [life jacket], throw it like a discus… I would grab the last life jacket and go over the side.” – Jim Todd [75:06]

• On plausible boating behavior:
  “Anyone who’s been on a sailboat for a long time…is going to be careful to not go out in darkness.” – Jim Todd [61:42]

• On the required suspension of disbelief:
  “If you accept the story, you have to suspend belief on so many things that don’t add up. And the obvious, the original obvious thing is the one that requires so much disbelief.” – Jim Todd [78:11]

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Important Timestamps

• [07:16–08:16] – Timeline of Hookers’ departure and initial evidence of conflict
• [11:18–16:29] – Jim Todd’s initial search, finding Brian and impressions
• [17:00–18:06] – Bow conversation with Brian; inconsistent stories
• [27:16–33:54] – Discussion of dinghy mechanics, lanyard, and dry bag
• [36:59–39:03] – Weather and conditions at the time of disappearance
• [46:00–49:57] – Brian’s demeanor post-incident; lack of emotional engagement
• [51:04–56:06] – Brian’s lack of engagement with search; visible but private signs of agony
• [60:04] – New timeline information; Jim Todd’s shift in view
• [69:50–72:47] – The crucial omission: Lynette’s green cover-up
• [74:12–76:21] – Options available in the dinghy and what wasn’t done
• [78:11] – The necessity to suspend disbelief given the evolving evidence
• [79:33] – The community tribute for Lynette

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Episode Tone and Language

Ashleigh Banfield maintains her signature irreverent yet deeply investigative tone, balancing empathy and skepticism. Jim Todd is matter-of-fact, calm, and analytic—his credibility as a long-term local and rescue worker is underscored throughout. Both are persistent in questioning, making the episode both somber and compelling, especially for listeners coming at the story fresh.

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Summary

This episode takes listeners through the layers of mystery and ambiguity surrounding the disappearance of Lynette Hooker. By examining first-hand accounts, scrutinizing timelines, and highlighting missing or misleading details provided by Brian Hooker, Banfield and Todd together cast serious doubt on the prevailing narrative of accidental tragedy. The depth—technical, personal, and communal—makes this episode a must-listen for true crime fans and anyone interested in real-world investigative process.

Transcript

[Jim Todd]

Hey, he's back.

[Ashley Banfield]

Who hun?

[Jim Todd]

Sammy. The puppy I had when I was a kid. He's right there by the couch.

[Ashley Banfield]

Could this be related to his Parkinson's? What's Sammy doing?

[Jim Todd]

Wagging his tail. He wants to play.

[Ashley Banfield]

Stay calm. I, I, I don't see him. You really don't? No. But I know you do. This is the second time this has happened.

[Jim Todd]

Or is it the third?

[Ashley Banfield]

He came back to see me. That's the part that really breaks me. About 50% of people with Parkinson's may experience hallucinations and or delusions over the course of the disease. That can mean seeing things that aren't real and believing things that aren't true. Symptoms can worsen over time but but are treatable. Learn more at more to Parkinson's.com and take the screener to see if it's time to start a conversation with your doctor.

[Jim Todd]

Hey, he's here again.

[Ashley Banfield]

Oh, who hun?

[Jim Todd]

Sammy. The puppy I had when I was a kid.

[Ashley Banfield]

This is the second time he's seen Sammy. Could this be related to his Parkinson's? I don't see him hon. But I know you do. About 50% of people with Parkinson's may experience hallucinations and or delusions over the course of the disease. Seeing things that aren't real and believing things that aren't true. Symptoms generally worsen but are treatable. Learn more@mortaparkinson's.com and take the screener to see if it's time to start a conversation with your doctor. Hey everybody. I'm Ashley Banfield and this is drop dead Serious. And I'm coming to you again from the Bahamas. Not just the Bahamas, the Abacos Islands. Not only that, Elbow Key. This is Hopetown Inn and Marina where I'm coming to you from. And I keep saying their name and they're not sponsoring me. I'm not saying that. I only just want you to know that I'm at an inn that is a marina. So you'll hear people dining. Not far off. I'll just show you. You might not see it but the restaurant is right there. Super nice. So nice. And look at that Candy Stripe Lighthouse. I mentioned it before in another episode. I think it's one of the only or the only lighthouse that's operational right now that operates on kerosene and hand cranked. I love that show it to you again because it's really pretty and it's a thing. It's real tourist attraction. So you'll hear some people dining and every so often the Ferry will come in and like park right there as well, so you might see that too. So I've got great stuff for you today on the case of Lynette Hooker. She's missing. I mean I don't want to say presumed dead, but they're using cadaver dogs. So missing and presumed dead. At this point, Brian Hooker and Lynette Hooker were having a lovely day of drinking and fun off of their sailboat on land with a little dinghy to get them from the sailboat to land. And she never made it back. And he didn't make it back to his keel boat. He says she went overboard and he floated four miles to the nearest shore and ended up beaching at 4 o' clock in the morning. There were a lot of things about that that could be plausible and a lot of things that don't add up. And today I am going to tell you about a guy who spent the most time with Brian Hooker than just about anybody else. Certainly that day. Right. Brian and Lynette Hooker went to the Abaco Inn on Elbow Key for drinks. They got there around 4:30 in the afternoon on Saturday, April 4, day before Easter. And there you are, there's the ferry I told you about. And they had a few drinks for about 2 hours, 4:30 till about 6:30, 6:45 maybe. But not much later he had said that he'd left around 77 30, left much earlier. Not only does a picture stamp that I showed yesterday prove it, there they are sitting at the pool, 6:34. That came to us from Joe the fisherman who caught the mess of Wahoo and then shared that picture with me because he took that picture for his mom to show the beautiful waves and the beautiful environment and didn't realize he caugh Brian and Lynette Hooker. And that might be the last known picture of of Lynette Hooker alive. It was at 6:34pm on 4th on Saturday the 4th. Then they're seen on a surveillance video at around 6:38ish. I didn't see the video but Lynette's daughter and Lynette's daughter's boyfriend Steve saw the video and they said that the time stamp had them leaving right around that time. So, you know, fishy. Anyway, I digress. I want to tell you the things that Brian said to the fire and rescue officials who came and got him off the shore at 4 o' clock in the 5 o' clock in the morning, 5:30 in the morning and then toured him around to try to find his wife and get Back to his boat, etc. Etc. He said a lot of things to them before he stopped talking at all. Because when the police started asking him questions, they asked 94 questions. Take a guess how many he answered. Four. He answered four questions and then stopped talking. Lawyered up. Look, you have a right to remain silent. And you should. I always say you should. It's to protect the innocent. Honestly, anything can be used against you and twisted, so you got to protect yourself. But he stopped talking. Just want you to see the merriment that you're hearing in the background just so you're not missing anything. I don't want any FOMO Anyway, he didn't answer any more than four questions, but he sure as hell talked that morning on the fire and rescue boat. I shot these pictures with Lindsay when we went across. We used that little ferry that just left and we went across to the other side. This is the marina and the other side is where Hopetown is. And the fire and rescue boat parks there all the time. And that is the boat that the crew went out on that morning to start looking for Lynette and to rescue Brian from his, you know, castaway position on the shore of Marsh Harbor. So listen, it's really important to know that Jim Todd is a hell of a guy. He's a volunteer fire and rescue employee and just an all around solid citizen. And that doesn't come from just me interviewing him. Everybody says that around here. It's a solid small island and everybody knows each other, but this guy is a good guy. And he jumped into service first of all early in the morning to, to do this emergency, but then also to stand on the bow of that search and rescue vessel with Brian Hooker as they were heading across to point out where this happened. Right. Get in the boat. Let's cross over. It's about a 10 minute right across the Sea of Abaco. Show us where she went off. Right. And the stories that Brian Hooker told Jim Todd on the front of the the search and rescue vessel, they're not the same as the stories that he told his friends on recording. Right. And, and any which way he was talking on the phone with his stepdaughter Lynette's daughter, Carly Aylesworth, and the recordings with his pals. The stories are different. And so I love the fact that Jim Todd from fire and Rescue gets up on the bow with Brian Hooker. The police are, you know, back behind him. And Jim knows you got to ask these questions early. Right, because someone's going to lawyer up and never Talk again. So he started asking all the right questions, saying like point exactly where did it happen? Where did the boat go over? Did it go over there? Did it go over there pointing to land? Did it go over there in this vicinity? And what Jim Todd got was that it was effectively about 150 yards offshore, super shallow there. Right. That's like maybe six feet. And about a thousand yards that way was the keelboat, was soulmate, the, the, the 46 foot catch that they, that they were living on. But they were taking the dinghy into Abaco Inn for lovely fun and drinks and sunshine in the pool. And so Jim asked all the right questions on the bow and he got all the answers that were not the answers his friends got. And he also got demeanor. He just got the sense of what kind of person was he? How was he behaving just hours after washing up and just a matter of 12 hours before losing his wife. Right. Presumably in waters that have sharks. Not a lot, but some. Right. Here's a really critical piece of the puzzle. I interviewed Jim before we learn some critical new facts. Facts like a new timeline, you know, a photo that shows Lynette and Brian at the pool at 6:34 and surveillance video that Lynette's daughter saw and says they were walking out of the abaco inn around 6:38pm we don't know if they got all the way to the dock and into the boat and left, but we knew they were headed for the dock around 6:38pm and that's a whole hour or more before Brian swears they left the Abaco Inn. So close to dark that when she fell off the boat, it got so dark he couldn't see her. Yeah. So if you have an additional hour and 20 minutes of daylight, it kind of throws his whole story off. Not only that, we saw that Lynette was wearing a green bathing suit cover up. Yeah, he didn't tell that to Jim on the front of the boat. He just said she was wearing a two piece black bathing suit. He never said a word to anybody about Lynette's green coverup. And that profoundly changed how Jim felt about Brian's story. And so what you're about to see is Jim Todd's interview with me before he knew those facts. And then right after, you're gonna see how his feelings changed about Brian Hooker once he learned the new information that did not jive with the story he was being told on the boat. The timeline and the bathing suit cover up. And I can tell you this, Jim Todd was not happy that he did not receive the information about the green cover up because that changes how Search and Rescue actually does their job. What they're looking for, who they're looking for, the text chain that goes out amongst them, it changes everything. Right. He feels it's a misdirection on Brian's part. But wait until the end of Jim's interview because he also drops a few other pieces of information that are pretty damn critical and make a huge difference in this whole story that Brian Hooker has told. I want you to see now my conversation with Jim Todd. He's again with the volunteer, the Hopetown Volunteer Fire and Rescue Service. Take me from that first call you got. Easter morning, Sunday, April 5th.

