The boat that Lynette and Brian Hooker were sailing up until she vanished off The Bahamas was seized by the US Coast Guard this weekend – while investigators sought a new key piece of evidence in the head-scratching case.
The couple’s sailboat, the Soulmate, departed Marsh Harbour and sailed north to the waters between Jupiter, Florida, and Freeport in the Bahamas on Friday, the vessel tracking website Marine Traffic shows.
The Soulmate had previously been anchored in the harbor since Lynette’s disappearance under mysterious circumstances on April 4.
But live tracking on the vessel stalled after the US Coast Guard reportedly took it into custody Saturday.
The sailboat’s current whereabouts, and what investigators were looking for on it, wasn’t immediately clear.
The Post released the first up-close images of the 45-foot sailboat – which flies a flag declaring, “A Pirate’s Life for Me” – during a visit to Marsh Harbour last month.
Lynette’s devastated daughter, Karli Aylesworth, discussed the ship’s movement and lamented her first Mother’s Day without Lynette in a tearful video posted to Instagram Sunday.
“It’s pretty hard right now to know that she’s not a text away anymore, and last week was my birthday on Sunday, so it’s been kind of a rough week honestly,” she said.
“Updates on Soulmate: the boat has [been] moved by two men that – neither of them are Brian – never seen them before, and they turned off their GPS so no foreign land can track them anymore,” Aylesworth said in the clip, adding that she believes the boat may be heading for Florida.
“I have not heard any news from the Coast Guard regarding this, so I don’t know what they’re going to do about it, if they’re going to do anything about it right now,” she added.
Soulmate’s departure comes as the Coast Guard Investigative Services recently released images of a mystery sailboat that may have been anchored next to Soulmate hours before Lynette was reported missing – and launched a search for those onboard, CBS News reported.
“The owners/occupants of the sailing vessel may have information relevant to the CGIS investigation,” an internal memo obtained by the outlet stated.
Lynette, 55, hasn’t been seen since her husband of over 20 years told authorities that she fell off an 8-foot dinghy while the couple traveled back to their sailboat in rough waters near Elbow Cay off the Abacos.
Brian was detained in connection with her disappearance but released days later, after investigators failed to file charges against him. He fled back to the US just hours later – despite previously insisting he planned to stay on the island and help in the desperate search for his wife.
He has denied any wrongdoing in Lynette’s disappearance.
Aylesworth has been outspoken about alleged discrepancies in her stepfather’s version of events from the night she went missing – and even traveled to Marsh Harbour to speak with authorities and retrace her mother’s last known movements.
“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 at the time.
Aylesworth has also claimed publicly that Brian, 58, was abusive toward Lynette.
But she hasn’t given up hope that her beloved mother will turn up alive.
“We are still hopeful that we will be able to find my mom.. this money will help our family go back to the Bahamas to get answers,” Aylesworth wrote Friday on the GoFundMe page, which has raised nearly $25,000.
