USCG can send divers to Bahamas to search for Lynette Hooker, source says

The U.S. Coast Guard has been granted permission by the Bahamian government to send divers to canvass previously unsearched areas in the search for missing Michigan woman Lynette Hooker, a source briefed on the investigation confirmed to CBS News Thursday.

The permission was granted to the U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, the source disclosed.

Hooker, 55, was reported missing on April 5, one day after her husband, Brian Hooker, told authorities that the couple had set sail for a nighttime ride aboard a dinghy from Elbow Cay in the Bahamas.

Brian Hooker told local investigators that his wife fell from the dinghy and was swept away in the current. He was initially arrested in connection with her disappearance, but was later released and allowed to return to the U.S. He has not been criminally charged.

On Tuesday, CBS News learned that newly obtained GPS data had prompted U.S. investigators to relaunch the search for Lynette Hooker. 

This is a developing story and will be updated.