Carole Baskin Responds to Claim That Legally Dead Ex is ‘Alive and Well in Costa Rica’
Tiger King star Carole Baskin has responded to the claim that Homeland Security found her ex-husband Don Lewis “alive and well in Costa Rica.”
Lewis, a Tampa millionaire, went missing in 1997, after marrying Baskin in 1991, and in 2002 was legally declared dead — leaving Baskin with dozens of big cats at their sanctuary.
Rumors that Baskin was responsible for Lewis’ disappearance began to intensify following the release of the first season of Tiger King — Baskin adamantly denying the rumors.
The suggestion that Baskin killed Lewis was reopened on Wednesday following the release of Tiger King 2, which the big cat activist sued Netflix over in an attempt to stop them from using footage of her.
The lawsuit also accused Netflix of portraying Baskin as a villain and a “murderer” who “disposed of her late husband’s remains by feeding them to her big cats.”
This season, however, reportedly reveals that Lewis was found in Costa Rica by Homeland Security, and Baskin reacted to the news on Thursday’s edition of ITV’s This Morning.
“They said that my husband, Don Lewis, is alive and well in Costa Rica,” she said. “And yet all of this hay has been made about me having something to do with his disappearance when Homeland Security has known where he is at least since back then.”
Baskin went on to note that Homeland Security must have found him after he was legally declared dead as the department was founded under former President George Bush in late 2002.
“But I tell you what, one of the really exciting things that came out of Tiger King 2 is that they produced a letter from Homeland Security and it says that a special agent in charge with the FBI at Homeland Security reached out to the sheriff’s detective George Fernandez, which means this had to have happened after 2002,” she reasoned, adding, “Because Homeland Security wasn’t even around until 2002.”
Baskin also addressed claims made by Lewis’ family suggesting that she killed her former husband, saying, “I think maybe they should check with Homeland Security, who seems to know where he is.”
During Baskin’s debut on Dancing with the Stars, Lewis’ daughters and their family’s attorney, John M. Phillips were featured in a commercial that aired in local Florida markets and offered a $100,000 reward in exchange for information on their missing father.
During the ad, Phillips asked, “Do you know who did this or if Carole Baskin was involved?”
Watch above, via YouTube.
