Since the release of Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness, one of the docuseries’ stars Carole Baskin is revealing that she has installed new security cameras on the premises of the Big Cat Rescue site. The ongoing feud between she and main star Joe “Exotic” Maldonado-Passage had her fearing for her life at one point, and even though he’s currently in prison serving a 22-year sentence, Baskin is now installing more security. This is because of the loads of passersby stopping by the property due to Tiger King’s popularity.
In a new video Baskin released on YouTube, she admits that since the release of Tiger King, she’s put in new cameras on the property that will notify those who work there when someone’s driving down the road due to motion sensors.
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“Since this Tiger King thing, everybody wants to come down and have their picture made at the front gate, but we wanna make sure there aren’t people doing anything bad there, so we installed more surveillance cameras that we can watch that have a motion sensor that alerts all of us on the phone as soon as somebody drives down our road,” she explained.
Maldonado-Passage, who’s serving a 22-year prison sentence for 17 counts of animal abuse and two counts of murder-for-hire for allegedly plotting how to kill Baskin on her property, created suspicious hype around Baskin. It was also revealed in the docuseries the questions that surrounded Baskin’s late husband Jack Donald “Don” Lewis’ disappearance. Maldonado-Passage accused Basking of killing Lewis and feeding his body to her tigers, but Baskin shut that down. However, Hillsborough County Sheriff Chad Chronister is using the hype surrounding the new show to potentially gain new leads on the cold case.
“We are already receiving new tips and we hope to close this cold case soon with the help of the public,” Chronister told CNN. “Since the documentary came out we’ve been receiving about six tips a day related to this case. We are looking into each one thoroughly.”
A few years ago, it was reported that Baskin turned down a polygraph test because her attorney said it would not vindicate her if she passed, but according to Chronister, they don’t have any new evidence that would justify asking her again.
“Like any case at the Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office we want to bring closure to the families involved and the community. We are seeing greater interest in this case thanks to Tiger King and we encourage anyone who knows something to call 813-247-8200,” Chronister concluded.
Lewis was last seen Aug. 18, 1997.
