The daughter of Lynette Hooker has lashed out at her stepfather after he left the Bahamas while the authorities still search for the missing woman.
It shows he’s “not much of a man of his word,” Lynette’s daughter Karli Aylesworth, 28, told CBS News Wednesday after Brian Hooker left the island in order to reportedly deal with a family emergency in the US.
A source told Fox News Digital Brian, 59, landed in Atlanta, Georgia, and his lawyer Terrel Butler said he returned to care for his “very ill” mom.
This is despite him claiming his “sole focus” was to find his wife of almost 25 years – who disappeared on April 4.
“My sole focus is finding Lynette, no matter how likely or unlikely that is,” he said.
“This search for Lynette has been interrupted by the investigation. I understand that investigations have to take place, but I’m going as soon as I can to start finding Lynette.”
Brian, who was released without charge Monday after being holed up in custody for five days, said he intended to stay in the Bahamas until his visa expired.
Karli plans to travel to the Caribbean country Thursday to join the authorities in their search, which could be scaled back as early as today.
Authorities are running out of places to search after looking into the “tide, drift and wind,” Fox News reported citing an NBC report.
The US Coast Guard, who have already launched a criminal investigation, have sent its K-9 team to join the search, Advardo Dames, the assistant commissioner of the Royal Bahamas Police, told ABC News.
Brian has always claimed his wife, 55, fell overboard from the couple’s dinghy they were in during a doomed late-night trip back to their yacht “Soulmate.”
He has always claimed his wife was swept away by the currents – but Karli, who previously called for a “full and complete investigation” feared something more sinister may have happened at sea, alluding to Brian’s history of alleged domestic violence.
Brian has vehemently rejected such accusations.
“I said I’d never harm Lynette, and I never would harm Lynette, and I want to find Lynette,” he told NBC, recounting what he told cops while being interrogated.
“It’s been 10 days, it’s been a long time, I don’t think I’ve ever been apart from her in 25 years for this long,” he said through tears.
Brian, who “categorically and unequivocally” denies any wrongdoing in his wife’s disappearance, said he would try to hire a boat and plane so he can carry out his own search.
“I won’t be able to stop looking,” he told CBS News.
He also revealed he wants to believe Lynette is still alive.
“I believe I’ve been told that people have lasted in the Bahamas after falling overboard for days and even weeks,” he said.
“There are so many islands, there are so many sandbars, little atolls and spits of land. Of course you think about alternatives to that, but I’m not really capable of just turning away from this.”