Tiger King 1x3

1. What a story.

2. It's so wild, it must not be true.

3. That's the first thing people think: "Oh, come on, that can't be true.

4. It's 20 years ago. Cold case, 20-year-old murders don't get solved."

5. Well, it all starts, you know— Carole Baskin,

6. who was Carole Lewis at the time, was married to Don Lewis.

7. I did see Don Lewis about maybe a month or so

8. before he disappeared.

9. And he did mention to me that he felt his life was in danger.

10. There are so many strange twists in that story,

11. you would have to write books

12. and volumes of the stuff that went wrong there, the lies that are there.

13. All the circumstantial evidence, somebody did something to Don.

14. There's a lot of stories about Carole having some finger in it...

15. but nobody can prove it.

16. I really believe that everything happens for a reason.

17. Everything is unfolding the way that it has to

18. for us to become our highest possible self.

19. I don't regret any of what I have lived through.

20. I wouldn't be standing here today doing what I'm doing

21. if it hadn't been for all of those... things

22. that have happened over the course of my life.

23. The last day that I saw Don,

24. he told me that he was done,

25. that he was divorcing her,

26. that she was one of the worst people he had ever met in his life,

27. and she was very dangerous.

28. He did come to Mom and say for us to stay away from her.

29. He was afraid of her. We didn't know exactly why.

30. He indicated to me that he was going to tell Carole...

31. that he wanted a divorce.

32. Never saw him again.

33. I was the supervisor in charge of the homicide section

34. with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office in Tampa, Florida,

35. which also works adult missing persons.

36. In the case of Don Lewis, the call came in as a typical missing adult.

37. Initially on a missing person investigation,

38. you just think, "Well, things are gonna work out.

39. Maybe this guy just went somewhere and didn't touch base."

40. However, I would say within the first week or two

41. that detectives were starting to look at the possibility

42. that we had... foul play or something

43. that was unexplainable at that point in time.

44. It pays to have buckets with straw in it, so they can't get out.

45. We've got four kitties we're gonna feed.

46. I met Don in January of 1981,

47. so I was 20 when I met him.

48. - Um— - And he was how old?

49. He was 22 years my senior.

50. - Okay. - So he was 42.

51. Yeah, she's just jealous.

52. You have to understand that Don Lewis was married with kids,

53. but apparently, he was coming down, I think it was Nebraska...

54. and late one night he seen this young girl walking down the street crying,

55. and Don Lewis stopped to see if he could help her.

56. I had been in a fight with my first husband.

57. I actually had to throw a potato across the kitchen

58. and into the dining room at him in order to get out the door.

59. I deal with stress I think the same way cats do.

60. I just pace and pace and pace and pace.

61. And I remember Don pulls around,

62. and he asks me if I would get in the car, and I told him no.

63. Pulls around again, and I think it was on the third time

64. he pulled around, and he had a gun sitting on the front seat of his car.

65. And he said, "You can hold this gun on me,

66. I just need somebody to talk to."

67. So I picked up the gun, held it on him,

68. and we drove around town and he talked.

69. And I ended up spending the night with him.

70. Don Lewis deserted, basically, his wife and kids

71. because he was in love with the younger blonde woman...

72. known as Carole.

73. He told me that he had met her.

74. I was speechless. I adored him.

75. I told him that I'd love him till the day I died,

76. but it was over.

77. He used to call her angel,

78. and I said, "Well,

79. she's an angel sent straight from hell, and one day, you'll find out."

80. At first it seemed like they were really gonna make it.

81. I liked Carole.

82. I mean...

83. I really, really did like Carole,

84. but...

85. Don was not an easy man.

86. Don was a millionaire, he was a multi-millionaire, okay?

87. And he didn't like her spending his money.

88. She was very ambitious.

89. She wanted to go somewhere and be somebody,

90. and she didn't want to stay walking down the street

91. in the middle of the night.

92. I've got her diary.

93. I've got it all.

94. Good evening, world!

95. Welcome to saga six of the Carole story.

96. Okay, well, tonight

97. we just happened to have gotten in the mail today...

98. Carole's diary.

99. "He said he wanted to be loved for the man he was inside,

100. and if women knew how rich he was,

101. he would never know if they loved him for him or his money."

102. Don started out with nothing.

103. You could not have looked at Don

104. and even had an inkling

105. that he had amassed the wealth that he had.

