Kept In The Dark: Carole Baskin's Employees Allegedly Thought All Was 'Business As Usual' After Don Lewis Went Missing: Source
Feb. 5 2023, Published 3:30 p.m. ET
Carole Baskin allegedly waited days to tell her ex-husband Don Lewis' employees that he had gone missing after he disappeared in 1997, RadarOnline.com has learned.
A law enforcement source tells us that after The Tiger King star filed a missing person report with the police she didn't immediately tell his family or his employees.
The source, who was personally connected to the initial investigation, claimed police talked to volunteers and paid employees on and around the expansive Florida property, but they all said Baskin — her name was Carole Lewis at the time — "didn't even talk to anybody about the fact that he was missing" for more than a week after his disappearance.
"The people that were going into work and volunteering there [at Big Cat Rescue], one of them said it was business as usual with her," the source told OK! Magazine in an exclusive interview. "Like she never said that 'Don's missing, we need to search for him' .. there was none of that."
One of Lewis' assistants, who worked for him at his trucking company, allegedly was the one who informed the family that the 59-year-old had gone missing.
Meanwhile, the television personality got to work sorting out legal concerns regarding Lewis' assets. Over a "three-week period" following his disappearance, it's been reported Baskin filed two Power of Attorneys, a will, and also went to court to "get full conservatorship of the estate."
Over the course of the investigation, Baskin told authorities that her husband had been acting strangely and suffering from memory problems, claiming he had gotten MRI's to find out what was wrong. However, per the source, "there's absolutely no documentation that says that he ever went to a doctor for that or says that he was treated for that."
"Anyone that we talked to said that he was of sound mind, including every single employee that we talked to, every volunteer that we talked to," the source continued.
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The source also shared that Baskin suggested to police that her husband could have simply gotten lost or crashed his private plane somewhere due to his alleged health problems, and unfortunately, "the Hillsborough County Sherriff's detectives bought into it at the time."
