Joe Hunter's Mission

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Speaker 3 The day that I got the news will always be edged in my brain,

Speaker 5 your sister's dead.

Speaker 8 I knew right then

Speaker 3 he had taken her life.

Speaker 4 From that moment on, my life changed forever.

Speaker 3 I feel closest to my sister when I see something beautiful. Like she's talking to me, like I'll see a beautiful sunrise, and I'm like, man,

Speaker 9 like I hear you.

Speaker 10 You both had talked back in your younger years about going on survivor together.

Speaker 11 Right.

Speaker 3 The waves were crashing in Fiji, so I took a walk down the beach and

Speaker 13 I thought, man,

Speaker 3 she's all around me, so it's just time

Speaker 3 to do this.

Speaker 12 Coming into this game, my motivation was my sister. She's the one that wanted to be here.
That's why I applied. I wanted to be Joanna's voice.

Speaker 3 That's been the mission. That's all part of Joanna's voice, is her speaking to everyone, saying, Don't let this happen to you as well.

Speaker 5 She fell in love with a man that seemed charming and charismatic, and he was a pastor.

Speaker 15 And immediately, I was in the spirit.

Speaker 16 I know

Speaker 8 in my heart that

Speaker 3 Mark killed my sister.

Speaker 4 And then he staged it to look like she hung herself.

Speaker 18 So Mark Lewis was never charged with any crime related to Joanna's death.

Speaker 20 What do you make of that?

Speaker 13 Appalling.

Speaker 21 Total disregard for our daughter. It appeared to us that it was just a dismissal.

Speaker 5 The Solano County Sheriff's Department made a decision that Joanna died by suicide within 28 minutes of arriving at the scene.

Speaker 8 That is a gigantic misconception. The case was still being worked.

Speaker 20 So do you stand by your office's original conclusion that Joanna Hunter took her life?

Speaker 5 Yes, we do.

Speaker 3 In no way, shape, or form, in any world, in any scenario, was this a suicide.

Speaker 3 This is not just a brother who's being emotional and irrational. This is not a mother who's just being a victim and saying untruths.
This is a family that just

Speaker 3 wants

Speaker 3 justice for Joanna.

Speaker 12 I know I had one job as a brother,

Speaker 7 so I need you to know that

Speaker 12 I'm sorry

Speaker 12 that I couldn't protect you from that monster.

Speaker 5 Natalie Morales reports Joe Hunter's mission.

Speaker 24 Survivor's ready.

Speaker 25 On a beach in Fiji, Go!

Speaker 23 Competing on Survivor, the reality show that Mike 48 Hours airs on CBS.

Speaker 15 Now, Joe in the lead with five.

Speaker 23 Joe Hunter's grief over the death death of his sister Joanna came out in full force.

Speaker 30 I miss you so much.

Speaker 5 I smash you so much.

Speaker 10 He was filled with remorse over their last conversation.

Speaker 12 I'm so sorry for the things I said.

Speaker 12 And I never got the chance to say, I love you.

Speaker 24 So

Speaker 3 I look.

Speaker 31 Joe is still grappling with with how she died.

Speaker 22 Time went to emergency.

Speaker 13 I think someone's dead.

Speaker 29 October 6, 2011, 9:25 p.m., Vacaville, California.

Speaker 13 My pastor just came out of his house.

Speaker 32 He's really, really upset, and he told me to call a cop.

Speaker 13 He thinks his wife's dead.

Speaker 22 What's his name?

Speaker 13 His name is Mark Lewis.

Speaker 33 Can I talk to Mark?

Speaker 34 Can you tell me what happened?

Speaker 13 I have no clue what happened.

Speaker 13 I don't want to talk about this. I only thought of a watcher.

Speaker 18 It was a terrible sight.

Speaker 29 Mark Lewis's 36-year-old wife, Joanna, hanging inside a bedroom closet.

Speaker 34 Mark, they're on the way, honey.

Speaker 10 14 minutes later, at 9.39 p.m., according to the Solano County Sheriff's report, a deputy was on the scene.

Speaker 8 He cut her down, tried to find any signs of life.

Speaker 36 Captain Jackson Harris reviewed the case with us.

Speaker 8 There were not any signs of life that were there, unfortunately.

Speaker 10 A bathrobe sash had been the noose.

Speaker 29 The deputy's report said he did not observe any signs of a struggle.

