A massive cross-agency search operation is ongoing in the Abaco Islands of the Bahamas after an American tourist disappeared overboard from a small recreational dinghy over the weekend, local law enforcement confirmed.
The missing person has been identified as Lynette Hooker, a resident of Michigan, who was on a holiday in the Caribbean island nation alongside her husband, also a United States citizen. According to official statements from the Royal Bahamas Police Force, the incident unfolded around 7:30 p.m. local time Saturday, when the couple set out from Hope Town bound for Elbow Cay aboard an 8-foot hard-bottom dinghy. Hooker’s husband told first responders that his wife fell from the bouncing vessel when it hit uneven water, and was quickly pulled out to open sea by strong local currents. Critically, the woman took the dinghy’s engine keys with her when she fell overboard, leaving her husband stranded without power to navigate or pursue.
Without functioning propulsion, the husband was forced to paddle the unpowered small boat to shore, a journey that took more than eight hours. He only reached the Marsh Harbour Boat Yard around 4 a.m. local time Sunday, where he immediately alerted on-site staff, who in turn contacted Bahamian law enforcement to launch the search. Hope Town Volunteer Fire and Rescue Chief Troy Pritchard confirmed to CBS News, the BBC’s U.S. news partner, that the woman was ejected violently from the small craft, a common hazard in choppy coastal waters around the island chain.
In an official social media statement, the Royal Bahamas Police Force announced it had launched a full investigation into the disappearance, and that multiple partner agencies had joined the search effort. Alongside Bahamian national police and the Royal Bahamas Defence Force, U.S. diplomatic and law enforcement counterparts as well as local volunteer rescue groups are contributing assets and personnel to the operation, police confirmed.
The incident comes nearly 13 months after the U.S. State Department issued a public travel advisory explicitly warning U.S. travelers of deadly boating risks across the Bahamas. The March 2025 advisory noted that the island nation does not tightly regulate recreational boating activity, a gap in oversight that has already led to multiple preventable injuries and fatalities for visitors in recent years.