American boater Brian Hooker was previously accused of threatening his spouse with ‘an accident’ – years before his current wife Lynette mysteriously vanished during a dinghy ride in the Bahamas, the Daily Mail can reveal.
Explosive court documents uncovered by the Daily Mail paint a disturbing picture of Hooker, describing allegations of violent outbursts, porn use, harassment, and physical abuse during his second marriage to Elizabeth Hoseth.
Hoseth, who died aged 64 in June 2024, successfully obtained a personal protection order after claiming the former Marine had threatened her during their bitter divorce.
The newly unearthed details of Hooker’s turbulent past have emerged as federal authorities continue to investigate the disappearance of Lynette, 55 – Hooker’s third wife – who vanished on April 4 after the couple left a waterfront restaurant aboard an eight-foot dinghy.
Hooker, 58, told authorities his wife was jolted out of the dinghy in choppy waters as they headed from the island of Elbow Key to their moored sailboat, Soulmate. He claimed he was unable to rescue her because the outboard engine cut when Lynette went overboard with the engine’s kill switch attached to her.
The experienced yachtsman then spent eight hours reaching safety on the neighboring island Grand Abaco with one paddle, he said.
Hooker has not been seen publicly since returning to the US following five days of questioning by Bahamian police, and a friend recently suggested he may have left the country. Through his lawyer, he has denied any wrongdoing.
Now, court filings reveal Hoseth’s allegations against her husband bear striking similarities to claims made by Lynette’s daughter Karli Aylesworth who previously told the Daily Mail her mother confided that Hooker once choked her and threatened to throw her overboard.
Newly uncovered court documents reveal disturbing allegations made by Brian Hooker’s ex-wife during their bitter divorce more than two decades ago
Hooker’s second wife Elizabeth Hoseth, who was married to him from 1997 to 1999, sought an order of protection claiming he had been abusive to her and threatened her with ‘an accident’, court papers reveal. Hoseth died in 2024 at the age of 64
Aylesworth has also cast doubt on the claims that her mother accidentally went overboard – instead believing she made it to Soulmate ‘where something may have happened’.
And decades earlier, court filings show Hoseth feared for her safety as well – and reported it to police.
The couple married in February 1997 in Kentwood, Michigan, and shared a young daughter before Hoseth filed for divorce a little more than two years later in March 1999 citing an irretrievable breakdown.
By October of that year, court filings show she feared him enough to seek a personal protection order to a judge in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The request was denied.
In it, she wrote: ‘In our most recent phone conversation, he suggested that I not mess with him, that there could be an ‘accident’.
‘I tried to get him to elaborate… he just said “everyone knows how I am, there could be an accident”.’
But a month later a second attempt at Kent County Circuit Court succeeded.
In a handwritten letter submitted in the application Hoseth wrote: ‘The reason that I am requesting the PPO is because my husband has a violent temper.
Hooker’s current wife, Lynette Hooker, 55, vanished in the Bahamas on April 4 after she fell out of their eight-foot dinghy in strong winds. He has not been charged
Hooker told police his wife was tossed into shark-infested waters as they headed from dinner on Elbow Cay to their moored 50ft sailboat Soulmate
‘In our most recent interaction on Oct 2, 1999, he threatened me with an “accident”.
‘On this date I had to involve the Kentwood police to have our daughter returned from visitation. I filed a report with Kent Co. Sheriff’s Dept concerning his threat!
‘I have many reasons to consider his threat real!’
Hoseth then wrote damningly: ‘During the course of our marriage he drank, indulged in pornography and was verbally, emotionally and physically abusive to me.
‘I have been kicked, pushed down, spat on by him. He also during his “rages” would destroy things such as rocking chairs, telephones etc… My walls have plenty of “marks” left by him.
‘He was also verbally and emotionally abusive to my first 2 children from my first marriage.
‘He is also a thief. He took the equity check from my house, forged my signature, cashed it, and kept the money.’
The order banned Hooker from entering Hoseth’s home, ‘attacking, beating, molesting or wounding’ her, ‘threatening to kill or physically injure’ her and taking away their child.
Hooker has denied wrongdoing in connection with Lynette’s disapperance through his attorney
Hooker’s sailing yacht, Soulmate.
The ex-wife later asked the court to amend the PPO with extra conditions, but this was denied.
She claimed in that filing that Hooker was obsessionally harassing her and ‘has been to my place of employment, looking for me, checking my work schedule, harassing me over the telephone, both at work and at home.
‘He even couldn’t refrain from making lewd remarks in the hallway outside of Judge Leiber’s courtroom in the presence of both of our attorneys, she added.
‘Whenever he doesn’t think things are going his way… he will threaten and harass!’
The divorce judgment in October 2000 gave Hoseth physical custody of their daughter, but shared legal custody.
Yet there was continued conflict over parenting. A 2001 filing revealed Hooker had moved on romantically.
Further filings indicate the partner was Lynette, whom Hooker would later marry.
The filing said: ‘Defendant is in a long-term monogamous relationship. The minor child has expressed affection for the defendant’s partner and her four-year-old daughter.