Speaker 38 There was an open suitcase and a note.

Speaker 8 I believe the note said, take care of the dogs.

Speaker 36 Had Joanna taken her own life?

Speaker 10 Mark Lewis, the 36-year-old pastor of the Fellowship Baptist Church, was handcuffed, placed in the back of a patrol car, and briefly questioned.

Speaker 8 He provided a statement.

Speaker 29 He said his wife did not appear to be depressed, has no history of mental illness, and has never attempted suicide.

Speaker 20 The husband is saying, my wife did this out of the blue.

Speaker 8 That was his statement that he provided. People commit suicide for a variety of reasons.
Some people keep it to themselves. Some people tell the world.

Speaker 10 In the report, Mark said he last saw his wife at 1 p.m.

Speaker 23 And the church member who called 911 said he and Mark had been outside the house playing basketball and talking about their faith, starting at 3 p.m., until Mark went inside and found Joanna dead.

Speaker 36 Joanna's mother, Patricia, knew nothing of what was unfolding at her daughter's house that night.

Speaker 10 She wasn't called. A day later, a deacon from the church went to see her.

Speaker 21 He said, Joanna's dead.

Speaker 21 What?

Speaker 10 At around the same time, Joe, a Sacramento, California firefighter, was taken aside by the captain of his house.

Speaker 3 He said,

Speaker 3 your sister's gone.

Speaker 10 First, the gut punch.

Speaker 3 I dropped to my knee.

Speaker 42 And then, almost instantly, one thought, one name.

Speaker 21 What did he do to her?

Speaker 33 Mark Lewis.

Speaker 3 I knew.

Speaker 3 I knew he did it.

Speaker 21 And I fell to the ground screaming.

Speaker 13 Crying.

Speaker 2 half of me

Speaker 3 died right there

Speaker 21 a few weeks later when Patricia and her late husband spoke to an officer he showed her the note I actually laughed and I said that's not a suicide note she was leaving him and that was her note to him take care of the dogs I can't take them

Speaker 36 Joanna had tried to leave Mark many times before, says Patricia.

Speaker 10 There was a history of abuse and a cycle that began not long after the couple started seeing each other in high school.

Speaker 23 At 17, Patricia says, Joanna came home with a black eye.

Speaker 21 And I begged her. I said, let's go to the hospital.
Let's go to the police.

Speaker 21 And she said, no, mom, no.

Speaker 38 At 20,

Speaker 36 Joanna documented Mark choking her and got a restraining order against him. Even so, Joanna returned to him.

Speaker 22 At 21, after she reported that Mark grabbed my neck and twisted it, Joanna got another restraining order.

Speaker 10 In 1996, when she was 22, Joanna was hospitalized with a sprained neck.

Speaker 10 Mark was convicted on a domestic violence charge and according to court documents, sentenced to 36 months in the Solano County Jail.

Speaker 23 Again, she returned to the relationship.

Speaker 21 She told me that he had reached out to her from jail. Would she come visit him? She did.
She fell right back into it.

Speaker 49 Joanna was 25 when she married Mark without telling anyone in her family.

Speaker 21 I had to tell my husband, and we just held each other and sobbed because we knew now it would be that much harder to help her and get her out.

Speaker 10 Their worry continued over the next decade, but Joanna wouldn't open up to them.

Speaker 19 You said you feared for your daughter, but did you ever think he would be capable of killing her?

Speaker 6 Absolutely.

Speaker 43 That is what Patricia believed.

Speaker 25 Law enforcement at the scene came to the opposite conclusion.

Speaker 8 There is no evidence on her body that another person used force to have killed her.

Speaker 23 No homicide investigators were called to the house.

Speaker 25 The bedroom was not treated as a crime scene, no fingerprints taken, no DNA tested, and no phones collected.

Speaker 18 After his statement, Mark Lewis was released.

Speaker 25 Lewis was not asked about his history of abuse or about his prior conviction.

Speaker 52 That information was more than 15 years old, says Harris, and not available to the deputy in the field.

Speaker 10 The next day, an external autopsy determined the ligature marks on Joanna's neck were consistent with suicide.

Speaker 35 A month later, when the toxicology report came back clean, the case is closed.

Speaker 36 And so began the tug of war between the family and the sheriff's department that would go on for years to come.

Speaker 21 From this moment, when we couldn't get anyone to listen to us and act on it,

Speaker 21 we are going to work to get justice for Joanna.

