One of last people to see Brian Hooker before wife Lynette vanished reveals their boozy evening — and what caught his eye

ELBOW CAY, Bahamas — The bartender who served Brian and Lynette Hooker the night before she vanished told The Post that the reported timeline of her disappearance in local waters doesn’t add up.

Ken, 38, a bartender at the Abaco Inn in Elbow Cay in the Bahamas, said the Hookers spent the early evening hours of April 4 lounging poolside and sipping rum and Cokes.

He described Brian as “pretty tall” and tattooed.

Ken, the bartender who served Brian and Lynette Hooker, stands by the "Abaco Inn" sign.
Ken, a bartender at the Abaco Inn in Elbow Cay, Bahamas, was among the last people to see Brian Hooker before Hooker’s wife, Lynette, disappeared without a trace.Matt Symons For NY Post
“He seemed like an old war vet or something like that,” Ken told The Post.

The drink-slinger said the couple arrived around 4:30 that afternoon and that Lynette went down to the pool ahead of Brian, who ordered two rum and Cokes and paid in cash with scarcely a word.

About 90 minutes later, Brian came back to order another round, which Ken poured, taking note of how appreciative the man was for the speedy service on a busy night.

“He was like, ‘Oh man, thank you for getting me served kinda quick’ … because we were crowded,” Ken said.

The worker said it didn’t seem like anything unusual was going on — “not what I saw, anyway” — but noted he never laid eyes on Lynette.

Brian Hooker and his wife Lynette posing for a selfie.
The couple enjoyed a few rum and Cokes poolside on the night of her disappearance, the bartender said.Facebook/Brian Hooker

A bartender in a green "Abaco Inn" shirt preparing a drink ingredient.
Ken said he didn’t notice anything unusual about Brian Hooker when he served him.Abaco Inn / Facebook
“When I heard about it the next day, I was shocked, definitely. But then again, I didn’t see the lady, I didn’t get to talk to her or anything like that,” the bartender said.

Ken said the couple was at the bar and pool area for around two and a half hours and that his encounter with Brian was fairly unremarkable.

But to the native Bahamian with intimate knowledge of the country’s waterways and geography, something still doesn’t sit quite right with him about what is said to have happened later.

The sailboat "Soulmate" anchored in calm waters.
The Hookers’ boat in Marsh Harbor on April 16, 2026.Matt Symons for NY Post

The stern of the boat "Soulmate" with an American flag hanging off the back.
Lynette and Brian Hooker were returning to the Soulmate when she went overboard and vanished.Matt Symons for NY Post
“It’s weird … for him to be going from here to there, then ending up in Marsh Harbour and nobody sees the lady, it’s weird,” Ken said, referring to the peninsula settlement just a few miles across the water from Elbow Cay, where Brian anchored the couple’s boat, the Soulmate.

“What catches my eye is they left here at 7, 7:30 and [her going missing] supposedly happened right after they left here, and he didn’t make it over there until 4 a.m. or something like that, in 25-mph winds,” the bartender said.

“It’s only four miles that way. It shouldn’t have taken eight to 10 hours to get there. Even if he was only floating, it should have been a much quicker time,” he said.

Lynette has not been seen since that night, and Brian was detained Wednesday in connection to her disappearance but released on Monday when investigators failed to file charges against him.

He told police Lynette had fallen off a small dinghy as they returned to the Soulmate and has denied any wrongdoing in her disappearance.