What happened to Carole Baskin’s husband? His family wants to know
Did Carole Baskin kill her husband? Whack him? Feed him to tigers now they snackin’? Don Lewis’s disappearance is still causing quite the stir among the true crime community – and Lewis’s family, of course. Netflix docuseries Tiger King unleashed not only animal rights advocates but also detectives attempting to hunt down Don.
Joe Exotic spent his time outside of prison (and even in prison) discussing the potential fate of Carole Baskin’s husband. Tiger King focused on Exotic, his outlandish persona, and questionable actions.
Five years prior to the docuseries aired, Joe released his song “Here Kitty Kitty”. In its music video, a Baskin lookalike appeared to be feeding meat chunks to tigers – meant to indicate Carole’s tigers had Don Lewis for lunch.
Could Joe Exotic’s ramblings be accurate? Don Lewis’s family are on the case – and they want answers.
Who’s Don Lewis?
Jack Donald Lewis was a self-made millionaire from real estate & used car businesses who disappeared at age fifty-nine and hasn’t been seen for over twenty-three years. This 1997 cold case has now resurfaced following Netflix’s debut of popular docuseries Tiger King. Back in the 90s, Carole Baskin was questioned following the disappearance and was not considered as a person of interest.
Gladys Lewis was married to Don when he met Carole in 1981. Don had been unfaithful during his marriage to Gladys, and one of the affairs in question was with Baskin. According to Gladys, Don’s unfaithfulness lasted for ten years before Gladys & Don divorced in 1990.
A year later, Don & Carole got hitched and eventually founded an animal sanctuary known as Wildlife on Easy Street. Lewis & Baskin allegedly disagreed a lot throughout their marriage about the purpose of the sanctuary.
Trouble in paradise
Don Lewis was reported missing in 1997 by Carole Baskin. The only sign of Don was his van, which was found at a remote airport with the keys still in the vehicle. Lewis was known as an amateur pilot and owned several planes.
With no leads and evidence pointing to Don fleeing overseas, the case went cold. Five years after Don’s disappearance, Carole ordered a judge to declare her missing husband dead; Baskin was left to run the sanctuary alone.
Carole later remarried and renamed the sanctuary Big Cat Rescue. This led to the rivalry between Joe Exotic & Carole Baskin. Over sixty million people tuned into the docuseries, causing a surge of questions with not a lot of answers.
Don Lewis’s family
Don Lewis is now declared dead, but this hasn’t stopped his family from taking the investigation into their own hands. The new interest in the cold case incentivized the family to begin hunting down answers twenty-three years later. A reward was offered to anyone providing information leading to answers.
Recently, a commercial played during a Dancing with the Stars ad break. Following Carole Baskin’s first dance performance, the family wanted to make sure the disappearance of Don wasn’t forgotten. The ad was released to Jacksonville & Tampa in Florida featuring Don’s daughter, a lawyer, and a former assistant, asking for those with information to come forward.
Lewis’s family haven’t stopped there. Baskin is now being sued by Don Lewis’s family for not correcting the DWTS judges when they made jokes about the conspiracies surrounding Lewis’s disappearance.
In an email to CNN, Carole spoke about the latest development: “I believe their actions are just a publicity stunt, but if it helps us find Don, then that will be a huge relief.”
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What do you think happened to Don Lewis? Here’s our article on even more information surrounding Carole Baskin’s husband. Let us know in the comments what theories you have in mind following the Tiger King docuseries.