[Jim Todd]

So just after 5:00, I got a call at home on our Hopetown Fire and Rescue Network that there was an emergency, a missing woman. So I went down to our boat, I joined three other guys and we in communication with the police through telephone voice message. We had an idea of where to start searching. So we left Hopetown harbor and went down to the area between Elbow Key and Lubbers Quarters. We searched the north eastern shore of Lubbers Quarters. And then based on the direction of wind, we moved north just a little bit and followed the wind direction toward the island of Great Abaco in the area of Marsh Harbor. And we understood that the police were at the boatyard at Marsh harbor in Calcutta. And we hit the mainland in our search boat and turned south, went past Calcutta and where the police were searching

[Ashley Banfield]

the shore where that dinghy was.

[Jim Todd]

We did not see the dinghy on that trip because it was too dark. No. Excuse me, I'm sorry. We did see the dinghy on that trip. We saw Mr. Hooker and another person who turned out to be a police officer.

[Ashley Banfield]

At the dinghy.

[Jim Todd]

At the dinghy. And then we returned to Calcutta. And then we're joined by more police and Brian Hooker.

[Ashley Banfield]

So this is around 5:30 in the

[Jim Todd]

morning, as I recall. We were out and I can definitely say we were out and searching before 5:45. And so we were probably still before, prior to 6:00 clock when we were going into Calcutta for the first time.

[Ashley Banfield]

And so once you've done this initial search, you end up with Brian Hooker on your vessel.

[Jim Todd]

Yeah, we did that initial search. We pulled into the boatyard, the police and Brian Hooker and several police officers. And Brian Hooker then went from the boatyard to his boat anchored off of Elbow Cay.

[Ashley Banfield]

So you're going across the Sea of Abaco with him on board. What Was your first initial impression when he was boarding your fire and rescue boat?

[Jim Todd]

I happened to be the person who assisted him getting from the dock onto the boat and had very brief interaction. And he struck me, as I would describe it, as like he had been hit by a truck or was in shock. And I thought to myself, well, he's been up going on 24 hours plus. So that's, that's made sense to me.

[Ashley Banfield]

And it's been a terrible night. This is the, the facts that you have at this early point? Yeah, yeah.

[Jim Todd]

Hit by. Yeah, hit by a truck is what came to mind.

[Ashley Banfield]

Were you able to talk to him at all when you were crossing from Marsh harbor back over to Elbow Key with him?

[Jim Todd]

The police were with us and so I wanted. Well, all of us on Fire and Rescue wanted to keep our distance and let the police do what they were going to do.

[Ashley Banfield]

So you now cross the Sea of Abaco, you're back over at Elbow Key. And do you go to the. The yacht that is moored there? I mean, or it's anchored, Actually, the throne anchor, Soulmate is just off of Aunt Pat's. Is that where you end up with him?

[Jim Todd]

Yep. It was in the approximate area of Ant Aunt Pat's. And we tied up the fire and rescue boat next to the vessel and the sailboat and Brian, a police officer, went onto the boat for about an hour.

[Ashley Banfield]

So you all stay the fire and rescue and a couple of officers stay on the fire and rescue boat, which is now literally flush with Soulmate tied up beside Soulmate. And one investigating officer and Brian get up on board Soulmate?

[Jim Todd]

Yes.

[Ashley Banfield]

Do they stay in the cockpit area outside or do they go down below in the cabin?

[Jim Todd]

They went below.

[Ashley Banfield]

How long do they spend?

[Jim Todd]

It's hard for me to estimate, but I would say about an hour.

[Ashley Banfield]

About an hour down below. And when they emerge, what's the next thing that happens?

[Jim Todd]

There was some conversation that I couldn't hear. They both, both individuals came back on the fire and rescue boat and then as we untie and separate from the boat, one of the police officers took pictures of the sailboat from 360 degrees.

[Ashley Banfield]

That's at the direction of the investigating officer to do so.

[Jim Todd]

Yeah, he. I can't. I don't recall what he said, but he had an interaction with him. Take pictures all around the boat, what appeared to be the senior person or a senior person.

[Ashley Banfield]

And so your search and rescue vessel now does a 360 trip around Soulmate, photographing every aspect of the. Of Brian Hooker's yacht.

[Jim Todd]

Yes.

[Ashley Banfield]

And Brian and Lynette's yacht. And then where do you go next?

