Friend: Missing Woman’s Husband Had $33K FLIR Thermal Camera On Boat That Night — And It Wasn’t Used

A friend of Brian and Lynette Hooker told Fox News Digital that the couple's sailboat, Soulmate, was equipped with a FLIR thermal imaging system valued at about $33,000 — a device capable of detecting heat signatures at night — but the friend says it was not used to search for Lynette the night she disappeared.

Authorities say the Hookers left Hope Town in the Bahamas at about 7:30 p.m. on April 4. Brian Hooker told investigators rough seas caused his wife, Lynette, to fall from their dinghy while they were returning to their sailboat, which the couple uses as their full-time residence. According to authorities, Brian paddled to shore and arrived at Marsh Harbour around 4 a.m. on April 5.

U.S. Coast Guard investigators search the boat Soulmate docked at their station in Fort Pierce, Fla., on May 13, 2026. The vessel belongs to Brian Hooker and his missing wife Lynette Hooker and was brought back to the U.S. from The Bahamas by the Coast Guard.

Daniel Danforth, a friend who met the Hookers in 2023, told Fox News Digital the Soulmate carried a forward-looking infrared (FLIR) camera system that can detect people by their heat signatures and that Brian had demonstrated the unit's auto-detect and tracking features.

"One of the neat features they had on their boat that most boats don't have is called a FLIR system. It's forward-looking infrared — not just night vision but thermal — it can pick up heat signatures," Danforth said. He recalled Brian setting the detection threshold to about 86 degrees and the camera automatically tracking his wife walking on a dock.

Danforth said he would have used the FLIR as his first choice in a search and that he informed the U.S. Coast Guard about the system in early May. He told investigators the unit has a serial number and that data or recordings might be recoverable.

Lynette Hooker and Brian Hooker are seen in a picture taken in 2023 on a small boat.

The Coast Guard Investigative Service (CGIS) seized the sailboat Soulmate between May 8 and May 10 as part of an ongoing criminal investigation into Lynette Hooker's disappearance. Brian Hooker left the Bahamas to return to the United States to care for his ill mother after being held in Bahamian police custody for five days; he has not been charged with a crime.

Brian's Michigan-based attorney, Crystal Marie Hauser, has urged the public to withhold judgment and give him the benefit of the doubt, saying people respond differently to traumatic events. Fox News Digital has reached out to Hooker's attorney and the U.S. Coast Guard for comment.

What We Know

• FLIR systems can detect heat signatures at night and are commonly used on some vessels for navigation and search operations.
• The friend who reported the device said he notified the Coast Guard before the vessel was seized; investigators expressed interest in the camera because of its serial number and potential stored data.
• No charges have been filed in the case as of this writing; the investigation remains active.