Carol baskin8/12/2023 On August 20, his white 1989 Dodge Ram Van was found at the Pilot Country Airport in Spring Hill, Florida, 40 miles (64 km) away from the sanctuary. Lewis disappeared on August 18, 1997, after leaving his home to make an early-morning delivery around 6:00 a.m. Lewis's van was found at the Pilot Country Airport (2016 photo with unrelated vehicle). Lewis told her multiple times that he wanted a divorce, but she says she thought he was not being serious. ![]() Lewis continued to live with her afterwards, despite having sought the restraining order. Baskin claims that he filed the request because she would haul away some of his junk whenever he visited Costa Rica. In July 1997, Lewis filed for a restraining order against Baskin, claiming she had threatened to kill him and had hidden his gun to prevent him from protecting himself the request was rejected. ![]() However, Lewis's former personal attorney and a former business associate have disputed this characterization. She said he was losing his short-term memory and was sometimes disoriented, and she suspected he was developing Alzheimer's disease. īaskin has claimed that Lewis's mental health had been deteriorating, and he had begun rummaging in dumpsters and hoarding vehicles and junk. In the days leading up to his disappearance, he had bought a plane ticket to Costa Rica and was loading equipment onto a truck he planned to drive to Miami. In early 1997, Lewis began transferring ownership of his properties in Florida to a Costa Rican company he controlled. ![]() Lewis told family members and friends that he was planning to eventually move to Costa Rica. Īccording to Murdock, who remarried in 2004 and took the name Baskin, Lewis was obsessed with sex and would frequently fly to Costa Rica to engage in affairs – especially when she was menstruating. The two clashed over how to run the sanctuary he wanted to breed the cats and operate it as a business while she wanted it to be a non-profit charity. The following year, the couple co-founded Wildlife on Easy Street (now called Big Cat Rescue), an animal sanctuary for big cats in Tampa. Lewis and Murdock divorced each of their spouses and married in 1991. She became one of his many girlfriends and substantially grew his wealth by helping him buy and sell real estate in 1984. Carole Murdock and Lewis began having an affair while both were still married. In January 1981, Lewis met Carole Murdock ( née Stairs Jones) on Hillsborough Avenue near 50th Street in Tampa, on a night when she fled her house after being attacked by her abusive first husband, Michael Murdock. He married his first wife, Gladys Lewis Cross, and had three daughters and an adopted son. By 1981, Lewis had made his living through trucking, real estate and his used car businesses. Background ĭon Lewis was a native of Dade City, Florida. ![]() The Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office has used the popularity of Tiger King to help investigate the disappearance. Lewis's disappearance was covered in both seasons of the crime documentary series Tiger King, which focused on a feud between Baskin and Oklahoma-based private zoo owner Joe Exotic. He was declared legally dead in 2002 on the fifth anniversary of his disappearance. Lewis left behind over US$5 million in assets. No evidence of Lewis being murdered has surfaced, but investigators believe it is unlikely that he disappeared on his own. The investigation into his disappearance has stretched from Lewis's Wildlife on Easy Street sanctuary in Tampa, co-owned with his second wife Carole Baskin, to land owned by Lewis in Costa Rica. Jack Donald Lewis (April 30, 1938) is an American missing person who disappeared on the morning of August 18, 1997, after leaving his home in Tampa, Florida.
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