[Jim Todd]

We. I'm not sure why we. I was not privy to the conversation. But we went in the direction of where we understood that the woman fell off of the boat. And so we were in that area. Brian Hooker was on the front of the boat. And I took it upon myself to go out and talk with him about exactly where he understood that to have happened.

[Ashley Banfield]

How long were you up on the front of the search and rescue vessel with Brian as you all sort of tried to establish where it was that he says she went overboard?

[Jim Todd]

I would say easily in the range of 10 minutes talking to him. Yeah. To say, okay, she fell off here. How close to land was that? Would she have flown? Would she have swum in that direction or would she have swam in this direction? It was that kind of conversation.

[Ashley Banfield]

And effectively you're trying to establish where did she go over, how close to land and how close to the Soulmate yacht.

[Jim Todd]

I was more focused on just the simple context of where to look. I can't say that I cared about where the sailboat was. I was just thinking about where should we look? If she went off here and we were this close to land, what part of land might it be? And so where should we be looking?

[Ashley Banfield]

Were you able to establish that?

[Jim Todd]

No. As I got. Well, I'll say. As I tried to become more specific, pointing at a particular piece of land. Could it be there or could it be a little bit further? Could it conceivably be behind? Brian said something along the effects of. I can't, I'm not sure. It's just so confusing. May not have been precisely those words, but the demeanor and the effect of his comments were. It's, I can't be sure. It's just very confusing. Hey, he's back.

[Ashley Banfield]

Who Hun?

[Jim Todd]

Sammy. The puppy I had when I was a kid. He's right there by the couch.

[Ashley Banfield]

Could this be related to his Parkinson's? What's Sammy doing?

[Jim Todd]

Wagging his tail. He wants to play.

[Ashley Banfield]

Stay calm. I, I, I don't see him. You really don't? No. But I know you do. This is the second time this has happened.

[Jim Todd]

Or is it the third?

[Ashley Banfield]

He came back to see me. That's the part that really breaks me. About 50% of people with Parkinson's may experience hallucinations and or delusions over the course of the disease. That can mean seeing things that aren't real and believing things that aren't true. Symptoms can worsen over time. But are treatable. Learn more@mortaparkinson's.com and take the screener to see if it's time to start a conversation with your doctor.

[Jim Todd]

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[Ashley Banfield]

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[Jim Todd]

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[Ashley Banfield]

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[Jim Todd]

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[Ashley Banfield]

The way Brian has told friends and accounts, it seems to authorities he can't he and Lynette came out from the Abaco in through the channel, took a left and started going south towards where Soulmate was anchored. Did he say how close he was to the channel when this incident allegedly happened?

[Jim Todd]

Yes, he told me that when he got to the or when they got to the end of the channel, they turned left at the last piling in the channel. They did not go further out to where there is a channel buoy for deeper seeking boats.

[Ashley Banfield]

Boats that have a more draft and need more deeper and need deeper water.

[Jim Todd]

So he said that he turned southward in the area of the last piling and I would have assumed that it was west of that last piling.

[Ashley Banfield]

How far out of the Abaco channel did he say he was when he had turned left? How far out had he made it before? He says she fell overboard.

[Jim Todd]

He didn't say it in the context of Feet or yards. But I was standing on the bow of the search boat and I pointed to a piece of water and say, you think it was right there? And I would say it was in the range of 50 yards south of that last piling in the channel.

[Ashley Banfield]

Very, very close to the channel.

[Jim Todd]

Yeah, much closer. Yeah, much closer to the channel than. Than to the boat, the sailboat.

[Ashley Banfield]

At any point did he think that he. She may have gone out in the channel?

[Jim Todd]

Nothing was said explicitly about that. At one point I asked, is it possible that it happened far enough east that she could have swum southward on the inside of this little peninsula? And again he kind of shook his head. More definitely no. But then, as was typical at that moment, he said, it's just very confusing. I can't be sure.

[Ashley Banfield]

Did he ever tell you that the last time he saw Lynette she was swimming for the yacht Soulmate?

[Jim Todd]

That was not said to me. He did say the last. He did say the last time he saw her she was swimming away from him. And frankly, in my memory it was to the land. But I couldn't dispute it if some. If he has said it was to the sailboat.

[Ashley Banfield]

And at that point where you've established effectively more or less where Lynette allegedly went over, it's about 200 yards from shore.

[Jim Todd]

No, I would say it would be less. Maybe in the range of 100, 150 yards. Maybe 100 yards, not 200. That would be the long slide side.

[Ashley Banfield]

Pretty close.

[Jim Todd]

Reasonably close.

[Ashley Banfield]

But Soulmate is how many yards away the yacht?

[Jim Todd]

Notably further and visually notably further.

[Ashley Banfield]

I've heard in the vicinity of a thousand yards.

[Jim Todd]

It could easily be that range. I would say that's right. Is in that range.

[Ashley Banfield]

If I'm overboard in choppy water, I am swimming 150 yards before I choose to swim a thousand yards.

[Jim Todd]

I would. If somebody had had told me, well, someone was either swimming to the sailboat or to the land, I would say you're mistaken. They're not going to the sailboat, they're going to the land.

[Ashley Banfield]

Sailboat too far.

[Jim Todd]

That would be. Sailboat's too far and the land was right there.

[Ashley Banfield]

So at this point you've established where the alleged dinghy incident happened. He's unable to be very clear about where she was swimming. He definitely did not tell you. The last I saw her, she was swimming for the sailboat.

[Jim Todd]

I have heard that statement made. I don't recall him saying that to me.

[Ashley Banfield]

Is there anything else he said when you were up there for about 10 minutes on on the bow of the fire and rescue boat.

[Jim Todd]

He said, no, no, it was all related in the neighborhood of what we've

[Ashley Banfield]

just said, I think just matter of fact, but unable to really pinpoint, did he say he was drunk the night before and that that's why he was having trouble remembering?

[Jim Todd]

Made no reference to drinking? No, no reference to drinking at all.

[Ashley Banfield]

Any reference to why he couldn't pinpoint the exact spot where it had happened? Because at 7:30, I've been out there, it's bright, it's. It's daylight, the sun hasn't set yet. You still have about a half hour until it's dark. And it would be really hard to see someone, right?

[Jim Todd]

Nope. No explanation of why you couldn't see better. No explanation other than no explanation about how they got separated. It was, in my opinion, it was very windy and the darkness, if their times were wrong, if it was more like 8 o'. Clock. And so instead of 7:30, I could see that being very dark, but I wouldn't have expected that. I wasn't there. So I don't know. But I wouldn't have expected someone falling into the water versus the dinghy to become separated so quickly. But it's plausible.

[Ashley Banfield]

There's a lot of incidents in the story that are possible, plausible, but maybe not the number one possibility. And so, you know, you got to give benefit of the doubt at all times. And in this particular instance, if Lynette were driving, if Lynette were driving, and Brian says she was, what's your theory on what would happen if you were to fall out of the boat when you have your hand on the tiller, on the throttle?

[Jim Todd]

Well, and I've actually seen this happen in a much different circumstance. But if somebody's sitting on the right side of the boat steering a tiller motor with their left hand, that's a big if, because I'm not sure of the circumstances here, but if they're in that situation, somebody lost their balance and got bumped off. The most likely thing would be to hold on to the motor for some period of time as they went over the starboard side of the boat. The geometry of the wind and direction is such that the boat would have turned into the wind as the individual went over the side. And as I pondered that, I thought that dinghy with that very small electric motor, I'm not sure of the size, but that dinghy with a very small electric motor would probably come to a

[Ashley Banfield]

stop very quickly and it would be turned into the wind at that point. Because if she dragged the Tiller, you know, towards her. Then the boat would turn to the port side and go upwind.

