Husband of woman missing in Bahamas tells ABC News his ‘sole focus’ is finding his wife
The Hookers’ boat, “Soulmate,” is seen in Marsh Harbor on Great Abaco Island in the Bahamas, April 8, 2026. (ABC News)
(NEW YORK) — Brian Hooker, whose wife was reported missing in the Bahamas after going overboard on a dinghy, told ABC News he is staying on the island with his “sole focus” on finding her.
Lynette Hooker, 55, of Michigan, has been missing for over a week. She and Brian Hooker, 58, had departed Hope Town on the Abaco Islands for their yacht, Soulmate, in Elbow Cay around 7:30 p.m. on April 4, when bad weather caused Lynette Hooker to fall overboard, her husband told authorities.
Brian Hooker was arrested on Wednesday and questioned by police. He was released on Monday without charges.
Hooker described being in police custody as “hell.”
“It was a little different chapter of hell in a giant hell that I’m in,” he said, overcome with emotion.
He told ABC News on Tuesday morning that he will stay in the Bahamas until his visa runs out.
He said his “only focus is to go back to the boat, and then hire or beg people to help me go find some areas to search.”
“I want you to know Lynette and I loved each other the most — we’ve been together almost half our lives,” Brian Hooker said. “My sole focus is finding Lynette, no matter how likely or unlikely that is. This search for Lynette has been interrupted by the investigation. I understand that investigations have to take place, but I’m going as soon as I can to start finding Lynette.”
Brian Hooker’s attorney did not allow him to answer questions about what happened the night his wife went overboard due to the pending investigation.
When asked if there was anything he wishes he’d done differently, Brian Hooker was emotional, saying, “I will always think there was something I could have done differently. My one job, my one job was to look out for her, and that has not happened. And I’m gonna keep looking out for her now, the best I can.”
“I’m going to keep going. I’m not leaving until I’m told to leave or convinced that it’s fruitless,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — Severe weather is headed to the deep South, from Texas to Mississippi, with damaging winds, possible tornadoes and some large hail forecast.
A powerful storm system will move out of the Rockies on Saturday and will bring the severe weather across the deep South.
Storms will move into Dallas, Texas, late Saturday morning, with some gusty winds and very heavy rain.
The storms will move through Houston between 7 and 9 p.m. Saturday with damaging winds, a threat for an isolated tornado and some heavy rain.
New Orleans, Louisiana, and Jackson, Mississippi, will see storms moving through between midnight and 2 a.m. Damaging winds, isolated tornado and heavy rain is possible.
Storms move through Birmingham and Montgomery, Alabama, early Sunday morning from 5 to 8 a.m. with gusty winds and heavy rain.
Atlanta gets storms and heavy rain mid to late morning Sunday, but severe weather with tornado threat will stay south into Albany, Georgia, to Panama City, Tallahassee, Gainesville, Florida
This same storm system with severe weather will also bring heavy rain from Texas all the way to the Carolinas with a chance for flash flooding.
The highest threat for flash flooding will be from just east of Dallas, Texas, to Little Rock, Arkansas and into Memphis, Tennessee.
Locally some areas could get 2 to 4 inches of rain in a short period of time, causing flash flooding.
After a very dry period for the entire western U.S., a very active storm track has its eyes set on the West.
Starting Sunday afternoon, a series of storms will pound the West from California to Colorado with very heavy snow in the mountains and heavy rain and flooding for coastal California.
The highest threat for flash flooding and debris flow will be from just south of the San Francisco Bay area down to Los Angeles.
Sunday through Friday, some areas in California could see 3 to 6 inches of rain, which is expected to cause flash flooding and debris flow.
The Sierra Nevada Mountains, in California, some areas could see 3 to 6 feet of snow. The Rockies could also see several feet of snow next week.
A woman looks on at a memorial for Renee Good who was shot and killed by an ICE agent last month, February 12, 2026 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
(WASHINGTON) — The acting head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement says that two of its officers appear to have made “untruthful statements” about shooting a migrant in Minnesota and may face federal charges for their actions.