106. You never saw Don dressed up.

107. He had his blue jeans and his t-shirt...

108. but he carried a 500-dollar-bill around in his pocket...

109. just because he could.

110. We said he had a green thumb,

111. a green thumb for money,

112. because anything he touched, practically...

113. he made money on.

114. I worked for Don Lewis for ten, 15 years,

115. but knew him much longer than that.

116. And you'd have to know Don to know his properties.

117. He liked to hide his stuff. Like, he would hide money, bury money.

118. You know, hide gold bars, bury the gold bars.

119. Don Lewis didn't want people knowing what he had

120. and what he was worth,

121. but I'm gonna say Don Lewis was probably worth, um...

122. 20 million? Maybe a little more.

123. I think it was closer to... seven to seven and a half million dollars,

124. is what he was worth.

125. I don't think anybody knew,

126. but I know at least five million, if not ten million.

127. I knew him as his lawyer,

128. I knew what he was doing,

129. I knew a lot of what he was doing.

130. Don had money when he met Carole.

131. Carole pretty much had nothing.

132. He had something she didn't.

133. Were you having fun? Were you having fun?

134. Growing up, my parents were very plain folk.

135. We usually lived in mobile homes.

136. I never really got how poor we were until I was a teenager.

137. I had been raped at knifepoint by three men

138. that lived across the street from me when I was 14.

139. In my family, they were fundamental Christians

140. that believed if a woman was involved in something like that,

141. she must have been asking for it in some way.

142. Well, I left home at the age of 15.

143. I got married to Michael when I was 17.

144. He was Jamie's father, and he was extremely abusive...

145. but the idea of leaving and having to raise a child on my own

146. was terrifying.

147. I was 20 when I met Don,

148. and 24 before I left my husband.

149. Don had a fascination with animals,

150. so we were a great team.

151. He was more of an animal collector, I think.

152. He definitely liked the idea

153. of having a lot of different kinds of animals.

154. See?

155. He gets along with the rest of the cats real good out here,

156. though he just don't like people.

157. They started out by going to the exotic animal auctions.

158. We started in 1992

159. with the purchase of a bobcat

160. who was going to be killed by taxidermists at an auction.

161. The following year, we bought 56 bobcats and lynx from a fur farm.

162. The next year, 28 bobcats and lynx.

163. The following year, 22 more bobcats and lynx.

164. And by the time we did that,

165. there were no more fur farms in the US that were killing bobcats and lynx.

166. It's called Wildlife on Easy Street.

167. Guests tour the sanctuary, take tons of pictures,

168. and even help feed the cats.

169. When they started Wildlife on Easy Street,

170. they bought, sold, bred big cats for years.

171. Now, I would like to remind you, Carole,

172. that you are the one who spent 94,000 dollars

173. to buy animals to fill your so-called sanctuary.

174. You still have them there at your facility,

175. you're still tagging them as rescues, and you're still 'frauding the public.

176. I believe that I sold Don and Carole Lewis

177. their very first tiger in 1995.

178. They flew their private plane up to Shelbyville,

179. and that's how I met them, and they seemed to be good people.

180. Sold 'em Scrappy, was his name.

181. He was an... excellent little tiger.

182. This is the VHS that she made back in the day.

183. The last time I probably seen it was 1996.

184. You'll get a kick out of it, I'm sure.

185. Our names are Don and Carole Lewis.

186. We have really enjoyed our exotics.

187. Throughout this tape, we'll show you how we take them from the mother,

188. acclimate them to social life with people...

189. She had called me up and asked about raising baby animals,

190. said she was gonna do a "how to" video.

191. They have to be taken this young from the mother

192. in order to make good quality pets from them.

193. A lot of people don't believe that it's right

194. to raise up exotic animals as house pets.

195. You know, back in the early '90s, she bred and sold cats.

196. And... it's so funny,

197. because the very people that are against breeding

198. used to do the same thing.

199. I think you'll see throughout this tape

200. that they are very happy...

201. and they're so much fun!

202. Okay, now we're gonna jump around

203. because I'm sure you don't want to hear about

204. all the cats they bought, all the kittens they bred,

205. and how many died because they didn't have any clue

206. what they were doing.

207. I think that Carole did start feeling bad about selling the animals

208. and maybe breeding them and crossbreeding them.

209. Carole wanted the animals just to collect and love...

210. and he looked at it more as a business.

