01x03 - The Secret

[bunniefuu]

[Antle] What a story.

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

That's the first thing people think:

"Oh, come on, that can't be true.

It's 20 years ago. Cold case,

20-year-old murders don't get solved."

Well, it all starts, you know

Carole Baskin,

who was Carole Lewis at the time,

was married to Don Lewis.

[lions murmuring]

I did see Don Lewis

about maybe a month or so

before he disappeared.

And he did mention to me

that he felt his life was in danger.

[man] There are so many strange twists

in that story,

you would have to write books

and volumes of the stuff that went wrong

there, the lies that are there.

All the circumstantial evidence,

somebody did something to Don.

There's a lot of stories

about Carole having some finger in it

but nobody can prove it.

[Carole] I really believe

that everything happens for a reason.

Everything is unfolding

the way that it has to

for us to become

our highest possible self.

I don't regret any

of what I have lived through.

I wouldn't be standing here today

doing what I'm doing

if it hadn't been

for all of those things

that have happened

over the course of my life.

[visitors chatting indistinctly]

[woman] The last day that I saw Don,

he told me that he was done,

that he was divorcing her,

that she was one of the worst people

he had ever met in his life,

and she was very dangerous.

He did come to Mom

and say for us to stay away from her.

He was afraid of her.

We didn't know exactly why.

He indicated to me

that he was going to tell Carole

that he wanted a divorce.

Never saw him again.

[officer] I was the supervisor

in charge of the homicide section

with the Hillsborough County

Sheriff's Office in Tampa, Florida,

which also works adult missing persons.

In the case of Don Lewis, the call came in

as a typical missing adult.

Initially on

a missing person investigation,

you just think,

"Well, things are gonna work out.

Maybe this guy just went somewhere

and didn't touch base."

However, I would say

within the first week or two

that detectives were starting

to look at the possibility

that we had foul play or something

that was unexplainable

at that point in time.

It pays to have buckets with straw in it,

so they can't get out.

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

[Carole] I met Don in January of 1981,

so I was 20 when I met him.

- Um

- And he was how old?

He was 22 years my senior.

- Okay.

- So he was 42.

Yeah, she's just jealous.

You have to understand

that Don Lewis was married with kids,

but apparently, he was coming down,

I think it was Nebraska

and late one night he seen this young girl

walking down the street crying,

and Don Lewis stopped to see

if he could help her.

[Carole] I had been in a fight

with my first husband.

I actually had to throw a potato

across the kitchen

and into the dining room at him

in order to get out the door.

I deal with stress

I think the same way cats do.

I just pace and pace and pace and pace.

And I remember Don pulls around,

and he asks me if I would get in the car,

and I told him no.

Pulls around again,

and I think it was on the third time

he pulled around, and he had a g*n

sitting on the front seat of his car.

And he said,

"You can hold this g*n on me,

I just need somebody to talk to."

So I picked up the g*n, held it on him,

and we drove around town and he talked.

And I ended up

spending the night with him.

[Yates] Don Lewis deserted, basically,

his wife and kids

because he was in love

with the younger blonde woman

known as Carole.

[Lewis Cross]

He told me that he had met her.

I was speechless. I adored him.

I told him that I'd love him

till the day I died,

but it was over.

He used to call her angel,

and I said, "Well,

she's an angel sent straight from hell,

and one day, you'll find out."

[woman] At first it seemed like

they were really gonna make it.

I liked Carole.

I mean

I really, really did like Carole,

but

[sighs] Don was not an easy man.

Don was a millionaire,

he was a multi-millionaire, okay?

And he didn't like her spending his money.

She was very ambitious.

She wanted to go somewhere

and be somebody,

and she didn't want to stay

walking down the street

in the middle of the night.

I've got her diary.

I've got it all.

Good evening, world!

Welcome to saga six of the Carole story.

Okay, well, tonight

we just happened to have gotten

in the mail today

Carole's diary.

"He said he wanted to be loved

for the man he was inside,

and if women knew how rich he was,

he would never know if they loved him

for him or his money."

[McQueen] Don started out with nothing.

You could not have looked at Don

and even had an inkling

that he had amassed the wealth

that he had.

[man] You never saw Don dressed up.