[Jim Todd]

And so in that case, if somebody is in the water, then the dinghy would be upwind from them, toward the wind. And it's impossible to say, but the wind would have, if what I describe is correct, then that would have blown the dinghy back towards her. Towards her. But if she was sitting on the other side of the boat, then my explanation would work against her.

[Ashley Banfield]

So I don't know, it's hard to tell. Of course we weren't there. Her daughter says she never drove, that Brian would always drive. But I've seen a picture of her actually on the right side, on the right sort of pontoon and she seems to be driving. She has her hand on the, the throttle and the tiller. One thing I did notice though is that the electric key does not have a wristlet. It's just a long string and Brian says she took it out with her. So what are the. What kind of a possibility is it that you've got your hand on the tiller because Brian says she's driving, you're getting bounced out, you let go of the tiller and you grab the string that's hanging down from the electric key.

[Jim Todd]

I would say that the probability of what you describe, of you're falling out and you grab the lanyard from the key, virtually impossible. It's approaching an impossibility. Another curious thing is that if someone has been on shore enjoying themselves at a bar and they're in a dinghy, that maybe it doesn't have a radio or a portable radio. Portable radio, like most would. It seems an odd thing that someone would have put the wrist lid on because they really were so close to the boat. There's only a 10 minute drive in the boat at most.

[Ashley Banfield]

I've seen the pictures. There isn't a wristlet on that key. It's just a straight, straight string that hangs down.

[Jim Todd]

Right.

[Ashley Banfield]

You'd have to, you'd have to grab for it and, and pull it out with you as you're being bounced out unexpectedly.

[Jim Todd]

You would.

[Ashley Banfield]

It's very difficult to do it.

[Jim Todd]

Although normal safety procedures is that that would be attached to your wrist if you're by yourself. So exactly this would happen if you're by stops.

[Ashley Banfield]

If you're with someone in the boat, you don't want to take that key out with you and render them unable to come and get you.

[Jim Todd]

Well, who knows, Right.

[Ashley Banfield]

So the other question is, Brian says she went out with the lanyard and the key and went out with the dry bag. So what are the. If you're driving, that's not a dry bag necessarily that you may be wearing. Maybe it is. I'd have to look at it. But what are the chances that you're gonna grab a dry bag and grab the lanyard, let go of the throttle and be bounced out unexpectedly

[Jim Todd]

when, if you were to fall out of a boat, it happens so fast you don't have time to think of anything. So virtually unheard of that someone would have the presence of mind or the thought that, oh, I need to grab that.

[Ashley Banfield]

A couple on the way out. A couple of things.

[Jim Todd]

It happens so quickly that you don't. Even when something like that happens, you don't perceive it happening. You go from the state of driving the boat to the state of help me, bam, I'm in the water.

[Ashley Banfield]

Yeah, yeah. It's hard to understand that that dry bag. I've seen a dry bag of a similar color and he has described a dry bag the same color as the seat cushion green. And I've seen a picture of that dry bag in the boat. I'm not going to say it's the dry bag, going to say a very similar looking dry bag in, in that, in that dinghy. That's the kind of bag that's big enough to see. It's not a small purse that you would take to a water slide. Say it's not that kind of a dry bag. It's a dry bag that would probably float.

[Jim Todd]

I happen to not have experience with using a dry bag, but I know that it's sealed for water and if there was a big puff of air inside, I can see that it would float. And at some point in the searching operations. Well, when we found the green cushion, Brian said, oh, look for the green dry bag as well. Which of course we did look in that area of the cushion and did not find the back.

[Ashley Banfield]

Would you expect to have found the dry bag if it went overboard? Again, it's got passport in it. It's got critical things in it. Not sure why they would have taken the passports to shore, but okay, it's going to be sealed if your passports are in it. If you're in a dinghy sealed from the water, absolutely. Would. Would you not expect that you would find. Either find the dry bag, wash up on shore or be able to see a dry bag that's this big? You know, it's about a foot, a foot long by about a, a foot and a half long by about a foot wide. Would you not see it in that very shallow water.

[Jim Todd]

Well, if it floated, I would certainly expect it to be in the range in the area of that green cushion. If it sank. The water geography gets really large very quickly, and it's very hard to find things underwater.

[Ashley Banfield]

Something that bright, though. Something that's that bright green.

[Jim Todd]

Yeah. I guess if it had sunk, I would put the probability of finding a sunken dry brag even bright at fairly low.

[Ashley Banfield]

So the next thing you do is you leave that location that you have tried to determine where this incident happened, where Lynette fell over. Tell me where you go from there. You've got police officers on board, you've got fire and rescue on board, and you've got Brian on board. Where do you go from there?

[Jim Todd]

So we go westward toward the island of Great Abaco island, the area of

[Ashley Banfield]

Calcutta where he says he drifted the whole way. Nine hours.

[Jim Todd]

Right. And we are. Well, me personally, I'm aware of the wind and testing the reasonableness of that. Simply in the context of where we should be looking, should we be looking on Lubbers Quarters, which is nearer? Or could.

[Ashley Banfield]

Could he have cleared it?

[Jim Todd]

Could he have cleared Lubbers Quarters and then gone to Great Abaco Island? And either one is very reasonable to me.

[Ashley Banfield]

And to be clear, Great Abaco island is where Marsh harbor is.

[Jim Todd]

Yeah, we typically call it the area around here as Marsh harbor, but it's a larger island. And in fact, we frequently refer to that island as the mainland. So we go back with Mr. Hooker, with police officers. We get in the same range of where we. Where his dinghy was. We turn south and reinspect that shoreline. And at some point, one of my colleagues on search and rescue hands me binoculars up to the top of the boat and says, jim, check out that. But we see that green thing over there. Could it be afloat? Using the binoculars, it looked like it, yes. Could easily be afloat. It was a little bit hard to identify it for shape because of the reasonably great distance of, oh, probably easy 100 yards because it was shallow and extremely rough on that shore. So it was a reasonable possibility that, yeah, that was it. And though I was not. I don't believe I was present. I think there was conversation among Brian Hooker and the search and rescue people to say, okay, that's a possibility, that that could be the float.

[Ashley Banfield]

Did Brian take the binoculars and look and see if that was his float?

[Jim Todd]

I did not see that take place.

[Ashley Banfield]

And to be clear, the float that we're talking about is the float that Brian says in many different formats Whether it's to friends or to the police. He threw the green float to her and did not know whether she ever got it because he said she was bobbing up between two to three foot seas. Did it seem like there were two to three foot seas possible at 7:30, 7:45 at night just 150 yards offshore from Elbowkey?

[Jim Todd]

To me that's reasonable. I happen to be in that area at a restaurant with my wife and daughter and granddaughter. And at about that time frame between 7:30 and 8, I happen to have a clear memory of the time because I arrived late just before 7:30 and it was getting dark. And very quickly as I sat at the dinner table, the wind kicked up to the point that it was a touch unpleasant. And so I knew it would be rough out there and it would be an evening where no one would be out on the Sea of Abaco in their boat.

[Ashley Banfield]

This is, is it at 7:30 or 8 when you notice that this is getting bad out there?

