Netflix
Of all of the virtually unbelievable twists and turns that made Tiger King the crime documentary equivalent of an M.C. Escher painting, the revelation that Carole Baskin may or may not have killed her husband and disposed of his body with the help of some tigers who had no qualms about helping her cover up the crime may have been the wildest of them all.
Baskin has repeatedly denied she had any involvement in the 1997 disappearance of Don Lewis to any cool cats and kittens who will listen but that didn’t stop police from reopening an investigation into the case in the wake of the documentary’s release and law enforcement officials received a number of tips in the months that followed (although there haven’t been any significant public developments as a result).
A number of internet detectives have also started to look into the mystery in an attempt to determine what happened to the man who told people Baskin made him fear for his life shortly before he vanished. The family of Lewis (who the Big Cat Rescue founder had declared dead as soon as possible after marking the fifth anniversary of his disappearance) has been doing the same and even hired a lawyer over the summer to aid them in their hunt for answers.
In a twist that was just as unpredictable as it was inevitable in hindsight, Baskin was recently added to the cast of the newest season of Dancing with the Stars, which is slated to debut on Monday night. However, TMZ reports Lewis’ three daughters, his former assistant, and the attorney whose services have been retained will be joining her on the broadcast in the form of a commercial that will run during the program in which they’ll solicit viewers for information that could help solve the cold case.
The surviving family members have criticized the producers of the show for opting to extend an invite to Baskin (as if it wasn’t common knowledge that most people in charge of running reality television programs have an irreparably broken moral compass) so it’ll be interesting to see if it actually results in a break in the case.
However, one thing is for sure: Tiger King is truly the gift that keeps on giving.