Survivor season 48 finalist and upcoming Survivor 50 contestant Joe Hunter has claimed his former brother-in-law murdered his beloved older sister, staging the scene to look like a suicide.
Joe, 46, talked to CBS‘s 48 Hours for an in-depth investigation into Joanna Hunter’s death. Host Natalie Morales tells RadarOnline.com exclusively about the chilling trend of “hidden homicides,” including that of Joanna, which resulted in a new California law about how authorities handle the death scenes of domestic violence victims.
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Joe Hunter ‘Knew’ His Sister Was Murdered
Joe Hunter’s sister, Joanna, was in the process of leaving her allegedly abusive husband (not pictured) when she was found dead in what authorities quickly called a suicide.
Joanna’s body was found in the bedroom closet of the Vacaville, California, home she shared with husband Mark Lewis in October 2011.
She had seemingly hung herself with a bathrobe sash, and the Solano County Sheriff’s Department ruled it a suicide less than half an hour after arriving on scene to find her lifeless body.
Joe explains in the Saturday, December 13, episode of 48 Hours, “The day that I got the news will always be etched in my brain. ‘Your sister is dead.’ I knew right then he had taken her life.”
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No Signs of Foul Play?
Joanna Hunter, seen with brother Joe, had filed several restraining orders and left her husband several times before she was found dead at their home.
Joe and his mother, Patricia, go on to detail the years of alleged abuse Joanna suffered at the hands of Lewis, including a 1996 hospitalization with a severely sprained neck. Lewis was convicted on a domestic violence charge and sentenced to 36 months in Solano County jail for the incident.
The duo reveals how Joanna was planning to leave her husband once and for all on the day of her death. Police photos showed an open red suitcase at the scene along with a five-word note telling Lewis to “take care of” their dogs.
Police would call the brief note a suicide letter.
After Joanna’s body was found, Lewis was handcuffed, questioned briefly, and let go, with cops determining immediately there were no signs of a struggle or foul play.
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New Evidence of a Homicide Emerges
Joe Hunter has worked for years to get authorities to reopen his sister’s case and investigate it as a homicide.
Morales and her team revealed the Solano County Sheriff’s Office hired forensic expert Dr. Bill Smock to review the case in 2023, one of two times since Joanna’s death that officials looked into whether or not to reopen her case for a criminal investigation.
Smock told Morales he was “sure that Joanna was murdered.”
He pointed out in the photos of Joanna’s death scene, there was a braided nylon marine rope three feet from her body.
“The murder weapon was in the room with Joanna,” he explained. “When you look at photos of mark created on her neck, the only thing in her closet that could have created it was the marine rope.”
Due to an NDA Dr. Smock signed with the Solanno County Sheriff’s Department, no one outside of it had previously seen his report.
Dr. Smock then showed Morales how Joanna’s neck had two distinct ligature marks: one from the bathrobe sash and one from the marine rope, with the latter causing her death in never-before-seen autopsy photos.
“She was dead when the bathrobe sash was applied to her neck,” Dr. Smock alleged.
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‘Hidden Homicides’ on the Rise
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Natalie Morales sheds light on the chilling rise of ‘hidden homicides’ on ’48 hours.’
In the battle for justice in Joe’s sister’s case, Joanna’s Law was signed into California law in January, requiring a checklist for law enforcement to look for red flags of domestic violence at suspicious death scenes. They’re to treat the scene as a possible homicide, including careful collection of evidence.
“The hope is to spread awareness of what domestic abuse survivors go through and what hidden homicides are,” Morales tells us.
“Before reporting on this, I’d never heard of hidden homicides. It was a real education for me,” the longtime broadcast journalist explains.
She adds, “Thinking about all of the cases I’ve covered, there are so many suspicious circumstances where abuse was in the background” that could have brought different outcomes if examined under the same requirements as Joanna’s law.
The California Department of Justice is now reviewing Solano County’s decision not to move forward with reopening Joanna’s case as a possible homicide.