He had his blue jeans and his t-shirt

but he carried a 500-dollar-bill around

in his pocket

just because he could.

We said he had a green thumb,

a green thumb for money,

because anything he touched,

practically

he made money on.

I worked for Don Lewis for ten, 15 years,

but knew him much longer than that.

And you'd have to know Don

to know his properties.

He liked to hide his stuff.

Like, he would hide money, bury money.

You know, hide gold bars,

bury the gold bars.

Don Lewis didn't want people knowing

what he had

and what he was worth,

but I'm gonna say

Don Lewis was probably worth, um

20 million? Maybe a little more.

I think it was closer to

seven to seven and a half million dollars,

is what he was worth.

I don't think anybody knew,

but I know at least five million,

if not ten million.

I knew him as his lawyer,

I knew what he was doing,

I knew a lot of what he was doing.

[Lewis Cross]

Don had money when he met Carole.

Carole pretty much had nothing.

He had something she didn't.

Were you having fun? Were you having fun?

[tiger yowls]

[Carole] Growing up,

my parents were very plain folk.

We usually lived in mobile homes.

I never really got how poor we were

until I was a teenager.

I had been r*ped at knifepoint

by three men

that lived across the street from me

when I was 14.

In my family,

they were fundamental Christians

that believed if a woman was involved

in something like that,

she must have been asking for it

in some way.

Well, I left home at the age of 15.

I got married to Michael when I was 17.

He was Jamie's father,

and he was extremely a*usive

but the idea of leaving

and having to raise a child on my own

was terrifying.

I was 20 when I met Don,

and 24 before I left my husband.

Don had a fascination with animals,

so we were a great team.

[woman] He was

more of an animal collector, I think.

He definitely liked the idea

of having a lot of different kinds

of animals.

[snarls]

See?

He gets along with the rest of the cats

real good out here,

though he just don't like people.

[auctioneer speaking indistinctly]

They started out

by going to the exotic animal auctions.

We started in 1992

with the purchase of a bobcat

who was going to be k*lled by taxidermists

at an auction.

The following year, we bought 56 bobcats

and lynx from a fur farm.

The next year, 28 bobcats and lynx.

The following year,

22 more bobcats and lynx.

And by the time we did that,

there were no more fur farms in the US

that were k*lling bobcats and lynx.

[reporter]

It's called Wildlife on Easy Street.

Guests tour the sanctuary,

take tons of pictures,

and even help feed the cats.

[McCarthy]

When they started Wildlife on Easy Street,

they bought, sold,

bred big cats for years.

Now, I would like to remind you, Carole,

that you are the one who spent

94,000 dollars

to buy animals

to fill your so-called sanctuary.

You still have them there

at your facility,

you're still tagging them as rescues,

and you're still 'frauding the public.

[man] I believe

that I sold Don and Carole Lewis

their very first tiger in 1995.

They flew their private plane

up to Shelbyville,

and that's how I met them,

and they seemed to be good people.

Sold 'em Scrappy, was his name.

He was an excellent little tiger.

This is the VHS that she made

back in the day.

The last time I probably seen it was 1996.

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

[Carole]

Our names are Don and Carole Lewis.

We have really enjoyed our exotics.

Throughout this tape, we'll show you

how we take them from the mother,

acclimate them

to social life with people

She had called me up

and asked about raising baby animals,

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

[Carole] They have to be taken this young

from the mother

in order to make

good quality pets from them.

A lot of people don't believe

that it's right

to raise up exotic animals as house pets.

[Joe] You know, back in the early '90s,

she bred and sold cats.

And [chuckles] it's so funny,

because the very people

that are against breeding

used to do the same thing.

[Carole]

I think you'll see throughout this tape

that they are very happy

and they're so much fun!

Okay, now we're gonna jump around

because I'm sure

you don't want to hear about

all the cats they bought,

all the kittens they bred,

and how many died

because they didn't have any clue

what they were doing.

I think that Carole did start feeling bad

about selling the animals

and maybe breeding them

and crossbreeding them.

Carole wanted the animals

just to collect and love

and he looked at it more as a business.

Don and I had differing feelings

about conservation and breeding.

He loved cubs, he loved breeding cats.

