Cast our mind back to the very first lockdown when we were introduced to two powerful nemeses-Carole Baskin and Joe Exotic.
Joe, (real name Joseph Maldonaldo-Passage) maintained Caorle Baskin had killed her missing husband, Don Lewis and he even wrote a song about it.
What a tune.
While his outlandish behaviour in Netflix's Tiger King cast shade over his accusations against Carole, we all slightly believed she had something to do with her husband's disappearance.
Now it seems, we all owe Carole an apology.
In a resurfaced interview from 2021, Baskin tells ITV's This Morning that her husband is "alive and well" in Costa Rica.
"I don't know how it is that Homeland Security says he's alive and well in Costa Rica, but I'm glad to hear it," Carole says. Allegedly, during the filming of Tiger King 2, a special agent with the FBI produced a letter showing they had made contact with Don Lewis.
"Do you believe that Carole, do you think that he's still alive?" asks host Philip Schofield. "I didn't think he was capable of supporting himself," Carole says. "He took about a million dollars down to Costa Rica, I had agreed to let him do that so he could prove to himself that he could make a living."
Don Lewis was reported missing in August 1997 and was declared "legally dead" in 2002, on the fifth anniversary of his disappearance. He left holdings of $5 million behind him, and most of his estate was left to Baskin.
In 1998, long before Tiger King arrived on our screens, Carole Baskin was already in the media eye for her suspected connection with her husband's disappearance."It's the perfect scenario to dispose of someone," Lewis's daughter Donna told People Magazine. "We were upset that the cops didn't test the DNA on the meat grinder." Baskin has always dismissed any allegations she murdered her husband, saying "there would be bones and remains of my husband out there. I'm amazed that people would even think such a thing."
Explaining his disappearance, Baskin wrote on her own website blog, that in 1997 her husband's health was suffering, and he had been "showing signs of mental deterioration". The Animal Rescue owner said her husband would "hoard junk" and go "dumpster diving". Baskin also wrote that her husband would spend one week per month in Costa Rica, as he was a man "who wanted to have sex daily", and she accepted this as something she "had to live with.".
Fact-checking site Snopes has attempted to verify Baskin's claim, and has reached out for proof of the supposed "letter from Homeland Security". So far, no verification of any letter has been made, and no communication has appeared from Don Lewis.
