(WXYZ) — Bahamian police are searching for a 56-year-old Lenawee County woman who went missing at sea after falling overboard from a small boat near Elbow Cay.
Lynette Hooker was on an 8.5-foot dinghy boat with her husband, Brian, heading back to their yacht Saturday evening when they hit bad weather. Brian told police his wife fell into the ocean with the key to the boat, shutting off the engine.
Brian reported Hooker missing at 4 a.m. Easter Sunday after paddling back to land.
Related Story: Lenawee County woman missing in Bahamas after going overboard
"The story is that she fell off with the key and he threw her a life jacket or something and she was swimming towards shore, but I don’t understand why she was swimming away from the boat with the key," Karli Aylesworth said.
Aylesworth is Hooker's daughter and lives on the west side of the state. She said boating was a lifelong dream for her mother and stepfather, who have been together 25 years and sailing for the last decade. The couple documented their travels on Instagram as recently as April 3.
Watch our extended interview with Karli Aylesworth below:
The search is now in its third day. Police have found some of Hooker's belongings in the water.
"I guess today they did find the flotation device. I don’t know what that means now," Aylesworth said."The longer it goes, the more doubt I have that they’ll find her. I think that they’ll find her at the bottom of the ocean cause I don’t think you can tread water for that long. But I’m just hoping they find her so I can know what happened and get some closure," Aylesworth said.
Aylesworth says the last few days have been incredibly challenging. She says she's speaking to as many media outlets as possible in hopes of putting pressure on police and other officials to do all they can to locate Hooker.
"I feel pretty numb right now. The shock is starting to wear off, and the sadness hits me in waves right now, but I’m surviving," Aylesworth said."I hope they don’t stop looking until they find her."
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