The web is shedding its thoughts over the revelation that Carole Baskin’s former husband is alive and nicely – and, apparently, all of us missed the memo.
Baskin appeared on the British speak present This Morning in November 2021 and revealed that her ex – who she has been accused of murdering – is alive in Costa Rica after having been declared legally lifeless in 2002.
Don Lewis married Baskin in 1991 earlier than going lacking on August 18, 1997. He reportedly left behind over $5 million in property. His disappearance grew in recognition after the printed of Netflix’s Tiger King which honed in on Baskin’s feud with the now-jailed personal zoo proprietor Joe Unique.
Baskin turned the goal of on-line abuse with many speculating that she was concerned within the disappearance of her ex-husband. The track “Carole Baskin (Free Joe Unique)” by Dubskie went viral in 2020, that includes strains resembling, “Carole Baskin / killed her husband / whacked him”.
Nonetheless, the animal rights activist has alleged that Tiger King 2 produced a letter from Homeland Safety stating that her former husband is “alive and nicely.”
“One of many actually thrilling issues that got here out of Tiger King 2 is that they produced a letter from Homeland Safety and it says {that a} particular agent in cost with the FBI at Homeland Safety reached out to the sheriff’s detective George Fernandez, which implies this needed to have occurred after 2002, as a result of Homeland Safety wasn’t even round till 2002,” Baskin instructed This Morning, per Sky Information.
“And so they mentioned that my husband, Don Lewis, is alive and nicely in Costa Rica,” she added. “And but all of this hay has been made about me having one thing to do together with his disappearance, when Homeland Safety has identified the place he’s not less than since again then.”
These claims are reiterated in a weblog put up on Baskin’s Large Cat Rescue web site, revealed in November 2021. The author insinuates that Netflix painted an inaccurate depiction of Lewis within the first season, stating the the second season “confirms he was nonetheless flying planes and not using a license and subsequently may have gone down over the gulf, that he may have gone to Costa Rica with small planes by making stops alongside the way in which with out it displaying on his passports as a result of he had different faux passports, that he was bringing massive quantities of money to Costa Rica, and, importantly, that he was coping with harmful people who might have been chargeable for his demise.”
The put up additionally talked about the Homeland Safety doc and requested, “Why is that this simply showing?”
Decider has reached out to Netflix for remark, however didn’t hear again by the point of publication.
Many have simply found this not-so-new information, stating that they’ve been invested within the story however by no means realized Lewis was nonetheless alive. “I can’t recover from Carole Baskin’s husband being discovered alive,” wrote one Twitter consumer.
John Phillips, who’s an lawyer representing Unique, released a statement on the convicted felon’s behalf: “In the course of the filming of Tiger King, detailed efforts had been made to search out Don Lewis. They failed. He isn’t alive. The 2021 report by Carole Baskin was additional unsupported allegation. It’s being republished as if it has veracity…”
He continued, “It doesn’t. Tiger King is stuffed with lies, arrange and misdirection. We await a listening to for Joe’s freedom. The lies are spelled out in his Movement for New Trial. The Cosmopolitan article based mostly on the ITV report is fake and designed to convey extra consideration to Carole Baskin.”
Lewis’ household has additionally made feedback towards Baskin’s innocence and have speculated that she was concerned in his disappearance. They ran an advert throughout her 2020 debut on Dancing With The Stars, which included the road, “Have you learnt who did this or if Carole Baskin was concerned?”
Baskin has dismissed their actions as a “publicity stunt,” and instructed CNN in a press release, “If it helps us discover Don, then that can be an enormous reduction.”
