Carole Baskin claims her husband is alive after being missing for decades

Carole Baskin's ex-husband Don Lewis is alive and well in Costa Rica – after being "missing" for decades.

Lewis' disappearance became one ofTiger King's, biggest unsolved mysteries, with eccentric rival Joe Exotic's unfounded speculations that Baskin killed her husband and fed him to the tigers.

Baskin has always adamantly denied such accusations.

Baskin's ex-husband disappeared in 1997 when he left his home in Florida. He was later declared dead in 2002 with no evidence of foul play. Authorities believe he went missing on his own.

However, in news that escaped us: Don Lewis is alive.

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In resurfaced ITV footage from over a year ago, Baskin claimed the Department of Homeland Security got in touch in regards to her former spouse.

"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 [Jorge] Fernandez, which means this had to have happened after 2002 because Homeland Security wasn’t even around until 2002," she said at the time.

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

Before her discovery, the CEO of Big Cat Rescue turned to Reddit with a candid ‘Ask Me Anything’ to clear up any spiralling rumours.

The most popular question on the thread racked up over 12,000 upvotes. It read: "What do you think happened to your missing husband?"

In response, she wrote: "Don loved to fly and was looking to buy ultralights and experimental planes. I believe Don crashed a small experimental plane or ultralight into the Gulf for a number of reasons,"

"He wasn’t licensed to fly, yet did all the time. He couldn’t file a flight plan and had to take off from closed airports to evade detection.

"He had to fly under 200 feet to stay off the radar which means he would typically fly out over the Gulf because the air is smoother there, whereas over land there are up and down drafts that will crash you at the height.

"Since phone records indicated he was planning to go to Texas, and his van was found at a small private airstrip and we have never found Don or wreckage, I think this was the most likely scenario."

Indy100 has reached out to Homeland Security for comment.

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