Husband of US woman missing in Bahamas released, says he will keep looking

A US man arrested after his wife went missing on a trip to the Bahamas has been released and says he will continue searching for her.

Brian Hooker was released on Monday night from Bahamian police custody where he faced questions from local officials after his wife Lynette Hooker disappeared while the pair were sailing.

"I won't be able to stop looking," he told CBS, the BBC's US partner, adding that he believed she was still alive.

Hooker has said his wife fell off their small boat along with its keys, and was swept away by currents that left him unable to reach her. He has denied any suggestion of wrongdoing.

The couple, who were travelling from Michigan, had been on a sailing trip on the evening of 4 April when Lynette Hooker went missing. The incident happened on an 8ft (2.4m) hard-bottom dinghy, and not their much larger sail boat.

Brian Hooker was arrested on 8 April and questioned by Bahamian police. Last week, the police said the search and rescue effort for Lynette Hooker had turned into a recovery mission.

When asked if he believed she was still alive more than a week after the disappearance, Hooker, 59, said: "I want to."

"I believe I've been told that people have lasted in the Bahamas after falling overboard for days and even weeks," he told CBS. "There are so many islands, there are so many sandbars, little atolls and spits of land. Of course you think about alternatives to that, but I'm not really capable of just turning away from this."

Brian Hooker's lawyer said her client needed time to "destress from this horrible experience", NBC News reported.

An earlier statement from the lawyer, Terrel Butler, said that Hooker appeared "completely heartbroken and distressed" during his period of detention, as he had been unable to continue searching for his missing wife.

Hooker had reportedly participated in the search on the night of his arrest, during which time he was handcuffed and fell overboard during "choppy and dangerous sea conditions", and had to be rescued from the water himself.

The BBC has contacted Butler for fresh comment following Hooker's release.

The couple had a long history of sailing together and often documented their experience on social media.

Lynette Hooker's daughter, Karli Aylesworth, has said she does not believe the version of events given by Brian Hooker, her stepfather. She told CBS that her mother was a strong swimmer with a long experience of sailing.

A US Coast Guard official previously confirmed to the BBC that a criminal investigation was opened into the woman's disappearance. They said they were not able to comment on the specifics of the investigation, including potential suspects in the case.