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 appear to be a suicide.
Joe, 46, talked to CBS’s 48 Hours for an in-depth investigation into Joanna Hunter’s demise. Host Natalie Morales tells RadarOnline.com completely in regards to the chilling development of “hidden homicides,” together with that of Joanna, which resulted in a brand new California regulation about how authorities deal with the demise scenes of home violence victims.
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Joe Hunter ‘Knew’ His Sister Was Murdered
Joe Hunter’s sister, Joanna, was within the strategy of leaving her allegedly abusive husband (not pictured) when she was discovered lifeless in what authorities rapidly known as a suicide.
Joanna’s physique was discovered within the bed room closet of the Vacaville, California, residence she shared with husband Mark Lewis in October 2011.
She had seemingly hung herself with a bathrobe sash, and the Solano County Sheriff’s Division dominated it a suicide lower than half an hour after arriving on scene to seek out her lifeless physique.
Joe explains within the Saturday, December 13, episode of 48 Hours, “The day that I bought the information will all the time be etched in my mind. ‘Your sister is lifeless.’ I knew proper then he had taken her life.”
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No Indicators of Foul Play?
Joanna Hunter, seen with brother Joe, had filed a number of restraining orders and left her husband a number of instances earlier than she was discovered lifeless at their residence.
Joe and his mom, Patricia, go on to element the years of alleged abuse Joanna suffered by the hands of Lewis, together with a 1996 hospitalization with a severely sprained neck. Lewis was convicted on a home violence cost and sentenced to 36 months in Solano County jail for the incident.
The duo reveals how Joanna was planning to depart her husband as soon as and for all on the day of her demise. Police images confirmed an open purple suitcase on the scene together with a five-word be aware telling Lewis to “deal with” their canines.
Police would name the transient be aware a suicide letter.
After Joanna’s physique was discovered, Lewis was handcuffed, questioned briefly, and let go, with cops figuring out instantly there have been no indicators of a wrestle or foul play.
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New Proof of a Murder Emerges
Joe Hunter has labored for years to get authorities to reopen his sister’s case and examine it as a murder.
Morales and her group revealed the Solano County Sheriff’s Workplace employed forensic knowledgeable Dr. Invoice Smock to overview the case in 2023, one in all two instances since Joanna’s demise that officers appeared into whether or not or to not reopen her case for a legal investigation.
Smock advised Morales he was “positive that Joanna was murdered.”
He identified within the images of Joanna’s demise scene, there was a braided nylon marine rope three toes from her physique.
“The homicide weapon was within the room with Joanna,” he defined. “If you take a look at images of mark created on her neck, the one factor in her closet that would have created it was the marine rope.”
Resulting from an NDA Dr. Smock signed with the Solanno County Sheriff’s Division, nobody outdoors of it had beforehand seen his report.
Dr. Smock then confirmed Morales how Joanna’s neck had two distinct ligature marks: one from the bathrobe sash and one from the marine rope, with the latter inflicting her demise in never-before-seen post-mortem images.
“She was lifeless when the bathrobe sash was utilized to her neck,” Dr. Smock alleged.
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‘Hidden Homicides’ on the Rise
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Natalie Morales sheds gentle on the chilling rise of ‘hidden homicides’ on ’48 hours.’
Within the battle for justice in Joe’s sister’s case, Joanna’s Legislation was signed into California regulation in January, requiring a guidelines for regulation enforcement to search for purple flags of home violence at suspicious demise scenes. They’re to deal with the scene as a doable murder, together with cautious assortment of proof.
“The hope is to unfold consciousness of what home abuse survivors undergo and what hidden homicides are,” Morales tells us.
“Earlier than reporting on this, I might by no means heard of hidden homicides. It was an actual training for me,” the longtime broadcast journalist explains.
She provides, “Occupied with all the circumstances I’ve coated, there are such a lot of suspicious circumstances the place abuse was within the background” that would have introduced completely different outcomes if examined below the identical necessities as Joanna’s regulation.
The California Division of Justice is now reviewing Solano County’s resolution to not transfer ahead with reopening Joanna’s case as a doable murder.