[Jim Todd]

Well, I'll say that I arrived at the dinner table which was outside very shortly before 7:30 and it was a short time later that I noticed how windy it was. Could it have been 7:45? Yes, but it could have been 8:00 o' clock also.

[Ashley Banfield]

Okay. some point. But it was getting dark. Yes, I've noticed it's 7:45 not so bad. It's dusk, but at 8 o' clock dark. So somewhere in between there.

[Jim Todd]

Yeah, yeah.

[Ashley Banfield]

And you would say that's bad out there. You didn't see a lot of boaters either at that time. Right.

[Jim Todd]

I would expect to see zero boaters out there on that night. To me it was rough enough that no boater should be out, but yet

[Ashley Banfield]

there would still be people on anchor.

[Jim Todd]

Oh yeah. When I say no one should be out there on a boat, I mean a boat underway, but a sailboat or a power boat on anchorage. It was not bad weather. It was not dangerous weather for boats that were anchored. You would want to stay on your boat to be safe.

[Ashley Banfield]

You wouldn't have wanted to be in the eight foot dinghy that Brian and Lynette Hooker had that night. At 7:30-8:00 clock at night, 150 yards offshore from Elbow Key.

[Jim Todd]

For me it would be a definite no.

[Ashley Banfield]

Yeah, well that's saying a lot. You're, you know, your fire and rescue think all those natural products you're buying are from wholesome mom and pop companies. Eh, not quite. Many have been bought out by mega corporations and private equity firms who hijack the brands and load them all up with corporate slop. But one company is doing things differently. The Van man company. They started the grass fed tallow trend a few years back with moisturizers and they've been crushing it ever since with their nearly edible products. Tallow works because its fatty acids are nearly identical to the oils in our own skin, so our bodies actually recognize it. It can replace your lotion, your night cream, your wrinkle cream, even Neosporin and diaper balm. And it's powerful enough to heal your skin, yet safe enough to spread on your toast. Real ingredients ready to ditch the corporate chemicals. Just go to Vanman Shop Banfield and use my code banfield to get 15% off your first order. Again, that's Vanman Shop Banfield. Use my code Banfield. 15% off your first order. You can always go to the description, click the link right there. Van man, real ingredients, no exceptions. You know, you know a thing or two about voting. You've lived in this community long enough.

[Jim Todd]

Yeah.

[Ashley Banfield]

Yeah. Back to the shore. Did Brian ever identify that green? Was he able to ever look up on shore and say that's it

[Jim Todd]

on that Sunday, on that first Sunday he saw it at a distance and expressed something of that could be it on Tuesday. On Monday I was not able to search. On Tuesday my wife and I were able to search. We went over in our boat, got in our car and drove to the area of where we saw the cushion. And in fact we found it.

[Ashley Banfield]

And, and he confirmed. Brian confirmed that's it?

[Jim Todd]

Yeah, he confirmed. That is definitely it. And there was a kind of an odd break where one might grab it, almost like a handle where it was broken. In other pictures I've seen of their dinghy, I can see that float with that broken handle. And because I saw that handle broken, I, when we found it, I asked Mr. Hooker if he saw his wife grab it and he said no, he did not see his wife grab it.

[Ashley Banfield]

When he threw it, did he mention two to three foot Cs?

[Jim Todd]

I don't recall him mentioning two to three foot seas to me.

[Ashley Banfield]

One to two foot seas or anything?

[Jim Todd]

Yeah, I can't say, yeah, nothing about the height of the seas, but it would have been common conversation talking about how rough it was.

[Ashley Banfield]

Did he ever say, I saw her and then she'd disappear and I lost track of seeing her in between the waves.

[Jim Todd]

The only thing he said in the context of what he saw, he said, I saw her swimming away.

[Ashley Banfield]

But he couldn't say away to land or away to the yacht.

[Jim Todd]

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[Jim Todd]

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[Ashley Banfield]

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[Jim Todd]

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[Ashley Banfield]

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[Jim Todd]

See Shell Us More Protection for more information. Well, when I talked to him on the front of the boat on early on Sunday morning and it was daylight, I was very explicit to say to point at a body of water, this is where you think it happened. And he said yeah, it's confusing, that's the area and described the last piling in the channel. Then I pointed at the shore in three different places because the shore was so close it was obvious. It seemed obvious to me that if she didn't come right for the dinghy, then you would go for the shore. I pointed to three areas of the shore and his response was more along the lines of I just can't say for sure it's confusing but never said

[Ashley Banfield]

no, not sure she was going the other way to the yacht.

[Jim Todd]

I do not recall that at all. That's correct. That's correct. I do not recall that because one

[Ashley Banfield]

direction is she's swimming west to shore or she's switching swimming south to the boat. And he can't articulate either one.

[Jim Todd]

Well, I would say if she was swimming to the shore, she was swimming southwest and if she was swimming to the boat, then that would have been, let's call it perfectly perpendicular to the shore rather than an angle directly to the shore.

[Ashley Banfield]

And he could not articulate that, that

[Jim Todd]

regarding the, regarding the land, the comment was, this is confusing. I, I just can't say. I just don't know.

[Ashley Banfield]

So you had another opportunity to be with Brian after this, this entire day that you'd spent with him. Talk to me about the next time you spent time with Brian.

[Jim Todd]

So later in the day, it may have been noon, it may have been one o', clock, I got a message that Brian would need a ride back from the Marsh harbor area to his boat. And the request went out. Who's available? Well, I was available. So I went to Calcutta where we had originally met the police. So being on a Sunday, it was quiet, particularly such a windy weather day, there was not a lot going on. So. So I went in, tied up, waited just a very few minutes and the police came and dropped him off. I walked with him on opposite side of the fence to the entryway on a Sunday, and then we walked a pretty good distance back to the car. First thing he said to me was, in your experience, how often do you find the person alive? And I told him that every case is different. I'll be honest that I haven't been on a lot of these cases looking for a body. Looking for a body.

[Ashley Banfield]

But you didn't want to say that you didn't want to upset him.

[Jim Todd]

That's right. And you know, obviously every case is different. So we go get on the boat, we discover in the course of the 15 minute ride back to his boat that we're both in the. From the west Michigan area area. And I felt awkward having casual conversation with someone who very likely lost his wife in 12 hours. Earlier, his demeanor struck me as someone, I think I may have said it earlier, someone was in shock and had been hit by a car, hit by a truck and was despondent. His demeanor was subdued and despondent, devastated. Well, I would extrapolate from that. And I did think to myself that if I was in a similar situation with my wife, I would be inconsolable and unable to function. People would have to be with me to hold you up, hold me together. And that's not what his demeanor was. And, you know, everybody is different, but that. I did notice that.

[Ashley Banfield]

So did you have much conversation as you did that crossing to. To get him over to the Soulmate yacht? That's his home. The Soulmate yacht is where he lives.

[Jim Todd]

So, no, we had. I tried to. I guess you might say I threaded the needle of pleasant conversation to minimal conversation because of. I certainly don't want to be chatty when he's dealing with whatever he's dealing with. So it was mostly quiet. But I asked, you know, where he was from and, and where he kept his boat in Michigan, how long he had been sailing. He said at one point, he said, I don't even want to sail anymore. And what was unsaid without his wife, he said, I don't even want to sail anymore. And that's certainly understandable and reasonable to feel that way.

[Ashley Banfield]

When you reached Soulmate to drop him off, what happened next?

[Jim Todd]

I tied up on the boat for just a minute as he scrambled onto his boat. I don't remember how the conversation initially started, but he was concerned about retrieving his dinghy that was still on the beach. And it was too. The weather was too rough to get access to the dinghy. It was just. It was too dangerous.