211. Don and I had differing feelings about conservation and breeding.

212. He loved cubs, he loved breeding cats.

213. He would go down to Costa Rica once a month,

214. and every time he was in Costa Rica,

215. I'd have the vet out here

216. and I would neuter and spay as many cats as fast as I could.

217. The attraction for Don in Costa Rica

218. was the lack of regulations, you know.

219. If they could have the cats down there, he would've been free to breed them.

220. Was that consistent in what Carole wanted to do?

221. Apparently, not. They were arguing about it.

222. She didn't want to take the cats and go there.

223. That is when we learned that they weren't getting along real good.

224. He also had a girlfriend in Costa Rica...

225. so I think one of their main problems was

226. she couldn't be the only one in his life.

227. I think she thinks she would be the one to change him.

228. She thought she was pretty enough,

229. young enough, that she would be all he needed...

230. and that was never going to happen.

231. Did he have other women?

232. I suspected it.

233. I never saw it in person,

234. but I've heard enough to book— to say that's probably true.

235. He liked ladies, I'm sure.

236. I would see him with two or three different ones, you know?

237. Don was 17 and I was 14 when we got married.

238. My mom had to sign the papers and so did his mother,

239. because he was too young.

240. Life was good.

241. The only thing that went wrong was when someone would call me and say,

242. "I've seen Don with so and so."

243. That was a problem with him, because he did have a roaming eye.

244. There's names, you know: sexaholic.

245. If my dad had anything, that would have been it.

246. "What is my sick need that I'm trying to fill

247. with this venomous man?

248. I've asked forever, but I still don't know.

249. He's all I've ever known,

250. and he's the only man I've ever loved.

251. I hope Jamie never finds herself

252. in such a sick and perverted relationship."

253. At the end, I know there was talk of divorce.

254. I think he was preparing his estate and assets in a way

255. that he could get a divorce without losing everything,

256. and I think he thought she was there...

257. solely for the purpose of getting his money.

258. And that was what he was trying to protect.

259. If Don Lewis had have gotten a divorce with Carole...

260. the way Don would have worked,

261. she would have been left with really nothing.

262. She would have lost the cats,

263. she would have lost everything down to the house and a car.

264. Would have been a devastating blow.

265. Oh, yes, he's a good boy. Yes, he's a good boy.

266. "I listened while he told me that all of his money is his,

267. and everything he earned by himself and brought into this marriage by himself.

268. I wish there was some way out for me."

269. I'd say she found a way out, wouldn't you?

270. Don started looking a little bit funny,

271. and then one day he came in

272. and he brought me a piece of paper.

273. It was in an envelope, and he said,

274. "Here, you need to take this home, you need to keep it.

275. If anything happens to me, give it to the police."

276. He'd given me a copy of the restraining order

277. that he had filed for.

278. "This is the second time

279. Carole has gotten angry enough to threaten to kill me."

280. "Carole and I got into a big fuss,

281. and she ordered me out of the house or she would kill me.

282. She has a.45 revolver and she took my.357 and hid it."

283. Daddy never really involved "the law" in anything.

284. Um, it was just something that he resisted.

285. For him to go down there

286. and write that out and present it before a judge

287. - was major, in my eyes. - So wise.

288. That is not something he would do unless he was at his wits' end...

289. with how to protect himself...

290. but he was denied protection.

291. It doesn't show stalking, it doesn't show battery,

292. it doesn't show anything.

293. It shows a verbal argument,

294. and that's not enough to get an injunction.

295. And so that's why you think it was denied?

296. That's why I know it was denied.

297. - But obviously— - That was dead on arrival.

298. What raises my eyebrows is "she threatened to kill me."

299. - That's not enough to get a— - Nope.

300. - a restraining order? - There's free speech.

301. We don't restrain free speech in this country,

302. we punish it after it's done.

303. I'm sure in the judge's eyes it was hearsay,

304. but that happened in June, and he disappeared in August.

305. A local millionaire vanishes without a trace,

306. but did he simply walk away?

307. Or did something more ominous happen to him?

308. I never threatened him.

309. His wife, Carole Lewis, says he was planning to transport cars

310. to Costa Rica.

311. He said to be sure and get the Costa Rica truck ready

312. 'cause he was leaving early, early, early in the morning for Miami...

313. and that was the last thing that he said to me.

314. The last thing he said to me was

315. that he needed me to have Kenny get a truck ready

316. because he was going early, early, early, he said, the next day to Costa Rica...