Speaker 18 Do you think she was ever suicidal?

Speaker 3 You know, I'm sure she got in many dark places, but in no way, shape, or form was she capable of that mindset because I know my sister deep down just wanted to leave.

Speaker 18 And in the year before she died, Joanna almost saved herself, says Joe.

Speaker 38 Almost.

Speaker 3 My mom called me and said, Joanna's coming home.

Speaker 13 I said, oh, really?

Speaker 3 Yeah, she's done. And I said, she's really, really done this time? And I thought, man,

Speaker 3 like,

Speaker 3 we got her back. We win.

Speaker 21 Within two weeks, mom, I'm going back.

Speaker 21 And I thought she meant to get more things. She said, no, mom,

Speaker 21 I have to go back to stay.

Speaker 3 My mom begged her not to go back on her knees, begging her. And my mom said, okay, well, I'll drive you.

Speaker 20 How much do you think of that moment and that drive taking her back?

Speaker 13 All the time.

Speaker 6 On the way over, I was sobbing and I said, honey, I'm afraid if you go back, I'll never see you again.

Speaker 3 And

Speaker 3 we never saw her again.

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Speaker 55 On January 6th, ID Network revisits one of the most notorious cases of the past 25 years in the new documentary event, the cult behind the killer, the Andrea Yates story.

Speaker 55 When Andrea Yates drowned her five children in the family's bathtub in 2001, the world was shocked.

Speaker 56 Everyone was horrified. Mother killed her kids? How could she do this?

Speaker 55 But while Andrea's confession illuminated a history of postpartum depression and psychosis, there's so much more to this tragedy.

Speaker 58 They are missing a huge part of the story.

Speaker 55 Michael Warnicki. I.D.'s new three-part documentary exposes how the sinister influence of a cult led by preacher Michael Warnicki may have twisted her sense of reality with deadly consequences.

Speaker 59 Andrea Yates was so pressurized with that struggle for salvation that she had to kill her kids.

Speaker 55 Don't miss the cult behind the killer. The Andrea Yates story.
A new documentary event, January 6th on ID, or stream on HBO Max.

Speaker 33 It's 1993, Thanksgiving at our house is here.

Speaker 21 Got a nice table.

Speaker 60 Meet your mom in the kitchen. My dad.

Speaker 13 I did it.

Speaker 12 Joanna was the perfect person.

Speaker 3 She was the life of the party, but she was also at the same time,

Speaker 3 probably the most compassionate, warm person I've ever known.

Speaker 10 From the minute he was born, Joanna relished being Joe's big sister.

Speaker 21 She thought Joseph was her gift. Someone gave her this adorable little boy, and he belonged to her.

Speaker 3 I always tried to be in charge, but she wouldn't let that happen.

Speaker 26 Yeah, it's me.

Speaker 3 Anybody that called the house, they had to go through Joanna first. And you want to talk to my brother why? She protected me a lot.

Speaker 3 We were the perfect team.

Speaker 10 Mark Lewis, the son of a local preacher, was Joanna's first boyfriend.

Speaker 26 At the start, Joe didn't think he had anything to worry about.

Speaker 3 The first maybe six to eight months, she seemed really happy.

Speaker 10 But after the abuse began, Joe confronted Mark more than once.

Speaker 3 After physically going after him, him then taking it out on her, I had to back off a little bit from my sister. I had been screaming at her for so long.

Speaker 9 Two years straight.

Speaker 3 I hate this guy. Leave this guy.
Please stop. I thought, I'm going to lose her for good.
So I'm just going to listen.

Speaker 3 And then I really got the deep, deep, deep, dark secrets that she wasn't even telling my parents.

Speaker 38 And Joanna showed him her wounds.

Speaker 3 She finally showed me the massive indentations. from him strangling her.
You could just see clearly each outline of each finger.

Speaker 23 Mark had grown more powerful and influential at the Fellowship Baptist Church.

Speaker 52 He was on his way to becoming pastor.

Speaker 15 I'm just getting you ready for heaven.

Speaker 25 After they married, Patricia says she went to Mark with her fears.

Speaker 21 And I said to him, How do I know in this moment that you will never lay a hand on her again? And I'll never forget.

Speaker 3 He

Speaker 21 kind of sneered, half smiled, and he looked at me and he said,

Speaker 21 when she's a better woman and a better Christian, you won't have to worry about that.