[Ashley Banfield]

And dinghy back over on Marsh harbor, four miles away, right? Yeah. Across abigo sea.

[Jim Todd]

Yeah, it's too. It's way too dangerous to retrieve it by water. And so I. We traded numbers and telephone numbers and I told him that I would reach out to people who may have the ability and the time to assist him on the following day.

[Ashley Banfield]

You gave him contacts to help get the, the dinghy back?

[Jim Todd]

Yeah, I think what I actually did is I took his contact information and sent it to someone.

[Ashley Banfield]

Yeah. Did he ask, though, about what's happening now and how can I get connected to the search efforts and be a part of it and, you know, who's in command?

[Jim Todd]

Did he ask those questions on that day on Sunday? I don't recall him asking. Asking those kind of questions. We may have talked about people searching in different areas, but we didn't have any significant conversation about it. I may have commented on people searching different areas, but there was no in depth comment.

[Ashley Banfield]

Did he ask for contact information to get to Coast Guard Search and Rescue anybody who'd be trying to find his wife?

[Jim Todd]

Not on Sunday.

[Ashley Banfield]

On Sunday.

[Jim Todd]

First day.

[Ashley Banfield]

Listen, Sunday is, is like you said, within 12 hours of this all happening.

[Jim Todd]

That's right.

[Ashley Banfield]

But he didn't, he didn't ask what's happening, what's happening? In the search, where do I contact someone about this?

[Jim Todd]

I do not recall him asking that, asking me that. That's correct.

[Ashley Banfield]

Is that odd?

[Jim Todd]

Well, again, I could only put myself in that position and I think I would have been desperate to know how many boats are out there, where are they? I'm now back on my big boat. Who's going to come pick me up to take me out? And maybe it's unfair for me to take my feelings and to project them onto him, but that's certainly how I would have felt.

[Ashley Banfield]

You want to know what, what's happening

[Jim Todd]

with the mission and, and be very actively a part of it.

[Ashley Banfield]

Makes sense. Was there any point in all of your time that you spent with Brian Hooker in those days after Lynette allegedly went overboard where you saw a moment of emotion, even understanding? Some people are stoic. He's a U.S. marine. Was there any point where you saw just something that showed a man in, you know, emotional distress?

[Jim Todd]

Yeah, particularly kind of an extreme expression. When we had left his boat with police officers, we had come back to the Marsh harbor area. We had done the search to find and saw what would. We would then learn was the green float. We dropped the police and him off in the boat harbor for them. Him then to go with the police for four or five hour interview session, I presume. When they got back up off of the fire and rescue boat onto the dock. I saw him double over, put his hands on his knees with a face, with an expression of agony on his face, hanging his head and just a silent, A silent cry of agony on his face. And then approximately that time, not immediately, but that same time frame, he was then standing up straight and looked up at the sky. And I don't mean to say he was looking up at the sky in any meaningful metaphysical way, but was looking skyward. And I saw what was coming clearly a silent sob of agony.

[Ashley Banfield]

Was there about a half dozen police officers and fire and rescue personnel who were in the vicinity?

[Jim Todd]

Yes.

[Ashley Banfield]

Was this in direct view? I mean, I always ask, was this performative? Did he want people to see him doing this? Did he have his back to them? If you had to gauge, did he want people to see this or was he trying to hide, hide himself from people seeing this? What would you say?

[Jim Todd]

I don't want to gauge that, but I'll say kind of the geography was that he had gotten up on the dock, the police officers were primarily over his left shoulder and I was primarily over his right shoulder. And I happened to be watching him. So I saw those Things I can't say for sure, but I felt like the police officers happened to have not been watching him. And I would say they happen to have not observed that, but that's just my snapshot of my memory.

[Ashley Banfield]

Would. Would they have been able to see this? Like did. Was Brian positioned in a way that the police officers could see his agonized look or did he try to hide. Hide that agony from the like. Were the officers behind him and unable to see his face?

[Jim Todd]

They were behind him. And if. If it was not genuine? Well, they were behind him and it would not be likely that they would be able to see the front of his face. They would have seen his silhouette from the back.

[Ashley Banfield]

But you happened to be kind of in front of him.

[Jim Todd]

It happened to be. My angle was that I could see and it struck me as a terrible moment. And sincere.

[Ashley Banfield]

It struck you as sincere in the moment. Was there any other observation that you made in all of this time that stood out to you or that you thought was noteworthy?

[Jim Todd]

Nothing comes to mind. On Monday afternoon, Brian reached out and texted me with a question about searching. And I felt like it was a request for me to take him out searching and I wasn't in a position to do that. And I suggested that he contact the. Which was where his boat. Where he had. Near where he had relocated his boat.

[Ashley Banfield]

He had a mooring ball there. He was actually he and Lynette spent a lot of time. They paid for mooring ball at the Concin.

[Jim Todd]

Right. And those, those people have deep connection. They're. They're local Bahamians. They have deep connections. And I felt like that would be a great place for him to start if he wanted to charter a 30 foot boat with a captain to then take him wherever he wanted to go.

[Ashley Banfield]

Any idea if he did?

[Jim Todd]

I never heard about anything like that.

[Ashley Banfield]

Did Brian at any point say what Lynette was wearing when she went overboard?

[Jim Todd]

Yes, on Sunday morning, there was a lot of description, a lot of discussion about the description of the individual we were looking for. And it was black bikini or a black two piece bathing suit is what she was wearing. That's what we were searching for.

[Ashley Banfield]

Bathing suit cover up.

[Jim Todd]

No conversation about a cover up at all. But repeatedly, a black two piece bathing suit.

[Ashley Banfield]

One question a lot of people have, especially people who aren't from here and think, well, it's the Bahamas, there must be sharks. Is there a robust. Is there robust shark activity in the area where Brian alleges Lynette went off

[Jim Todd]

the boat in the precise area where she went Off. I have never seen any sharks and I think, in fact, sharks are not. I don't know why sharks are not attracted to people swimming in the water because they don't look like food to them. But if someone, if it was a body rather than a swimmer, I think that might look different to a shark. And between, as you approach the mainland on what that journey of the dinghy would have been, some of the locals say, oh yeah, that kind of sharks do go through there. And the speculation was it's possible she

[Ashley Banfield]

was eaten by a shark that's in the middle of the Sea of Abacos, say past Lovers quarters. Is that what you mean?

[Jim Todd]

West of Lovers quarters.

[Ashley Banfield]

West of Lovers quarters, meaning if she followed the same track that Brian went, she would have drifted past Lovers Quarters into the area where they say there's a.

[Jim Todd]

Right where there's sharks. Well, there's sharks in transient one place or another, wherever sharks go. But again, we have a shark bite incident multiple years apart, so they're not commonly around.

[Ashley Banfield]

It's again, possible, not totally plausible.

[Jim Todd]

Right.

[Ashley Banfield]

Yeah. Jim, things have changed since our last conversation at the Hopetown Inn and Marina. There's new information from the timestamps and the video that Lynette's daughter Carly and her boyfriend Steve saw that show Lynette and Brian walking out of the Abaco Inn and towards the dock at 06:38 ish. That changes things for you.