317. and that was the last I saw of him, so I just don't know.

318. We was building this cage,

319. and Don started to tell me something.

320. He said, "Kenny, if I can pull this off,

321. it will be the slickest thing I ever did in my life."

322. And I know that there was more to follow...

323. like he didn't finish what he was saying...

324. and he left with a phone call, and he left out.

325. I never got to see him again after that.

326. That was the last thing that Don Lewis ever said to me...

327. was, "If I can pull this off,

328. it will be the slickest thing I ever did in my life."

329. He was shipping some cars down to Costa Rica.

330. Everything had to be down in Miami Monday morning...

331. and I had to get all the titles to the cars and stuff ready,

332. but I needed him to tell me something.

333. I kept waiting for him to call me. He didn't call me.

334. I started calling him. Didn't answer the phone.

335. He didn't answer the phone.

336. This continued all through Saturday, all through Sunday.

337. I got no answer.

338. I finally got ahold of Carole.

339. She says, "Do you think I should call the police?"

340. And I said, "Do you think?"

341. Jack Don Lewis was last seen on August the 18th.

342. He was reported missing on the 19th by his wife

343. at about 1:30 in the afternoon.

344. The detectives walked the property and drove the proper—

345. Now, you're talking about 40 acres.

346. Apparently there was nothing there that suggested

347. that they should pursue that area any further.

348. There were aerial searches done... but found nothing.

349. Then, after three or four days, we found his van abandoned at an airport.

350. With the keys still in it, his briefcase in it, but no Don Lewis.

351. And it didn't make sense.

352. Like, with what he said to me,

353. if he was truly wanting to disappear and nobody know where he was at,

354. would you leave your van where you got in a plane to take off?

355. You wouldn't want nobody to know you was in the plane,

356. - because that's now a clue. - You think it was planted?

357. I think someone else drove the van there.

358. I don't know if it was planted there.

359. I think the police did a horrible job...

360. at the investigation side of it.

361. The cops never looked at the van when it was at the airport...

362. and they let them bring that van back to Easy Street.

363. And it was there for a couple of days before the cops came to look at the van.

364. To even look in the van.

365. A couple of days that van sat there.

366. They came and spoke with me

367. because they found my fingerprints inside of his van.

368. Four days before he disappeared,

369. he dropped his van off for me to do some work to it,

370. but he tried to talk me into going to Costa Rica.

371. He said, "Come on and go to Costa Rica with me."

372. Why did he want to go to Costa Rica so badly?

373. He liked it down there.

374. The long-term plan, according to the investigation,

375. was that he would eventually move the Big Cat Rescue,

376. or Wildlife on Easy Street as it was known then,

377. down to the Costa Rica area.

378. We actually sent myself and another detective

379. and did multiple interviews down in Costa Rica.

380. We spent about four or five days in the area

381. to try and determine if there was any link there at all.

382. And how would he get to Costa Rica?

383. He flew commercial out of Miami.

384. But Don did fly a lot of airplanes.

385. He owned— I don't know how many airplanes he owned.

386. But all of his planes were small...

387. and you could not fly those things that far.

388. It's impossible with the size and types of planes that Don had,

389. that I know of, that he could nonstop go from here to Costa Rica.

390. You'd have to make four fuel stops.

391. It's just not in the cards.

392. I don't believe that Jack Don Lewis flew to Costa Rica.

393. There's nothing at all to indicate that Don left his van there

394. and got in a plane and crashed it somewhere.

395. There was no record of any take-off of an airplane,

396. there was no flight filed. Nothing.

397. Don lost his pilot's license the day after he got it,

398. so he never flew legitimately again.

399. Every flight he ever did after that, and there were a lot of them,

400. he was flying illegally, so, no, he wasn't reporting.

401. He would go down over the Gulf of Mexico,

402. down underneath the level where radar picks you up.

403. My understanding was— is he went to...

404. evaluate some new plane that was for sale.

405. I was told that he was pushed out of the plane

406. out of the door 50 feet over the Gulf, way out.

407. If he had any kind of an accident out over the Gulf,

408. we never would have found anything.

409. He had had several plane crashes

410. and had really damaged himself in one of them,

411. and I don't think he was ever completely right

412. after that last crash.

413. I was seeing behavior in him that just didn't make any sense.

414. Like, he could remember things from way back when he was a kid,

415. but he couldn't remember where he was for the last five minutes.