He would go down to Costa Rica

once a month,

and every time he was in Costa Rica,

I'd have the vet out here

and I would neuter and spay as many cats

as fast as I could.

The attraction for Don in Costa Rica

was the lack of regulations, you know.

If they could have the cats down there,

he would've been free to breed them.

[Carole humming, singing]

[man] Was that consistent

in what Carole wanted to do?

Apparently, not.

They were arguing about it.

She didn't want to take the cats

and go there.

[Lewis Cross] That is when we learned

that they weren't getting along real good.

He also had a girlfriend in Costa Rica

so I think one of their main problems was

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

[Sanchez] I think she thinks

she would be the one to change him.

[Lewis Cross]

She thought she was pretty enough,

young enough,

that she would be all he needed

and that was never going to happen.

[man] Did he have other women?

I suspected it.

I never saw it in person,

but I've heard enough to book

to say that's probably true.

[Lively] He liked ladies, I'm sure.

I would see him with two

or three different ones, you know?

[chuckles]

[Lewis Cross] Don was 17 and I was 14

when we got married.

My mom had to sign the papers

and so did his mother,

because he was too young.

Life was good.

The only thing that went wrong was

when someone would call me and say,

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

[Sanchez] That was a problem with him,

because he did have a roaming eye.

There's names, you know: sexaholic.

If my dad had anything,

that would have been it.

"What is my sick need

that I'm trying to fill

with this venomous man?

I've asked forever,

but I still don't know.

He's all I've ever known,

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

I hope Jamie never finds herself

in such a sick

and perverted relationship."

[McQueen] At the end,

I know there was talk of divorce.

I think he was preparing his estate

and assets in a way

that he could get a divorce

without losing everything,

and I think he thought she was there

solely for the purpose

of getting his money.

And that was

what he was trying to protect.

[Farr] If Don Lewis had have gotten

a divorce with Carole

the way Don would have worked,

she would have been left

with really nothing.

She would have lost the cats,

she would have lost everything

down to the house and a car.

Would have been a devastating blow.

Oh, yes, he's a good boy.

Yes, he's a good boy.

[Joe] "I listened while he told me

that all of his money is his,

and everything he earned by himself

and brought into this marriage by himself.

I wish there was some way out for me."

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

- [indistinct chatter]

- [panther yowling]

[McQueen]

Don started looking a little bit funny,

and then one day he came in

and he brought me a piece of paper.

It was in an envelope, and he said,

"Here, you need to take this home,

you need to keep it.

If anything happens to me,

give it to the police."

He'd given me a copy

of the restraining order

that he had filed for.

[Rathbone] "This is the second time

Carole has gotten angry enough

to threaten to k*ll me."

"Carole and I got into a big fuss,

and she ordered me out of the house

or she would k*ll me.

She has a .45 revolver

and she took my .357 and hid it."

Daddy never really involved "the law"

in anything.

Um, it was just something

that he resisted.

For him to go down there

and write that out

and present it before a judge

- was major, in my eyes.

- [Lewis Cross] So wise.

That is not something he would do

unless he was at his wits' end

with how to protect himself

but he was denied protection.

It doesn't show stalking,

it doesn't show battery,

it doesn't show anything.

It shows a verbal argument,

and that's not enough

to get an injunction.

[man] And so that's why you think

it was denied?

That's why I know it was denied.

- But obviously

- That was dead on arrival.

What raises my eyebrows

is "she threatened to k*ll me."

- That's not enough to get a

- Nope.

- a restraining order?

- There's free speech.

We don't restrain free speech

in this country,

we punish it after it's done.

I'm sure in the judge's eyes

it was hearsay,

but that happened in June,

and he disappeared in August.

[reporter] A local millionaire vanishes

without a trace,

but did he simply walk away?

Or did something more ominous

happen to him?

I never threatened him.

[reporter 2] His wife, Carole Lewis,

says he was planning to transport cars

to Costa Rica.

He said to be sure

and get the Costa Rica truck ready

'cause he was leaving early, early,

early in the morning for Miami

and that was the last thing

that he said to me.

The last thing he said to me was

that he needed me

to have Kenny get a truck ready

because he was going early, early, early,

he said, the next day to Costa Rica

and that was the last I saw of him,

so I just don't know.