[Jim Todd]

Yeah, it really does. It changes it a lot. Because the initial story of leaving at 7:30, plus maybe I gave some grace to say that 7:30 could easily become 7:45. And then as you approach 8O', clock, it's very dark at 8O'. Clock. But if the departure was notably earlier, and really I'm saying now what I'm describing is if the departure was from 6:45, really all the way up to 7:30, then that's different. The first version was leaving at dusk going to dark, but the new time set might make it from daylight going to dusk. And that's really a completely different equation. And some of the things of the story just don't hold up.

[Ashley Banfield]

Well, listen, the dinghy ride out of the white sound channel, away from the Abaco Inn, out the white sound channel, take a left, head towards Soulmate. That whole dinghy ride is around 10 to 15 minutes. And if you're leaving. And again, I got to be careful because we don't yet know no, they're leaving the inn. We don't see the video of them getting in the boat and going, maybe they went for a walk. Maybe they had a chat on the dock, maybe they sat on the beach for a bit. But if they went right to the boat and got into that dinghy and took off, that would put them at the spot where he said they, that Lynette went over at maybe, maybe 6:50, let's just say 6:55 and I could get a suntan at that time.

[Jim Todd]

Yeah, absolutely. And I think I've had a thought that maybe is a little bit independent of a dependence on the timestamp of that video. Anyone who's been on a sailboat for a long time, anybody who's been around the water, anybody who has a fragile craft is going to be careful to not go out in darkness. So I can't imagine someone not being tied. I mean, it's. It's well known that sailors watch the weather. They watch the sun go down, they avoid going out at night. It's just, it's just not done in a fragile craft. There's no reason to press it. And there's no moon that night. I think the moon came up at 10:10pm so if he's heading up that

[Ashley Banfield]

white sound channel at around 6:50, it's 6:50pm where you are right now as we are recording this. And it is a bright sun behind you.

[Jim Todd]

That's.

[Ashley Banfield]

That's right. That means there's no way you would lose sight of someone in the water as though it were too dark to see. Not for almost another hour.

[Jim Todd]

That's right. It's total daylight here. Total daylight. When you run a business, there are a lot of boxes to check.

[Ashley Banfield]

Let's see. Payroll, check inventory check insurance.

[Jim Todd]

Ugh. Well, good things. Simply Business makes getting small business insurance fast and easy. Just answer a few questions, review your quotes and get covered in under 10 minutes all online. It's that simple. Check insurance off your [e-mail] Running a business means checking a lot of boxes.

[Ashley Banfield]

Let's see. Payroll check inventory Check insurance.

[Jim Todd]

Ah, good thing Simply Business makes getting small business insurance fast and easy. Check insurance off your [e-mail] when you run a business, there are a lot of boxes to check.

[Ashley Banfield]

Let's see. Payroll, check inventory check insurance.

[Jim Todd]

Ugh. Well, good thing Simply Business makes getting small business insurance fast and easy. Just answer a few questions, review your quotes and get covered in under 10 minutes all online. It's that simple. Check insurance off your [e-mail] youm compare

[Ashley Banfield]

prices when shopping for flights, hotels, cars. So why not small business insurance? At Simply Business we'll show you policies that fit your business and a range of prices to help you save. Who knew buying insurance could be so simple? Visit simplybusiness.com for your free quote today. And like bright daylight.

[Jim Todd]

Yeah, yeah. And it. And it will be for another 45 minutes. And I think.

[Ashley Banfield]

And that's a lot of grace. 45 minutes. That's a lot of grace because again, it's only about a 15 minute trip max in that little 2 to 4 horsepower from the Abaco Inn to the Soulmate where it was anchored.

[Jim Todd]

And, and to me, here's a dilemma that's unanswerable or a problem either way. Brian said that his wife was driving the dinghy. Right. And I understand that her daughter Carly has said that he didn't let her drive the dinghy. Well, he probably did. He happened to mention to me when I was with him and returning him from Marsh harbor to his boat, he happened to mention to me a point of pride as a point of independence that his boat, Soulmate had not been tied up to a dock in a marina in two years. In two years it had always been on a mooring ball or at anchor. Well, if the boat has been for two years on a mooring ball at anchor, Lynette would have learned how to drive the boat. Maybe she didn't drive it a lot, but she would have been competent at it. That's just the reality of being on a sailboat for two years. So now let's go back to that night at approximately 6:30 or 6:45 or 7:00'.

[Ashley Banfield]

Clock.

[Jim Todd]

Sure. Typically men drive. Of a sailing couple, the man might be the one most common to drive the dinghy. But if a man were to pass the controls over to his wife, that would be an indication that the water was very safe, that it was daylight. Here's a good time, here's a nice occasion for the wife to take the controls and I can relax. So if she was driving, it would have been in hospitable conditions.

[Ashley Banfield]

I never even thought of that. But you're right. I mean, listen, I'm a proficient boater and I think if Chris and I got in the dinghy together and the weather was rough, I probably would have ceded that to him because you just have to be a little stronger holding on even to that little light engine. You just have to be a little bit stronger.

[Jim Todd]

Yes, that's exactly right. And so if it was getting a little dark, if it was very windy, like I feel like it could have been at least later, then he would have said I'm gonna drive. 99.9% of all men would say, this is tough. I'm gonna drive.

[Ashley Banfield]

And he says 2 to 4 foot Cs, Jim. He says 2 to 4 foot Cs in that. By the way, neither of them would have been driving in 2 to 4 foot Cs in that little dinghy. But let's just say they got caught in 2-4-foot C when they came out of white sound channel. I do, I do believe you're right. I don't think that the weaker person, be it a man or a woman, would have been at the helm. I think the stronger U.S. marine would have said, let me take over here. This could be. This could be Harry.

[Jim Todd]

Absolutely. I would go so strong so far as to say no way in bad weather would he not be at the controls. And if there's another, the assertion that she was at the controls means that the weather was nice. And then to me, that's sort of the dilemma question. If she was at the control in nice weather and she goes overboard, he can see her. There's none of the mitigating circumstance of dark as ink, high waves lose sight of her quickly. All of those things that sort of make sense, they don't exist. If she was driving, he could have seen her. And no one, no one without panic and no one without panic is not gonna throw an anchor out. The anchor is in the bottom of the dinghy getting in the way. It's impossible to. The anchor wasn't stowed and I didn't think of it. I didn't see it. The anchor's in the bottom of the dinghy in the way in daylight, it's

[Ashley Banfield]

right at your feet. Yeah, it's actually hard to step around in daylight. It's a, It's a big anchor, you know, yay big. It's. It's big and it's in your way.

[Jim Todd]

In daylight, without panic and without intoxication, then that everybody will do exactly that. Throw out the anchor. Maybe with a little frustration, maybe with a little. Damn it. We got a little situation to resolve. In good weather, if she was driving and it was good weather, it would be hardly, almost a non event. Throw out the anchor, she swims to the boat.

[Ashley Banfield]

Let me ask you another issue about his story that I think has changed since we've learned more from our prior interview, since we spoke with you last. We learned from the last known photo of Lynette alive that she was wearing a light green bathing suit. Cover up. That's not something we knew before. What did Brian tell you when you asked him very specifically as a search and rescue representative, what was your wife wearing when you last saw her?

[Jim Todd]

Yeah, yeah. On Sunday morning early in the vicinity of 6:30 or 7:00 clock out in the area where he said the incident took place. Me and others are on the dock and we repeat what we had already been told, what was she wearing? And the answer was a two piece black bathing suit. I'm 100% confident that that's what he said, partially because when he said that, and I'll be honest, shame on me, when he said that I thought that's odd. Women less than 30 don't walk around at a little at a seaside place like the Abaco Inn with no.

[Ashley Banfield]

Without a cover up.

