Jack Donald Lewis, 59, of Tampa, Florida, was last seen August 18, 1997. He left home early that morning to make a delivery at about 6:00 a.m. and was never heard from again. His white 1989 Dodge van was found the next day at the Pilot Country Airport, a private airfield in Pasco County, with the keys inside and no other obvious clues.

Lewis had aviation experience and owned several planes, though his pilot’s license had been suspended at the time because of prior accidents. He was a wealthy real estate developer who co-owned a wildlife sanctuary, Wildlife on Easy Street, with his wife, Carole Baskin. The marriage had been troubled in the months before his disappearance; Lewis had sought a domestic violence injunction against Baskin two months earlier, alleging she had threatened his life. Baskin denied involvement and declined a polygraph on her attorney’s advice. Investigators checked Lewis’s properties and contacts in Costa Rica after rumors he’d fled there but found no evidence he traveled there after August 1997. He was declared legally dead in 2002, but no conclusive explanation has been established.