[Farr] We was building this cage,

and Don started to tell me something.

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

it will be the slickest thing

I ever did in my life."

And I know

that there was more to follow

like he didn't finish

what he was saying

and he left with a phone call,

and he left out.

I never got to see him again after that.

That was the last thing

that Don Lewis ever said to me

was, "If I can pull this off,

it will be the slickest thing

I ever did in my life."

[McQueen] He was shipping some cars

down to Costa Rica.

Everything had to be down in Miami

Monday morning

and I had to get all the titles

to the cars and stuff ready,

but I needed him to tell me something.

I kept waiting for him to call me.

He didn't call me.

I started calling him.

Didn't answer the phone.

He didn't answer the phone.

This continued all through Saturday,

all through Sunday.

I got no answer.

[phone ringing]

[McQueen] I finally got ahold of Carole.

She says, "Do you think

I should call the police?"

And I said, "Do you think?"

[Marsicano] Jack Don Lewis was last seen

on August the 18th.

He was reported missing on the 19th

by his wife

at about 1:30 in the afternoon.

The detectives walked the property

and drove the proper

Now, you're talking about 40 acres.

Apparently there was nothing there

that suggested

that they should pursue that area

any further.

There were aerial searches done

but found nothing.

Then, after three or four days,

we found his van abandoned at an airport.

With the keys still in it,

his briefcase in it, but no Don Lewis.

[Farr] And it didn't make sense.

Like, with what he said to me,

if he was truly wanting to disappear

and nobody know where he was at,

would you leave your van

where you got in a plane to take off?

You wouldn't want nobody to know

you was in the plane,

- because that's now a clue.

- [man] You think it was planted?

I think someone else drove the van there.

I don't know if it was planted there.

[Farr] I think the police did

a horrible job

at the investigation side of it.

The cops never looked at the van

when it was at the airport

and they let them bring that van

back to Easy Street.

And it was there for a couple of days

before the cops came to look at the van.

To even look in the van.

A couple of days that van sat there.

[Lively] They came and spoke with me

because they found my fingerprints

inside of his van.

Four days before he disappeared,

he dropped his van off

for me to do some work to it,

but he tried to talk me into

going to Costa Rica.

He said, "Come on

and go to Costa Rica with me."

[man] Why did he want to go

to Costa Rica so badly?

He liked it down there.

The long-term plan,

according to the investigation,

was that he would eventually move

the Big Cat Rescue,

or Wildlife on Easy Street

as it was known then,

down to the Costa Rica area.

We actually sent myself

and another detective

and did multiple interviews

down in Costa Rica.

We spent about four or five days

in the area

to try and determine

if there was any link there at all.

[man] And how would he get to Costa Rica?

He flew commercial out of Miami.

But Don did fly a lot of airplanes.

He owned

I don't know how many airplanes he owned.

But all of his planes were small

and you could not fly those things

that far.

It's impossible with the size

and types of planes that Don had,

that I know of, that he could nonstop

go from here to Costa Rica.

You'd have to make four fuel stops.

It's just not in the cards.

[Mariscano] I don't believe

that Jack Don Lewis flew to Costa Rica.

There's nothing at all to indicate

that Don left his van there

and got in a plane

and crashed it somewhere.

There was no record of any take-off

of an airplane,

there was no flight filed. Nothing.

Don lost his pilot's license

the day after he got it,

so he never flew legitimately again.

Every flight he ever did after that,

and there were a lot of them,

he was flying illegally,

so, no, he wasn't reporting.

He would go down over the Gulf of Mexico,

down underneath the level

where radar picks you up.

[Fritz] My understanding was

is he went to

evaluate some new plane that was for sale.

I was told

that he was pushed out of the plane

out of the door 50 feet over the Gulf,

way out.

[Carole] If he had any kind of an accident

out over the Gulf,

we never would have found anything.

He had had several plane crashes

and had really damaged himself

in one of them,

and I don't think

he was ever completely right

after that last crash.

I was seeing behavior in him

that just didn't make any sense.

Like, he could remember things

from way back when he was a kid,

but he couldn't remember where he was

for the last five minutes.

And one of our volunteers came to me

and said

that that looked like Alzheimer's to him.

