Netflix's 'Tiger King' Prompts Sheriff To Seek Tips In Cold Case

CITRUS PARK, FL — Nearly overnight, a sensational Netflix docuseries has turned a nationally recognized champion of endangered tigers into a money-grubbing, attention-seeking harpy accused of murdering her millionaire husband and feeding his body parts to her beloved big cats.

Carole Baskin, founder of the nonprofit Big Cat Rescue sanctuary in Citrus Park on the outskirts of Tampa, said that's the way she's been portrayed in the docuseries, "Tiger King - Murder, Mayhem and Madness."

She said she never suspected the true intentions of the directors who proposed to do a documentary on her efforts to save tigers and other big cats from exploitation by so-called roadside zoos. It wasn't until the docuseries premiered on Netflix on March 20 that Baskin realized her mistake.

"When the directors of the Netflix documentary 'Tiger King' came to us five years ago, they said they wanted to make the big cat version of 'Blackfish' (a 2013 documentary on an orca whale at SeaWorld) that would expose the misery caused by the rampant breeding of big cat cubs for cub-petting exploitation and the awful life the cats lead in roadside zoos and back yards if they survive," she said.

Baskin and her current husband, Howard, said they were more than happy to give directors Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin access to their sanctuary. However, the docuseries that resulted was nothing like what the couple envisioned.

With input from Baskin's longtime nemesis, a flamboyant character with a bleach-blonde mullet who goes by the name Joe Exotic, the Netflix docuseries painted Baskin as a greedy, self-promoter who may have been responsible for the disappearance of her first husband, millionaire Don Lewis, on Aug. 18, 1997.

"There are not words for how disappointing it is to see that the series not only does not do any of that (expose the exploitation of big cats), but has had the sole goal of being as salacious and sensational as possible to draw viewers," said Baskin in a statement sent to Patch. "As part of that, it has a segment devoted to suggesting, with lies and innuendos from people who are not credible, that I had a role in the disappearance of my husband Don in 1997. The series presents this without any regard for the truth or, in most cases, even giving me an opportunity before publication to rebut the absurd claims. They did not care about truth. The unsavory lies are better for getting viewers."

Nevertheless, the questions that have resurfaced surrounding Lewis' disappearance in the docuseries prompted Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister to revive the cold case. He posted a notice Monday seeking tips.

During a news conference Tuesday, Chronister said he's gotten about a half dozen calls on the case, none of which appear legitimate.

“What we’re hoping is maybe someone has had a change of heart, maybe a relationship status has changed,” Chronister said. “Anything that will prompt someone to call with a legitimate lead, a piece of evidence.”

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In the meantime, he said detectives are poring over the old case files to see if detectives missed anything in 1997. If he's alive, Lewis would be 81 years old.

In the docuseries, Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joe Maldonado-Passage, claims to have Baskin's diary, which details Baskin's deteriorating relationships with Lewis. But his testimony against Baskin, who publicly accused him of abusing his animals, is biased.

In April 2019, Maldonado-Passage was convicted of attempting to hire a hit man to murder Baskin. He was also convicted of nine counts of violating the Endangered Species Act after shooting and killing five tigers in October 2017 because he "needed empty cages" at his Oklahoma zoo to house big cats that were coming from Dade City's Wild Things. He was also found guilty of eight counts of falsifying wildlife records. In January, he was sentenced to 22 years in federal prison.

Maldonado-Passage theorizes in the docuseries that Baskin killed Lewis and ground his body up in a meat grinder to feed to the tigers at her 40-acre big cat sanctuary. He even made a music video featuring a Baskin lookalike in which he sings of the alleged murder.

That's not a theory Chronister is taking seriously. At the news conference, he was questioned about why the sheriff's office never tested the meat grinder at the sanctuary for evidence of human blood. He said the sanctuary removed the meat grinder weeks before Lewis disappeared.

When Lewis disappeared, the sheriff's office did investigate statements by Baskin and the mechanic who worked on Lewis' small planes. They both said Lewis, who was a pilot, was planning a trip to property he owned in Costa Rica. He even invited his mechanic to accompany him.

Baskin believes her former husband attempted to fly to Costa Rica but his plane went down in the ocean.

Lewis' van was found at a Pasco County airport with the keys on the floor and his briefcase inside. However, sheriff's investigators said Lewis never filed a flight plan and there was no evidence that he ever flew out of the airport.

After he disappeared, investigators spent four days searching Lewis' 200-acre property in Costa Rica, as well as the Citrus Park animal sanctuary, with no results.

Although Lewis was declared legally dead five years after his disappearance, Chronister said the sheriff's office never closed the case. As recently as 2010, the sheriff's office took DNA samples from Lewis' children to place in the national DNA database in the hopes there might be a match to an unidentified body. The sheriff's office also asked Baskin to take a lie detector test but, on the advice of her attorney, she declined.

“I can’t even begin to describe how complicated this case is,” Chronister said. “Everyone had their own theory.”

Baskin hasn't commented on the renewed interest in her former husband's disappearance. Susan Bass, director of public relations for Big Cat Rescue, issued a statement on her behalf: “We hope the sheriff’s plea for leads will result in new information about what happened to Don Lewis.”

Chronister said he owes it to Lewis' family to find out what happened to him.

“There’s nothing more important to us than bringing justice to his family, a family who received no inheritance from an individual who fled," said Chronister. "Have you ever heard of a case where a wealthy individual fled, for whatever the reason was, and didn’t take their money with them?”