416. And one of our volunteers came to me and said

417. that that looked like Alzheimer's to him.

418. Maybe he doesn't know who he is.

419. Maybe he doesn't know where to call home.

420. That's all bull.

421. I don't believe a word about dementia

422. or forgetfulness or any of that crap.

423. No, no, no. He knew exactly what was going on.

424. Who, what, where, when, how, why, he knew all of that.

425. That's not a problem.

426. Carole says he was an unusual man.

427. Eccentric is a good word to use.

428. Carole's smart.

429. She's setting the stage for...

430. "He just up and disappeared, and we don't know what the hell happened."

431. She spent, I'm sure, a lot of time setting the stage

432. for the dementia and the forgetfulness.

433. According to diary entries allegedly written by Carole,

434. she was feeling boxed in by Don's notorious cheating.

435. "It's no use to leave him."

436. "I wish there was some way out for me."

437. Police combed the area.

438. But after a year and a half of investigating numerous theories,

439. police still have no suspects.

440. Somebody, sometime, someplace, somewhere, somehow,

441. wanted to be rid of Don Lewis.

442. And apparently, they got their way.

443. My understanding was that he was killed.

444. By?

445. Won't go there.

446. I need my clapper!

447. I need my clapper, Mark, what are you doing?

448. Go in front of the camera and say, "Take two!"

449. Take two.

450. The best thing he's done, it's worth just bringing up:

451. the music video, "Here Kitty Kitty," about Carole killing her husband.

452. And a look-alike Carole walking along with him

453. while he's singing, feeding body parts to her cats.

454. He's got extreme shit.

455. You haven't seen "Here Kitty Kitty," you don't know what you're missing.

456. Joe had everyone convinced she'd murdered her husband,

457. and we were all going with it. And me, as a reality show producer?

458. Oh, I was... "Fuck yeah, man, roll the cameras," you know?

459. So the whole world's wondering,

460. did you actually grind your husband up

461. and feed him to the tigers so there's no evidence?

462. I'm gonna show you some stuff

463. that will put that right in your head.

464. People want to believe something that's just totally outlandish,

465. and so it has been a problem.

466. These tigers have such an acidic stomach

467. that when you feed them a whole turkey,

468. there's no bones that come out, okay? It's gone.

469. Is there any chance Don had been killed by one of his cats?

470. - No. - Why?

471. Didn't happen.

472. There'd be a body, there'd be blood, there'd be this, there'd be that.

473. No. There wasn't a cat out there that could eat 100 pounds of flesh.

474. There'd be a skeleton. There'd be bones. There'd be something.

475. His own kids demanded that they DNA test the meat grinder.

476. Sheriff's office wouldn't do it.

477. We had a meat grinder.

478. If you've ever seen a Butcher Boy meat grinder,

479. it's about that big around.

480. That became, like, this wholly exciting thing,

481. that I ran him through that grinder, and it's like,

482. I couldn't have run his hand through the grinder, much less a body.

483. I mean, there's another theory that one of the buildings they built,

484. there's a septic tank underneath it— that he was put in that.

485. If we could ever get the law to go in there

486. and dig up that septic tank,

487. I promise you he's underneath that damn thing.

488. Hey, Carole, it's a voice from your past.

489. Get me the fuck out from under the septic tank.

490. It was in the ground, it was operational,

491. Judy had moved into the property before Don ever disappeared,

492. so how would I have then put him in the septic tank?

493. I believe that there's a lot of people out there

494. that are speculating and don't have anything to back it up.

495. One day, somebody's gonna stub their toe.

496. There is a god...

497. her name is karma,

498. and she has a sick sense of humor.

499. Yeah, we heard all the stories.

500. We've done everything we could do in terms of trying to put those to rest,

501. but sometimes legally, there—

502. You can't pursue exactly what you'd like to do.

503. You have to stay within the bounds of the law.

504. Anybody could be a suspect. Now, having said that,

505. clearly the most information that we're gonna get

506. are the people that were closest to Don, so that's where we've looked.

507. Anne McQueen was probably the closest person alive to Don Lewis.

508. She watched out for his best interests, he watched her back.

509. Don trusted Anne with every penny he had.

510. He would've been lost without her.

511. I cooperated in every form and fashion that they wanted me to cooperate.

512. Who were the other suspects?

513. I think it was me and Carole.

514. In any investigation like this, you go to...

515. the husband or the wife

516. or whatever close family member that is still surviving

517. or still around that you can interview.