“Today, a joint review by ICE and the Department of Justice (DOJ) of video evidence has revealed that sworn testimony provided by two separate officers appears to have made untruthful statements,” Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said in a statement.
“Both officers have been immediately placed on administrative leave pending the completion of a thorough internal investigation. Lying under oath is a serious federal offense. The U.S. Attorney’s Office is actively investigating these false statements,” the statement said.
“The men and women of ICE are entrusted with upholding the rule of law and are held to the highest standards of professionalism, integrity, and ethical conduct. Violations of this sacred sworn oath will not be tolerated. ICE remains fully committed to transparency, accountability, and the fair enforcement of our nation’s immigration laws,” Lyons added.
The statement from Lyons comes a day after the top federal prosecutor in Minnesota asked a judge to dismiss charges against two men, including one who was shot in the leg by an immigration agent, citing “newly discovered evidence” in what was initially framed as a “violent” attack on law enforcement during an enforcement operation.
“Newly discovered evidence in this matter is materially inconsistent with the allegations in the complaint affidavit. … as well as the preliminary-hearing testimony,” U.S. Attorney for the District of Minnesota Daniel Rosen wrote in the filing Wednesday evening. It remains unclear what specific new evidence Rosen was referencing.
Rosen has asked the court to dismiss the case with prejudice, meaning the charges cannot be refiled.
“Accordingly, dismissal with prejudice will serve the interests of justice,” Rosen wrote.
In the wake of the shooting on Jan. 14 — a week after an ICE agent fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis — the Trump administration said the man who was shot, Julio Cesar Sosa-Selis, attacked a federal law enforcement officer with a “shovel or a broom stick” and that the incident was part of “an attempt to evade arrest and obstruct law enforcement.”
Lawyers for another man charged in the incident, Alfredo Aljorna, said surveillance videos did not corroborate the FBI’s claims that an agent was assaulted and said Sosa-Celis was shot while standing at his doorway some distance away from the officer.
Earlier this month attorneys for Aljorna also urged a judge to prohibit the government from deporting key witnesses who they said cast doubt that an agent was repeatedly struck with a broom or a snow shovel, Judge Paul Magnuson granted the request.
The reversal on the assault charges for Sosa-Celis and Aljorna comes after several discrepancies emerged between statements from Department of Homeland Security officials and details outlined in court records regarding their arrests.
DHS initially said in statements to media that officers were conducting a “targeted traffic stop” for Sosa-Celis when he fled in his vehicle, crashed into another car and attempted to evade arrest. The agency alleged that Sosa-Celis “violently” assaulted an officer and that two other individuals exited a nearby apartment and joined the attack “with a snow shovel and broom handle.”
According to DHS, Sosa-Celis struck the officer with “a shovel or broom stick,” prompting the officer to fire what the agency described as a defensive shot “to defend his life,” striking Sosa-Celis in the leg.
However, an affidavit from FBI Special Agent Timothy Schanz, who investigated the shooting, stated that ICE Enforcement and Removal Operations agents were attempting to stop a different man identified as Joffre Stalin Paucar Barrera — not Sosa-Celis — whom they believed was in the country illegally. According to Schanz, agents later identified the driver DHS agents stopped as a different man, Aljorna.
Schanz wrote that Aljorna struck a light pole and fled on foot toward his apartment building.
Sosa-Celis was allegedly standing on the porch and yelling at Aljorna to run faster, the affidavit says. Aljorna slipped and allegedly “began tussling” with the agent before Sosa-Celis grabbed a broom and began striking the agent, according to the affidavit.
The agent “then saw who he believed was a third Hispanic male approach with a snow shovel, and this male also began striking” him, Schanz said in the affidavit. The third man was identified as Gabriel Alejandro Hernandez-Ledezma by DHS, who accused him of also assaulting the officer.
Sosa-Celis was shot in the leg as he attempted to go inside the apartment, the affidavit says.
Video reviewed by ABC News’ Visual Verification team includes a 911 call from individuals identified as relatives of Sosa-Celis, who said agents fired as he was attempting to close the door.