Maybe he doesn't know who he is.

Maybe he doesn't know where to call home.

That's all bull.

I don't believe a word about dementia

or forgetfulness or any of that crap.

No, no, no.

He knew exactly what was going on.

Who, what, where, when, how, why,

he knew all of that.

That's not a problem.

[reporter]

Carole says he was an unusual man.

Eccentric is a good word to use.

[Williams] Carole's smart.

She's setting the stage for

"He just up and disappeared,

and we don't know what the hell happened."

She spent, I'm sure,

a lot of time setting the stage

for the dementia and the forgetfulness.

[reporter] According to diary entries

allegedly written by Carole,

she was feeling boxed in

by Don's notorious cheating.

[Williams] "It's no use to leave him."

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

[reporter] Police combed the area.

But after a year and a half

of investigating numerous theories,

police still have no suspects.

[Fritz] Somebody, sometime,

someplace, somewhere, somehow,

wanted to be rid of Don Lewis.

And apparently, they got their way.

My understanding was that he was k*lled.

[man] By?

Won't go there.

[growling]

[man] I need my clapper!

I need my clapper, Mark,

what are you doing?

[cameraman] Go in front of the camera

and say, "Take two!"

[man] Take two.

Everything was fine

Just as sweet as wine ♪

But her husband went and disappeared ♪

But then it got a little crazy

It got a little hazy ♪

And the cops said

There's something wrong here ♪

Oh, here, kitty kitty ♪

The best thing he's done,

it's worth just bringing up:

the music video, "Here Kitty Kitty,"

about Carole k*lling her husband.

And a look-alike Carole

walking along with him

while he's singing,

feeding body parts to her cats.

He's got extreme sh*t.

You haven't seen "Here Kitty Kitty,"

you don't know what you're missing.

[Kirkham] Joe had everyone convinced

she'd m*rder*d her husband,

and we were all going with it.

And me, as a reality show producer?

Oh, I was "f*ck yeah, man,

roll the cameras," you know?

So the whole world's wondering,

did you actually grind your husband up

and feed him to the tigers

so there's no evidence?

I'm gonna show you some stuff

that will put that right in your head.

But you can't prosecute

There's just no use ♪

There's nothing left but tiger tracks ♪

People want to believe something

that's just totally outlandish,

and so it has been a problem.

[snarls]

[Joe]

These tigers have such an acidic stomach

that when you feed them a whole turkey,

there's no bones that come out, okay?

It's gone.

[lions murmuring]

[man] Is there any chance

Don had been k*lled by one of his cats?

- No.

- Why?

Didn't happen.

There'd be a body, there'd be blood,

there'd be this, there'd be that.

No. There wasn't a cat out there

that could eat 100 pounds of flesh.

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

There'd be something.

His own kids demanded

that they DNA test the meat grinder.

Sheriff's office wouldn't do it.

We had a meat grinder.

If you've ever seen

a Butcher Boy meat grinder,

it's about that big around.

That became, like,

this wholly exciting thing,

that I ran him through that grinder,

and it's like,

I couldn't have run his hand

through the grinder, much less a body.

I mean, there's another theory

that one of the buildings they built,

there's a septic tank underneath it

that he was put in that.

[Joe] If we could ever get the law

to go in there

and dig up that septic tank,

I promise you

he's underneath that damn thing.

[Joe]

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

Get me the f*ck out

from under the septic tank.

It was in the ground, it was operational,

Judy had moved into the property

before Don ever disappeared,

so how would I have then

put him in the septic tank?

I believe

that there's a lot of people out there

that are speculating

and don't have anything to back it up.

One day, somebody's gonna stub their toe.

There is a god

her name is karma,

and she has a sick sense of humor.

[Mariscano]

Yeah, we heard all the stories.

We've done everything we could do

in terms of trying to put those to rest,

but sometimes legally, there

You can't pursue exactly

what you'd like to do.

You have to stay within the bounds

of the law.

Anybody could be a suspect.

Now, having said that,

clearly the most information

that we're gonna get

are the people that were closest to Don,

so that's where we've looked.

[Fritz] Anne McQueen was probably

the closest person alive to Don Lewis.

She watched out for his best interests,

he watched her back.