518. Carole's brother was a member of the sheriff's department,

519. and I think he maintained

520. some sort of, well, you know...

521. "That's my sister, I want you to tread lightly."

522. And I don't know that happened, but...

523. I'm sure he wouldn't just stand there and do nothing.

524. Her brother worked for the sheriff's department,

525. but I don't think... I don't think that there was collusion there.

526. I never really knew my brother, because—

527. Fosh, by the time I was 15, he would have been, what, nine.

528. So we never had much of a relationship.

529. It's funny, he grew up to be a sheriff's deputy,

530. which was the last thing I ever thought my brother would grow up to be,

531. because he was so shy.

532. The day that Don went missing...

533. the investigation indicated Carole had left Wildlife on Easy Street

534. to drive to a nearby store named Albertsons

535. to pick up some milk byproducts for the cats.

536. At three o'clock in the morning.

537. Her car broke down, and Carole ran into her brother,

538. who was accompanied by another deputy.

539. The second deputy gave her a ride back to her home.

540. After that,

541. Carole indicated the last time that she saw her husband

542. was just several hours later, and he was never seen again.

543. And I don't know, but I would have hoped

544. that the detectives would have pursued that and made sure that...

545. there was nothing... out of the ordinary about that.

546. Maybe if you have a sheriff that's in there that's saying,

547. you know, this guy is kinda crazy and, you know, dementia,

548. and he does this all the time, he's probably in—

549. Maybe the sheriff's department would drag their feet at that point and be like,

550. "Well, let's just wait and see where it goes."

551. In her family, there just wasn't a lot of love for Don.

552. I know her father, Carole's father, Vernon, could not stand him.

553. Absolutely could not stand Don.

554. So, Carole's dad, Vernon, come and built cages with me.

555. He definitely had his daughter's back.

556. I just felt like Carole did something, and they needed to protect her...

557. and get the money. Let's get the money.

558. After Don disappeared, Carole and Vernon, her dad, had asked me...

559. "Kenny, we need to get something from the office."

560. And I'd like to say, I had did this kind of stuff

561. for Don Lewis for years.

562. When he needed something done, I would go do it for him.

563. I got a phone call stating that the office alarm had gone off,

564. and Carole was there.

565. Her and Kenny Farr had cut the locks on the gate,

566. cut the locks on the office.

567. Cut the power to the trailer, cut the water, cut the sewer.

568. The cops came because the alarm went off.

569. Anne McQueen come up because that was her office,

570. know what I mean? She's been here for years.

571. There were two wills, and there were two power of attorney

572. in my office in a box underneath my desk.

573. But whatever paperwork or whatever they needed,

574. there was nothing... that the cops could do

575. to stop the wife taking anything.

576. The will and the power of attorney,

577. they were all taken out of the office that day.

578. I was executor for both of their wills.

579. I was the power of attorney for both of them.

580. Who was the power of attorney on the new documents Carole produced?

581. Not me.

582. That new power of attorney gave her control over the estate.

583. But she prepared his power of attorney.

584. A normal person would put "Upon my death," you know.

585. First sentence, "Upon my disappearance."

586. Isn't it suspicious that the power of attorney says, "Upon my disappearance"?

587. Is that normal verbiage?

588. I have, in 37 years, never seen it say, "Or disappearance."

589. Never have.

590. Um, in that respect, this is terribly unusual.

591. I don't know who anticipates—

592. Everybody anticipates their death,

593. but who in the world anticipates disappearance?

594. And how did Carole behave in the aftermath of his disappearance?

595. After Don disappeared,

596. Carole and her family got rid of everybody that worked for Don.

597. They got rid of everything... that he owned.

598. There was a note pinned to the refrigerator door that said,

599. "Never speak that man's name again in this house."

600. Do you remember that, Donna telling us that?

601. - I forgot. - I remember that very well.

602. But then what about all of Don's assets?

603. Not the insurance policy. Was there—

604. I had nothing to do with that.

605. All his real estate, all of his holdings?

606. All went under his will, didn't it?

607. The will wouldn't have come into play because if you disappear,

608. you can't do anything for five years.

609. So Carole had him declared legally dead

610. five years and one day after he disappeared.