Soulmate was taken to a secure US Coast Guard compound in Fort Pierce, Florida, after it was intercepted in May while being moved by two men from Marsh Harbour
Special agents from the US Coast Guard Investigative Service searched the junk-strewn yacht in Fort Pierce, Florida in May – after Hooker was taken in for questioning
‘At no time has any lewd or lascivious behavior been exhibited before any of the children. The defendant plans to cohabit with his partner in the near future.’
Hoseth and Hooker married just three years after his first wife Deborah filed to divorce him in January 1994, with the judgment coming through in December that year.
Hooker’s first wedding was in November 1989 at Twentynine Palms, in the Californian desert and the site of the world’s largest US Marine base.
He and Deborah, who went on to remarry and now has the last name Winter, had two children currently aged 36 and 34.
Now aged 54, she declined to discuss Hooker at the rural home she shares with her husband just outside Grand Rapids.
The revelations follow a claim by one of the 6ft 4in former Marine’s close friends that he may have left the United States after the seizure and extensive search of the 50ft Soulmate by federal investigators in Florida.
Hooker was initially held for five days by the Royal Bahamas Police Force after Lynette vanished and underwent two intensive grillings before being released. He was not charged with any crime.
He tearfully vowed to stay and search for her as he walked free, then immediately flitted back to the US and has not been seen publicly since.
Lynette has not been found despite extensive search efforts by Bahamian and US authorities. Her daughter Karli Aylesworth (pictured) has questioned Brian Hooker’s account of what happened
Aylesworth previously told the Daily Mail that her mother had confided in her that Hooker had once choked her
Hooker and Lynette were on the fourth year of a sailing adventure they were documenting on social media after leaving their home in Onsted, Michigan.
It had started in Texas before sailing around Florida and into the Caribbean.
But at times, tension on the voyage was so great that they split briefly in 2024 when Hooker allegedly attacked his wife while they were off Florida’s Gulf coast.
Aylesworth, who lives in Lowell, Michigan, told the Daily Mail: ‘I went down to Florida and mom told me he choked her and she felt something pop in her neck.’
She also revealed her mother bought a one-way ticket to Florida just three weeks before she vanished ‘because of the tension between them’.
Fatefully, she decided not to use it.
Hooker’s version of events that night have also been seriously questioned by experts as well as family.
Soulmate was moored a short distance from the shoreline south of The Abaco Inn where the couple had dinner and left around 7.30pm.
However, Hooker told authorities Lynette vanished north of the eatery.
The couple had been documenting a years-long sailing adventure around the Caribbean on social media before Lynette’s disappearance
Despite her happy pose, Lynette had been considering leaving her husband and had even bought a one-way plane ticket back to Florida three weeks before her disappearance, her daughter said
‘Where Brian said this happened would have meant they had gone in the opposite direction to the sailboat after leaving the inn’s marina,’ said Aylesworth. ‘Turned right instead of left. It doesn’t add up.’
The daughter believes shore-based security footage showing flashes of light around the boat 17 minutes after the couple left dinner and at midnight may be a clue that there was activity on it.
‘It’s kind of weird that they couldn’t make it to the boat,’ she said. ‘They were right there.
‘They could have almost walked in the water to the boat from the Abaco Inn, it was really shallow. And it was relatively sheltered from winds there too.
‘I kind of feel like they were on the boat… the lights going on around the boat. I feel like they probably got to the boat and something happened on the boat.’
GPS data extracted from one of Hooker’s electronic devices in May showed a track of the device’s movements that did not align with what he told investigators.
That prompted a new US Coast Guard search of a different area, but with no result.
Hooker’s timescale has also come under scrutiny.
The Daily Mail has revealed ‘missing hours’ and other troubling inconsistencies that fateful Saturday night and Sunday morning.
In particular, the roughly four miles between Elbow Key and where Hooker washed up near Marsh Harbour Boat Yard on Great Abaco should have taken around two hours, not eight, because of prevailing winds and current, local experts told us.
Additionally, security footage viewed by the Daily Mail captures Hooker arriving at Marsh Harbour Boat Yard around 3.35am on April 5.
He had tied up the dinghy in an area known as Calcutta before walking across rocky shoreline and mangroves to reach the yard.
The footage shows Hooker wandering around in a blue shirt, dark shorts, flip flops and a cowboy-style hat as he calls for help. At one point he casually glances down at his watch.
But at no point in the footage seen by the Daily Mail did he immediately raise the alarm about his missing wife.
Night security guard Edward Smith found Hooker. He said the boater told him: ‘My wife was thrown out of the boat. We were drinking, we were drunk. I should have known better.’
Smith said Hooker claimed he had tried to paddle back toward Lynette but was blown away by strong winds.
The guard continued: ‘I asked him, where’s your wife now? He said, she’s still in the water. I immediately stopped talking and called 911.’
Smith recalled Hooker appearing ‘more exhausted than emotional,’ adding: ‘He wasn’t crying or anything. There weren’t a lot of emotions.’
Hooker’s attorney in the Bahamas, Terrell Butler, has previously told the Daily Mail: ‘He categorically and unequivocally denies any wrongdoing.’