Don trusted Anne with every penny he had.

He would've been lost without her.

I cooperated in every form and fashion

that they wanted me to cooperate.

[man] Who were the other suspects?

I think it was me and Carole.

[Mariscano] In any investigation

like this, you go to

the husband or the wife

or whatever close family member

that is still surviving

or still around that you can interview.

[Williams] Carole's brother was a member

of the sheriff's department,

and I think he maintained

some sort of, well, you know

"That's my sister,

I want you to tread lightly."

And I don't know that happened, but

I'm sure he wouldn't just stand there

and do nothing.

Her brother worked

for the sheriff's department,

but I don't think I don't think

that there was collusion there.

[Carole]

I never really knew my brother, because

Fosh, by the time I was 15,

he would have been, what, nine.

So we never had much of a relationship.

It's funny,

he grew up to be a sheriff's deputy,

which was the last thing I ever thought

my brother would grow up to be,

because he was so shy.

[Mariscano]

The day that Don went missing

the investigation indicated

Carole had left Wildlife on Easy Street

to drive to a nearby store

named Albertsons

to pick up some milk byproducts

for the cats.

At three o'clock in the morning.

Her car broke down,

and Carole ran into her brother,

who was accompanied by another deputy.

The second deputy gave her a ride

back to her home.

After that,

Carole indicated the last time

that she saw her husband

was just several hours later,

and he was never seen again.

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

that the detectives would have

pursued that and made sure that

there was nothing

out of the ordinary about that.

Maybe if you have a sheriff

that's in there that's saying,

you know, this guy is kinda crazy

and, you know, dementia,

and he does this all the time,

he's probably in

Maybe the sheriff's department would drag

their feet at that point and be like,

"Well, let's just wait and see

where it goes."

In her family,

there just wasn't a lot of love for Don.

I know her father, Carole's father,

Vernon, could not stand him.

Absolutely could not stand Don.

[Farr] So, Carole's dad, Vernon,

come and built cages with me.

He definitely had his daughter's back.

I just felt like Carole did something,

and they needed to protect her

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

[Farr] After Don disappeared, Carole

and Vernon, her dad, had asked me

"Kenny, we need to get something

from the office."

And I'd like to say,

I had did this kind of stuff

for Don Lewis for years.

When he needed something done,

I would go do it for him.

I got a phone call stating

that the office alarm had gone off,

and Carole was there.

Her and Kenny Farr had cut the locks

on the gate,

cut the locks on the office.

Cut the power to the trailer,

cut the water, cut the sewer.

The cops came because the alarm went off.

Anne McQueen come up

because that was her office,

know what I mean?

She's been here for years.

There were two wills,

and there were two power of attorney

in my office in a box underneath my desk.

But whatever paperwork

or whatever they needed,

there was nothing

that the cops could do

to stop the wife taking anything.

[McQueen] The will

and the power of attorney,

they were all taken out of the office

that day.

I was executor for both of their wills.

I was the power of attorney

for both of them.

[man] Who was the power of attorney

on the new documents Carole produced?

Not me.

That new power of attorney

gave her control over the estate.

[Joe] But she prepared

his power of attorney.

A normal person would put

"Upon my death," you know.

First sentence, "Upon my disappearance."

[man] Isn't it suspicious that the power

of attorney says, "Upon my disappearance"?

Is that normal verbiage?

I have, in 37 years,

never seen it say, "Or disappearance."

Never have.

Um, in that respect,

this is terribly unusual.

I don't know who anticipates

Everybody anticipates their death,

but who in the world

anticipates disappearance?

[man] And how did Carole behave

in the aftermath of his disappearance?

[Farr] After Don disappeared,

Carole and her family got rid of

everybody that worked for Don.

They got rid of everything

that he owned.

[Rathbone] There was a note pinned

to the refrigerator door that said,

"Never speak that man's name again

in this house."

Do you remember that,

Donna telling us that?

- I forgot.

- I remember that very well.

[man] But then what about

all of Don's assets?

Not the insurance policy. Was there

I had nothing to do with that.

[man] All his real estate,

all of his holdings?

All went under his will, didn't it?

The will wouldn't have come into play

because if you disappear,

you can't do anything for five years.

