Did Carole Baskin kill her husband? This evidence implies she didn’t

If you’ve been watching the wild docuseries Tiger King, you’re likely curious about the wacky animal rights activist Carole Baskin, and the rumor circulating that she really did kill her husband. Due to the show’s popularity, the case of Carole’s husband’s disappearance was reopened with Hillsborough County police. 

The mass consensus online is that Carole did it. However, keep in mind that such allegations are unfounded without the proper evidence. Currently, there isn’t enough evidence that confirms that Don Lewis’ disappearance was Carole’s fault. 

Carole Baskin even wrote an expose on the topic on her Big Cat Rescue site to try to prove her innocence. Here’s some evidence suggesting that Carole might not be responsible for Don’s disappearance. 

Costa Rica sexaholic

It was well-known to everyone that Don was a sexaholic. His daughter from his previous marriage was even recorded describing him as such in Tiger King. You might be wondering, “What on Earth does a man’s sexual habits have to do with his disappearance?” 

Well, according to Carole Baskin, Don’s sex addiction was so serious that he would choose to fly all the way to Costa Rica to have sex on the days she was having her menstrual cycle. The man did not like going even a single day without sex. 

In Tiger King they briefly mention how Carole incited police to search Costa Rica for Don, choosing to paint this in a misdirected light. But if what Carole says about Don’s sex habits is true, this would not have been such a crazy thing for her to ask the police to do. Carole had the knowledge that Don was loaning money to two seedy characters called the Helicopter brothers. 

According to Don and Carole’s Costa Rican attorney, the Helicopter Brothers were practically a Costa Rican mafia. Don had told Carole about instances of people going to Costa Rica and suddenly going missing, so with all this knowledge, Carole instigating a search in Costa Rica might not have been that far fetched. 

Don already owned many properties in Costa Rica, and according to Carole, one of his caretakers in Costa Rica had phoned her and told her that Don was sighted there.

Could Carole Baskin have done it for the money? 

One of the biggest theories as to why Carole might have murdered her husband is that she did it for money. Don was about to divorce her, and as such, Big Cat Rescue could have been put in jeopardy as Carole lost many of the assets at her disposal. Many people are quoted during Tiger King as saying how much of a millionaire Don was. 

Carole likes to point out the fact that Don wasn’t a millionaire when she met him. At the time of their meeting, Don had a business cutting axles off of trailers, converting them into storage, and reselling the axles. According to Carole Baskin, this put Don in the six-figure range at most. 

It wasn’t until Don stumbled into the real estate business after overhearing about a loan default in a bank and seizing the opportunity, that he gained more significant wealth.

Carole says from that point forward, since Don was almost illiterate, she assisted him with the business. It was then that she and Don had built up a portfolio of properties worth about $5 million. Carole says that the properties she helped acquire were put into trusts separate from the ones Don had acquired on his own. 

Those other properties listed Don’s children as beneficiaries. Carole urges those who would like to verify this fact to search it up in public records from the year 1950 to the year 1997. 

The meat grinder 

Need we actually bring this up? Even Tiger King itself pointed out the fact that police ruled Carole Baskin’s meat grinder as incapable of disposing of a body. According to Carole what she had was a standard hand crank meat grinder, so in this way at least, it’s impossible for Carole to have gotten rid of her husband’s body.

Was Don’s health declining? 

Perhaps one of the most debated parts about Don’s disappearance is whether or not he was really suffering from a mental decline. No evidence supporting the fact that Don indeed had Alzheimer’s has been presented by either Tiger King or Carole Baskin. Carole does mention though, that she found evidence of Don being diagnosed with Bi-Polar Disorder when finding a prescription for an MRI after his disappearance. 

Carole had been begging Don to go to a doctor for a long time before he finally relented and visited a doctor named Dr. Gold. He got referred to a string of doctors after that, but none of them got far enough in diagnosis to say Carole has solid evidence of Don having dementia or Alzheimers, as she often claims. He disappeared before his illness could really be investigated thoroughly. 

Carole makes some pretty extreme claims about Don’s behavior as proof. She says he did things like refusing to defecate in the bathroom and getting lost inside a dumpster while diving for dumpster treasures. 

Maybe there are other people who will step forward to corroborate these strange accounts. All we know is that if Don really was having a decline in his mental health, it’s possible a variety of horrible things could have happened to him while in a disoriented state. 

Is Carole Baskin innocent?

None of this conclusively proves that Carole Baskin is innocent regarding the disappearance of her husband Don Lewis, but it certainly leaves food for thought. The Hillsborough County police are still investigating the case. 

Sheriff Chad Chronister said to Fox6, “Do I think it’s a homicide? Yes, I do. There are too many things that are suspicious. Who leaves their entire wealth behind? Who leaves their kids behind?” He then goes on to say that if a bad actor really was involved, he thinks they likely didn’t act alone. 

Whether any bad actors involved include Carole Baskin, remains to be determined. It would sure be a shame the woman is getting crucified by the internet if she really is innocent, though.

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