611. Here's the latest on the case.

612. A judge has just declared Lewis dead

613. since he's been missing five years,

614. but Hillsborough County Sheriff's deputies say

615. they will keep the case open until they have proof.

616. A lot of things happened during those five years.

617. A lot of things were moved around.

618. She took out a lot of good things for herself

619. and put in bad things in their accounts.

620. We ended up with all the yucky stuff.

621. She was taking property out of Don's name and our names

622. and putting it in her name.

623. I was the other woman for years.

624. After the kids came back

625. and they said that the mother didn't get a fair settlement

626. and they tried to take him back to court, get more money out of him,

627. that's when he disowned them. And so he said to nullify their trust,

628. but I didn't because I felt like those are his kids.

629. And someday he's going to feel differently,

630. so I left it in place.

631. So what's the theory that makes the most sense?

632. Well, there's no proof.

633. I feel the one that would benefit the most

634. from something happening to my father...

635. um... is Carol.

636. She knows.

637. You've got to look at it in the eyes of the law.

638. I mean, I can sit here on this interview and tell you I'd kill 37 people a week.

639. Well, that's okay...

640. but you got to have the bodies...

641. or it doesn't count.

642. Oh! You got me!

643. His wife says the worst part is not knowing.

644. No closure and no redemption for her.

645. There's no way that I can finally say,

646. "See! I didn't do it!"

647. I can't do it.

648. Nothing has ever shown up on this case whatsoever.

649. That poor woman is having to live under a cloud of suspicion all this time.

650. She sure is.

651. Hell, for the fun of it, let's see,

652. Carole's bitching that...

653. she has this black cloud over her head

654. of people thinking that she fed her husband to the tigers.

655. I mean, imagine that maybe she didn't have anything to do with it,

656. and let's say she did love Don,

657. and she did mourn his death tremendously.

658. To live with people

659. constantly saying those things and making those accusations,

660. you know, that can be hurtful and can change a person too.

661. - Was there ever a formal memorial... - No.

662. or funeral or anything?

663. - No. - So no one...

664. I remember the day his death certificate came...

665. I opened the letter and I just—

666. I remember looking out the window

667. and then the next time that I remembered anything

668. it was pitch black outside.

669. It was just like I had just completely zoned out.

670. I don't know where I went,

671. but that was the closest thing that I had to a memorial.

672. And what about the money in the end?

673. We definitely did not end up, um, with, um...

674. If I had to say it, probably ten percent.

675. You inherited only ten percent of his estate?

676. Mm-hmm.

677. And where did the rest go?

678. Carole.

679. There is a science of getting rich,

680. and it is an exact science.

681. The ownership of money and property

682. comes from doing things in a certain way.

683. Those who do things in a certain way,

684. whether on purpose or accidentally,

685. get rich.

686. Relative to most... animal people,

687. I would characterize her as reasonably rational.

688. We met on November 1st in 2002.

689. On November 1st of 2004, we got married.

690. My number one goal in life is gonna be to make this woman happy.

691. I'd love to be able to attend a funeral,

692. see a headstone.

693. I would like closure.

694. And what about justice?

695. That would be nice...

696. but I've never been a greedy person.

697. We all feel...

698. that Carole knows more than what she's telling.

699. There's nothing that I really want to say to any of these people.

700. I know that the only reason

701. that they are saying the things that they're saying

702. is because they see me as a threat

703. to their livelihood and to their ego.

704. And with that being their driving motivation,

705. there's nothing I'm gonna say or do that's gonna change that.

706. We never felt that it was investigated well enough.

707. They did say Carole was the prime suspect at the time,

708. but until, like she said, until someone comes forward...

709. Until someone would come forward...

710. I cannot tell you that we have zeroed in on any particular suspect.

711. I'd be remiss if I said that.

712. There is absolutely no physical evidence at this point in time

713. that would point at one particular individual.

714. When we started to speak out...

715. we did People magazine.

716. Inside Edition came to talk to us, and Hard Copy I believe wanted to.

717. That's when we got the thing from Carole to stop.

718. "I have the money, you do not,

719. and if you continue talking,

720. I will take everything away from you and your family."

721. That's why we haven't spoken out.

722. 'Cause you're afraid of Carole Baskin?

723. Oh, yes, I am.

724. I am.

725. I'm taking Carole on

726. because everyone else is scared to.

727. She has a lot of answering to do.

728. Her day is coming.