So Carole had him declared legally dead

five years and one day

after he disappeared.

[man] Here's the latest on the case.

A judge has just declared Lewis dead

since he's been missing five years,

but Hillsborough County

Sheriff's deputies say

they will keep the case open

until they have proof.

A lot of things happened

during those five years.

A lot of things were moved around.

She took out a lot of good things

for herself

and put in bad things in their accounts.

We ended up with all the yucky stuff.

[Lewis Cross] She was taking property

out of Don's name and our names

and putting it in her name.

[Carole] I was the other woman for years.

After the kids came back

and they said that the mother didn't get

a fair settlement

and they tried to take him back to court,

get more money out of him,

that's when he disowned them.

And so he said to nullify their trust,

but I didn't because I felt like

those are his kids.

And someday

he's going to feel differently,

so I left it in place.

[man] So what's the theory

that makes the most sense?

Well, there's no proof.

I feel the one that would benefit the most

from something happening to my father

um is Carol.

She knows.

You've got to look at it

in the eyes of the law.

I mean, I can sit here on this interview

and tell you I'd k*ll 37 people a week.

Well, that's okay

but you got to have the bodies

[laughs] or it doesn't count.

[Carole] Oh! You got me!

[reporter] His wife says the worst part

is not knowing.

No closure and no redemption for her.

There's no way that I can finally say,

"See! I didn't do it!"

I can't do it.

Nothing has ever shown up

on this case whatsoever.

That poor woman is having to live

under a cloud of suspicion all this time.

She sure is.

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

Carole's bitching that

she has this black cloud over her head

of people thinking

that she fed her husband to the tigers.

I mean, imagine that maybe

she didn't have anything to do with it,

and let's say she did love Don,

and she did mourn his death tremendously.

To live with people

constantly saying those things

and making those accusations,

you know, that can be hurtful

and can change a person too.

- [man] Was there ever a formal memorial

- No.

or funeral or anything?

- No.

- So no one

I remember the day

his death certificate came

I opened the letter and I just

I remember looking out the window

and then the next time

that I remembered anything

it was pitch black outside.

It was just like

I had just completely zoned out.

I don't know where I went,

but that was the closest thing

that I had to a memorial.

[man] And what about the money in the end?

We definitely did not end up, um,

with, um

If I had to say it, probably ten percent.

[man] You inherited only ten percent

of his estate?

Mm-hmm.

[man] And where did the rest go?

Carole.

[Carole]

There is a science of getting rich,

and it is an exact science.

The ownership of money and property

comes from doing things in a certain way.

Those who do things in a certain way,

whether on purpose or accidentally,

get rich.

Relative to most animal people,

I would characterize her

as reasonably rational.

[Carole chuckles]

[Carole] We met on November 1st in 2002.

On November 1st of 2004, we got married.

[Howard] My number one goal in life

is gonna be to make this woman happy.

[McQueen]

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

see a headstone.

I would like closure.

[man] And what about justice?

That would be nice

but I've never been a greedy person.

We all feel

that Carole knows more

than what she's telling.

There's nothing that I really want to say

to any of these people.

I know that the only reason

that they are saying the things

that they're saying

is because they see me as a threat

to their livelihood and to their ego.

And with that being

their driving motivation,

there's nothing I'm gonna say or do

that's gonna change that.

[Sanchez] We never felt

that it was investigated well enough.

They did say Carole was the prime suspect

at the time,

but until, like she said,

until someone comes forward

Until someone would come forward

I cannot tell you that we have zeroed in

on any particular suspect.

I'd be remiss if I said that.

There is absolutely no physical evidence

at this point in time

that would point

at one particular individual.

[Sanchez] When we started to speak out

we did People magazine.

Inside Edition came to talk to us,

and Hard Copy I believe wanted to.

That's when we got the thing

from Carole to stop.

"I have the money, you do not,

and if you continue talking,

I will take everything away from you

and your family."

[Lewis Cross]

That's why we haven't spoken out.

[man]

'Cause you're afraid of Carole Baskin?

Oh, yes, I am.

I am.

[Joe over the phone] I'm taking Carole on

because everyone else is scared to.

She has a lot of answering to do.

Her day is coming.

[closing music plays]