Animal activistCarole Baskin’s missing ex-husbandDon Lewis, whose vanishing in 1997 is chronicled in Netflix’s seriesTiger King, is alive and well in Costa Rica, she claimed in a recently resurfaced 2021 television interview.
The theory that Lewis was alive was first floated in 2021’s Netflix sequelTiger King2. In the series, producers show documents, allegedly from the Department of Homeland Security, that purport to describe Lewis' whereabouts in Costa Rica. (A screenshot from the clip in question is shown here.) It’s unclear whether the documents depicted onTiger King 2are legitimate.
She toldThis Morningshe believed Homeland Security had been in contact with Lewis: “They said my husband, Don Lewis, is alive and well in Costa Rica. And yet all of this drama has been made about me having something to do with his disappearance, when Homeland Security has known where he is.”
In a statement to PEOPLE, Baskin said, in part, “I’ve mentioned it in the more than 60 interviews I’ve done since then, where reporters asked about Don, so I’m surprised everyone in the press is acting like they aren’t aware of it. I was not aware of the Homeland Security document saying Don was alive and well in Costa Rica until TK2 aired In Nov 2021.”
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PEOPLE reached out to Homeland Security but has yet to hear back.
Don Lewis and Carole Baskin.Carole Lewis/Tampa Bay Times/ZUMA; MEGA
Baskin also told This Morningin 2021: “When [Tiger King 2producers] presented a letter that looks to be from Homeland Security saying that Don was alive and well five years after I saw him the last time … I reached out to the FBI and said I want a copy of that letter.”
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“I want to know what that says because part of it was redacted, and I don’t know who the people involved were,” she continued.
There’s still anopen missing-persons casefor Lewis, however, and the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Officetold TMZand theNew York Postthat the office still considers Lewis missing.
“We have not received any communication from our federal partners that confirms the location of missing person Mr. Don Lewis,” Fentress Fountain, public information officer for the sheriff’s department, told thePost.“The investigation into Don Lewis' disappearance remains a priority for the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office, as do all missing person cases.”
PEOPLE reached out to the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office and is awaiting a response.
Baskin rose to worldwide fame with the 2020 premiere ofTiger King: Murder, Mayhem, and Madness,which explored the underground world of big-cat breeding. The show centered onJoseph “Joe Exotic” Maldonado-Passage, a breeder and former zoo owner who is now in prison, and his longtime feud with Baskin — which eventually turned criminal.
After the series debut, there was rampant speculation that Baskin had been involved with Lewis' presumed death when he vanished six years after the couple’s wedding (he was declared dead in 2002). She has never been charged and has denied being involved with his disappearance.
source: people.com
