Family of Carole Baskin's ex-husband break silence after she claimed he was found alive

The family of Carole Baskin's ex-husband have spoken out after she claimed he had been found alive.

In a resurfaced This Morning interview with the Tiger King animal rights activist, aired in November 2021, Baskin said her ex Don Lewis was 'alive and well'.

Lewis was declared dead back in 2002 after vanishing without a trace five years earlier - but in 2021, when Tiger King 2 was released, Baskin said that she was made aware of an apparent letter from Homeland Security claiming Lewis was alive.

She said: "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 Jorge Fernandez, which means this had to have happened after 2002, because Homeland Security wasn’t even around until 2002.

"They said my husband, Don Lewis, is alive and well in Costa Rica.

"And yet all of this drama has been made about me having something to do with his disappearance, when Homeland Security has known where he is."

But the daughters of Lewis have now refuted these comments.

Netflix

In a statement shared with the New York Post, they said: "In the past few days, we’ve learned of recent news articles being published claiming that our Dad, Jack Donald Lewis, has been found 'alive and well' in Costa Rica.

"While we would certainly welcome the good news of our dad being found alive, it’s just simply not true.

"In late 1997, we were notified by the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Department that a report existed from US Customs stating that our Dad had been seen in Costa Rica. This report prompted Donna, the oldest daughter of Don Lewis, and her husband Tim, to travel to Costa Rica in November of 1997 to look for Don Lewis.

"This was the same report that was shown in Tiger King 2 that is now being used to fill a different narrative as to what happened to our father."

The statement continued: "Our father is still listed as a missing person on the National Missing and Unidentified Persons database. The Hillsborough County Sheriffs Department is still actively working on our dad’s case, and we are in constant communication with them as they continue to move forward."

Jack Smith, a spokesperson for the family, added: "I think she's just trying to do anything she can to clear her name."

Topics: Film and TV

Jake Massey

Jake Massey is a journalist at LADbible. He graduated from Newcastle University, where he learnt a bit about media and a lot about living without heating. After spending a few years in Australia and New Zealand, Jake secured a role at an obscure radio station in Norwich, inadvertently becoming a real-life Alan Partridge in the process. From there, Jake became a reporter at the Eastern Daily Press. Jake enjoys playing football, listening to music and writing about himself in the third person.

@jakesmassey