Lynette Hooker’s daughter leaves Bahamas with mother’s keepsakes: ‘I was crying the whole time’

LOWELL, MASSACHUSETTS: Lynette Hooker’s daughter traveled to the Bahamas hoping to find answers about her mother’s mysterious disappearance.

Instead, she returned home with only a few personal items belonging to the missing 55-year-old.

Karli Aylesworth retraces Lynette Hooker disappearance, raises doubts

Karli Aylesworth, 28, spent two emotional days in the Bahamas last week retracing her mother’s final known movements after Lynette vanished from a boat near Elbow Cay on April 4.

Instead of finding closure, the grieving daughter said the trip left her more convinced that something about the night her mother disappeared did not make sense.

Aylesworth said she gathered the only pieces of her mother she could still hold on to before flying back to Lowell, Massachusetts. 

Among the items were a headband, a picture frame she had made for her mother, a handmade piece from her grandmother, and the gold “L” necklace Lynette was known to wear every day.

“I went and got some of her belongings, like a headband. I got her ‘L’ necklace that she used to always wear. I got a picture frame I made for her, something that my grandma sewed for her,” Aylesworth said.

Karli Aylesworth questions Lynette Hooker disappearance timeline

Aylesworth and her boyfriend visited the places where Lynette spent her final hours, including the sailboat she shared with her husband, Brian Hooker, and the island bar where the couple reportedly stopped for drinks just hours before she vanished.

The daughter later shared a heartbreaking selfie from the plane ride home. In the photo, tears filled her eyes as she wore her mother’s necklace around her neck.

After following her mother’s final known route, Aylesworth said the trip only deepened her concerns about Brian Hooker’s account of what happened that night.

“I retraced their steps from that day, and it just makes the story sound more sketchy to me,” she wrote in an update on a GoFundMe page created to support the search.

“I would like to head back down again soon if I can to not only remember my last times with her, but to also get to the bottom of what really happened,” she added.

Aylesworth later described standing in the place where her mother disappeared as overwhelming. “It was eerie, almost. I was crying the whole time,” she said.

Lynette Hooker disappears after boat ride near Elbow Cay

Brian Hooker, 58, has told investigators that his wife disappeared after falling from an 8-foot dinghy while the two were returning to their sailboat in rough waters between Abaco Island and Elbow Cay.

Lynette has not been seen since.

The couple had reportedly left the Abaco Inn earlier that evening. A bartender there, who was among the last people to see Lynette alive, also said parts of the story did not sit right with him.

“It’s weird … for him to be going from here to there, then ending up in Marsh Harbour and nobody sees the lady, it’s weird,” the bartender said.

He also questioned the timeline that placed Brian traveling for hours in strong winds before reaching shore.

“What catches my eye is they left here at 7, 7:30 and [her going missing] supposedly happened right after they left here, and he didn’t make it over there until 4 am or something like that, in 25-mph winds,” he said.

Brian Hooker questioned by Bahamas police in disappearance

Brian Hooker was detained by police on April 15 in connection with his wife’s disappearance but was released a few days later when no charges were filed. 

He has denied wrongdoing.

While in the Bahamas, Aylesworth said she spent nearly three hours speaking with investigators, who assured her they were continuing their work. She said police told her they were doing everything they could and asked her to allow the investigation to continue.