What Happened to Don Lewis?

 

For those of you who have never watched Tiger King, you may not know who Don Lewis is. You may not even realize he is missing, nor would you think that Carole Baskin may very well be involved. The year 2020 brought with it a lot of things, mostly bad. One of the things it brought us was a story that's so bizarre it must be true. 

Jack Donald Lewis is a missing person who went missing on the morning of August 18th, 1997, after he left his home in Tampa, Florida. He was declared dead in 2002. By 1981, Don Lewis was a self-made millionaire. He achieved this through his real estate and used car businesses. He was married at the time to Gladys Lewis Cross and the couple had three daughters and an adopted son. 

It was in January of that year that Don met Carole on Nebraska Avenue, fleeing from her abusive husband. Don and Carole had an affair while both of them were still married. Carole was only one of many girlfriends, but she did help him buy and sell real estate in 1984. Eventually, they would divorce their spouses and marry each other in 1991. They co-founded Wildlife on Easy Street, which was an animal sanctuary for big cats in Tampa, Florida. Soon after Carole and Don would fight constantly about how to run it. Don wanted to breed the cats, and she wanted a charity. 

According to Carole, Don was, for lack of a better term, obsessed with sex. She claims that Don frequently flew to Costa Rica where he would have affairs. In early 1997, Don was transferring his

properties in Tampa, to a company he owned in Costa Rica. Don had purchased a plane ticket to Costa Rica and had been loading equipment onto a truck that was heading for Miami. 

According to once again to Carole, Don's mental health was declining. She says that he was rummaging in dumpsters, and collecting old cars and other junk. She claims that he was losing his short-term memory, and was disoriented. All classic signs of Alzheimer's. However, this claim was actually disputed by his personal attorney and business associate. 

It was in July of 1997, that Don filed a restraining order against Carole. Claiming that she had threatened to kill him and that she hid his gun to prevent him from using it against her. The restraining order was rejected. According to Carole, this restraining order was actually filed because she would get rid of some of his junk whenever he went to Costa Rica. Although he remained in the same house as his wife, he often requested a divorce but Carole figured he was joking. 

Investigation

On August 18th, 1997, Don left his house in the early morning hours to make a delivery. It wasn't until August 20th, 1997 that his Dodge Ram Van was found in the parking lot of the Pilot Country Airport. Don actually owned a couple of planes and would frequently fly them. Even though his pilot's license was suspended. The keys belonging to the van were found on the floor of the van, but there was no evidence found within the van. 

There was no evidence of foul play at the Wildlife on Easy Street, and an investigation in Costa Rica lasted five days. During that investigation, the investigators uncovered evidence of affairs and questionable business dealings. They also found out that two cats had been shipped out, but had no idea where they were headed. None of Don's credit cards had been used since he disappeared either. 

Don Lewis had left behind an estate worth at least five million. This would later lead to a legal dispute between his children and Carole. He was declared dead in 2002, and most of his estate was left to Carole. In 2004 she refused to take a polygraph test concerning Don's disappearance, and by 2005, investigators decided that there was no way that Lewis disappeared on his own. However, to this date, no one has ever been arrested and charged with the crime. 

In 2020 the popularity of Tiger King helped with the investigation. Since its release, there have been six tips a day, concerning Don's disappearance. Lead investigators are hopeful that an ex-employee from the wildlife park will come forward with information. Police claim that there is absolutely no evidence that Don was killed or a crime was ever committed. The case is still open to this day. 

Theories

There were several theories given in the third episode of Tiger King. Many of them surrounding the possibility that Carole had something to do with Don's disappearance. Even Don's own children believe that Carole killed their father, and then fed him to the tigers. They have even gone as far as criticizing investigators for not running DNA tests on the meat grinder. However, no one can have killed Don and put him in a meat grinder because the meat grinder had been removed from the property a while before Don even disappeared.  

Carole has denied any involvement in the disappearance of her second husband. She claims that if she had killed her husband and fed him to the tigers there would still be human remains. She is disappointed in these theories and thinks that they are ridiculous. Joe Exotic, created a music video called "Here Kitty, Kitty" That depicts Carole Baskin feeding questionable raw meat to the tigers. He's also responsible for a second theory that Carole buried Don in a septic tank that was on the property. However, this theory is foolish too, as there was no septic tank on the property until years after Don was missing. 

Other theories suggest that Don went to Costa Rica and started a new life, or he started out in Costa Rica in his plane and crashed somewhere. There are several memes associated with the theory that Carole Baskin killed Don Lewis. 

However, if Carole killed her husband, she's gotten away with it. The question still remains though, if Carole didn't kill him, where did he go?