Emperor penguins (Aptenodytes forsteri) with chicks on the sea ice at Snow Hill Island in the Weddell Sea in Antarctica. (Photo by Wolfgang Kaehler/LightRocket via Getty Images)
(NEW YORK) — The status of several threatened species has been downgraded to endangered, and climate change is to blame, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The Red List of Threatened Species, which was updated by the IUCN on Thursday, now includes the Emperor penguin and Antarctic fur seal on its endangered list.
The IUCN is the world’s largest environmental network and provides scientific, data-driven expertise on biodiversity conservation.
The Red List of Threatened Species is a comprehensive information source on the global conservation status of animal, fungi and plant species. The species are listed in nine categories of risk: Not Evaluated, Data Deficient, Least Concern, Near Threatened, Vulnerable, Endangered, Critically Endangered, Extinct in the Wild and Extinct.
Climate change is altering ice conditions and impacting food availability for these species, researchers told ABC News.
Emperor penguins moved from “near threatened” to endangered, according to the IUCN.
Satellite images collected from the region since 2009 indicate that the population of Emperor penguins in Antarctica has been decreasing for about a decade, Phillip Trathan, member of the IUCN’s Penguin Specialist Group, told ABC News.
“Ultimately, there’s only one trajectory, and that’s downwards,” Trathan said.
The main threat the penguins are facing is lack of sea ice due to climate change, Trathan added. Since 2016, sea ice has been diminishing and changing the whole ecosystem in Antarctica, including the molting process — when penguins shed their old feathers — and foraging opportunities, he said. Emperor penguins mainly consume fish, squid and crustaceans in Antarctic waters.
Scientists also are seeing patterns and major population changes in pinnipeds, commonly known as seals, that are making them “very nervous,” Kit Kovacs, Svalbard program leader for the Norwegian Polar Institute and chair of IUCN’s Pinniped Specialist Group, told ABC News.
The Antarctic fur seal has declined “precipitously” — losing about 57% of the adult population in the last three generations, Kovacs said.
The IUCN moved the species from “least concern” in the last pinniped assessment — which happened in 2014 — to endangered.
“That doesn’t happen very often, that you jump so many categories at once,” Kovacs said.
Populations of the krill that Antarctic fur seals subsist on are also dropping, which is likely fueling the decline, she added.
“Krill seems to be the crux of everything in the Southern Ocean,” Kovacs said.
Another Antarctic species — the Southern elephant seal — is also now at risk of extinction due to bird flu, moving from least concern to vulnerable, according to researchers.
Three out of the four big groups of Southern elephant seals have been hit by avian influenza, Kovacs noted. Those seals breed on shore, and 2023 and 2024 saw a 90% pup mortality, according to Kovacs. Breeding females are down about 67%.
There is growing concern that disease-related mortalities of marine mammals will increase due to the climate change, the IUCN said in a release. The organization noted that polar regions, where animals have not had much previous exposure to pathogens, and animals that live close together in colonies, such as southern elephant seals, could be particularly hard-hit.
Antarctic sea ice is declining at record rates, according to climate scientists.
Antarctica has lost enough ice over the last 30 years to cover the City of Los Angeles area 10 times over, glaciologists at the University of California, Irvine, found in a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month.
The regions losing ice the fastest are West Antarctica, the Antarctica Peninsula and parts of East Antarctica, the research found.
Glaciers all over the world — especially in Antarctica — are also retreating at a rapid pace, recent research shows.
Scientists have taken a particular interest in Antarctica’s western shelf due to its potential to cause a significant rise in sea levels. Thwaites Glacier, also known as the “Doomsday Glacier,” already contributes to 4% of overall sea level rise due to rapid retreat, while Pine Island Glacier is Antarctica’s fastest-melting glacier and has the potential to raise sea levels by 1.6 feet if melted.
Throughout the globe, climate-driven degradation to ecosystems is accelerating faster than conservation frameworks can respond, according to the IUCN.