[Jim Todd]

So that struck me as odd. But I wasn't thinking, obviously I wasn't thinking investigation, I was thinking

[Ashley Banfield]

experience.

[Jim Todd]

Just, just what are we looking for? He said it was a two piece black bathing suit and so we did. Now as I Did he say that,

[Ashley Banfield]

did he say that multiple times? I mean he must have been asked multiple times what was the last thing you remember seeing her in? What was she wearing? And never once did he say anything other than a two piece black bathing suit.

[Jim Todd]

That's right. The only thing I can attest to is I, I clearly remember it one time on the bow of the search boat. Now I heard it as a searcher multiple times. I heard him say it one time.

[Ashley Banfield]

And what does that mean? I heard it as a searcher. Multiple. Tell me about that.

[Jim Todd]

As a searcher, people telling each other what are we looking for? We have a text message that says woman fell over, black bathing suit, that kind of thing.

[Ashley Banfield]

But no green cover up?

[Jim Todd]

No green cover up at all from beginning to end.

[Ashley Banfield]

So he didn't say it to you that she was wearing a green cover up and he didn't say it to anybody else of record that she was wearing a green cover up so that that could get into the zeitgeist and help people find her.

[Jim Todd]

If he said it to somebody else, it did not get into the zeitgeist.

[Ashley Banfield]

Yeah, and it would have, right? It would have. If he'd said it to someone else in the search team or with the police, you all would have, you would have known.

[Jim Todd]

Yeah. On that morning that was a critical incident. Maybe to the good. Is that because he said the float that we were looking for was a bright green. We were attuned to green. So if we had seen the green cover up then we would have zeroed in on it. Because it looked like the float. So I don't think that we actually lost an opportunity to search effectively. But he definitely on Sunday morning said nothing about a cover up. It was only a black two piece.

[Ashley Banfield]

The. I want to drill down a little more than we did last interview, and that is that he mentioned to you he was absolutely not intoxicated like you characterize. For me, the discussion about, you know, when he was all confused and didn't know where she went over and couldn't really pinpoint the location. Did you talk about alcohol? And if so, what did he say?

[Jim Todd]

We did not talk about alcohol. He did express that confusion and not being able to figure out what happened, as you say, I concluded that he must have been very intoxicated. It was the demeanor of someone who may have been very intoxicated. Then subsequently, when I came to understand that they apparently only had two drinks spread out over a period of time. And when Ken the bartender said that, oh, I would. When I'm characterizing Ken's words, no, I wouldn't call him drunk. Maybe tipsy at most.

[Ashley Banfield]

That makes me think that surprised you?

[Jim Todd]

That makes me think that, okay, he was sober and functional and anybody in that boat would have been able to perform effectively. For example, we found out. Another important point to me was that you told me that there were two life jackets in the boat.

[Ashley Banfield]

Well, in the bottom of the dinghy.

[Jim Todd]

In the bottom of the dinghy, he would know that they know that there's two life jackets there in good weather or really bad, but in good weather, something happens. He threw this green cushion that's so flat it would have sailed like a sheet of paper. Well, there's another life jacket there. You could pick that up and throw it sideways, kind of like a discus, and it would have more force so you could get more distance on it.

[Ashley Banfield]

Or. Or I'll give you another scenario. If the pf. You know, if the life jacket is too light and it feels like a sail, put it on, grab the other one, jump overboard, swim to her, worry about the dinghy later, you're both safe and you both get to shore, no problem. Or put your life jacket on, grab the other one, grab the other end of the anchor line because the anchor's in the boat and you'll be able to keep it, you know, keep it close to you and jump over. None of that.

[Jim Todd]

Well, that's.

[Ashley Banfield]

I would look for the painter. I would look for the line that you tie up to the dock, and I would tie it around my ankle and swim out to the Person.

[Jim Todd]

Yeah, My scenario is slightly different, but what you describe is exactly, exactly right. You throw it. If the green thing was close at hand, you throw that, you would immediately see that it flew into the air and didn't do anything. You grab the second one, throw it like a discus. You would have gotten some distance. If that's not effective again, throw the second life jacket. I would, I would grab the last life jacket and go over the side and go over.

[Ashley Banfield]

You're only 150 yards from shore. You're a U.S. marine, you can manage this. Don't worry about the dinghy. You're not going to be in the middle of the ocean and both die. You're going to get her, pull her to shore and then hopefully the next morning flag someone down and say, help us and let's find our dinghy. It's probably over on, you know, lovers.

[Jim Todd]

Yeah, that's the problem with. She was driving and so it must have been reasonably good weather where you could see and so they could see each other. So worst case, grab the life, the last life jacket and go over the side because you're only 10ft apart.

[Ashley Banfield]

So I don't, I can't explain it either. But I'm glad that we have been able to have this second interview since our first because again, I didn't want to put your interview out at the time. You didn't know the information. Neither did I. We found out subsequent. So it's changed the dynamic of how you feel. Is there anything else you want to add?

[Jim Todd]

Yeah, well, we already essentially covered it in, in anything other than black and panic. And they weren't, as we understand, there wasn't enough alcohol to create panic and confusion. I don't think the obvious thing for anybody in the boat is to throw the anchor. It's so overwhelmingly obvious. Everybody would do it. The other is, short of panic and not being able to see the boat, nobody would ever swim away from the boat. If she's been around boats, it's just impossible that she would swim away from the boat. Blackness, total panic. His voice is gone. Sure. Who knows what's going to happen? But with her driving and him sober, I don't believe it was that black ass pitch night scenario that I initially evolved to. Yeah, you know, it's like when we first started searching, we went with the most logical action and I think that that made sense. A woman is over the side. What do we know about where it is or where it could be? And we search that complicated theories didn't make sense compared to that. Well, time has passed and now we've sort of switched regarding what the complicated theory is. If you accept the story, you have to suspend belief on so many things that don't add up. And the obvious, the original obvious thing is the one that requires so much disbelief.

[Ashley Banfield]

Jim, thank you. I can't tell you how much this means to not just me, but our viewers, but also, I think, to the U.S. coast Guard investigators who are looking at every one of these inconsistencies.

[Jim Todd]

Well, hopefully. Hopefully it all comes to something. It was very meaningful to see your video of Carly and to see her suffering. She's lost her mom. Regardless of the circumstances, she's lost her mom. And that could have been my two daughters. And the community here, you know, they feel like they feel a connection to Lynette now and could have been our sister, could have been our mother, could have been our daughter, could have been our wife. And there's a lot of love and compassion going toward Lynette and her family.

[Ashley Banfield]

They deserve justice. Thank you so much, Jim.

[Jim Todd]

My pleasure.

[Ashley Banfield]

I want you to see what happened on Saturday, April 18th. Saturday, April 18th is the two week mark from the day that Lynette was last seen alive at the Abaco Inn. These ladies, these women that got together and they don't know Lynette, they just decided she deserved a tribute. In Flowers on the Sea of Abaco. They held a little service. They've shown me the video and they've allowed me to send it to Lynette's daughter Carly and Lynette's mom, Darlene. But they didn't want to publicize the service that they held. They gave a few words and essentially just said that, you know, we didn't know you, Lynette, but we feel you deserve a tribute. And they donated these flowers, they donated the boat. A couple of the women who were on board said a few words and put these flowers into the Sea of Abaco in a tribute to Lynette. And I cannot think of anything more kind and sweet and fitting. And it really does tell you about the people on Elbow Key. They just. They're like this. They're just really, really nice.