Speaker 3 My sister started saying comments that he would make to her like, hey,

Speaker 3 we can help save you.

Speaker 3 Because you're half black, We can help fix that through religion. Because of your hair and the way you look, we can fix that with religion.
And you just think,

Speaker 3 how dare you?

Speaker 37 Pastor Lewis, to hear former church members tell it, was a commanding and a demanding presence.

Speaker 15 I know what this Bible says.

Speaker 46 With fiery sermons.

Speaker 15 Fall down and worship.

Speaker 10 And an insistence on loyalty.

Speaker 15 All Satan has to do is give you a question.

Speaker 7 Very energetic. Get up there and screaming and sweating.
Amen. That was his style.

Speaker 23 Jacob Cantrell became a deacon there.

Speaker 7 I looked up to him. He was a mentor, only to find out that I was a pawn.

Speaker 10 In hindsight, Jacob says Pastor Lewis had too much control over him.

Speaker 7 I couldn't go to my mom and dad's house without asking Mark permission. I was brainwashed.
He manipulated me for many years and

Speaker 7 it twisted my brain up.

Speaker 15 There's no no accidents with God.

Speaker 7 He can talk his way out of anything,

Speaker 7 including Miss Joanna's death.

Speaker 19 Now you feel that way.

Speaker 7 Now I feel that way.

Speaker 12 I came to the conclusion that it was probably the closest thing to a cult that I had ever experienced.

Speaker 18 And he was the leader.

Speaker 5 The leader.

Speaker 65 Darrell Snedeker was a deputy in the Solano County Sheriff's Department and a member of the church at the time of Joanna's death.

Speaker 23 He wasn't involved in the investigation back then.

Speaker 65 At the church, he says, it didn't take long for him to lose all faith in the place and the pastor.

Speaker 28 Was there a fear then amongst the people who attended the church? Did they fear Mark Lewis?

Speaker 14 I think the people that were his puppets, I think they acted out of fear a lot.

Speaker 20 You did whatever he asked then.

Speaker 7 Unfortunately.

Speaker 7 You don't question him.

Speaker 15 It's important that you listen up.

Speaker 13 You don't question him.

Speaker 62 What would you do if you caused your pastor to quit because you wouldn't obey? What would you do if you caused your Sunday school teacher to quit because you wouldn't obey?

Speaker 14 It's disheartening.

Speaker 14 It's shocking.

Speaker 36 Joe already knew Mark Lewis all too well.

Speaker 10 And the years after Joanna's death were filled with anguish and frustration.

Speaker 3 No one was listening to us. No one was believing this.

Speaker 10 There were still so many questions about what happened that night.

Speaker 27 Why didn't Mark cut Joanna down or try to administer CPR?

Speaker 28 And Joe found it particularly hard to believe Lewis was actually playing basketball for six straight hours.

Speaker 3 You never went inside to use a restroom, get a glass of water, playing basketball for this obscene amount of time is absurd to me.

Speaker 48 But all their attempts to get the sheriff's office to take another look at Mark Lewis were getting no results

Speaker 10 until Patricia got a knock on the door.

Speaker 21 It was a reporter

Speaker 21 asking if we had heard about what had happened with him.

Speaker 21 I had no idea what he was talking about.

Speaker 29 It was 2014.

Speaker 41 Joanna had been dead a little more than two years.

Speaker 10 Pastor Mark Lewis had been arrested, accused of violence against another woman.

Speaker 32 Do you feel lucky to be alive?

Speaker 13 Oh, yeah.

Speaker 10 On that crisp fall day in 2011, when Pastor Mark Lewis said he found his wife dead, he never called Joanna's family.

Speaker 24 He did call Sarah Nottingham.

Speaker 33 He had asked if I heard what happened.

Speaker 31 He sounded upset.

Speaker 33 He was crying.

Speaker 10 At the time, Sarah says she believed in her pastor, Joanna had died by suicide.

Speaker 10 Sarah says she and Lewis became friends, then began dating about a year after Joanna's death.

Speaker 33 At first, it was somewhat exciting thinking that I'm seeing a side of this person that no one else is seeing.

Speaker 10 Eventually, Sarah says another side of Mark Lewis began to emerge.

Speaker 33 A lot of extreme manipulation, a lot of gaslighting, and

Speaker 6 a lot of verbal abuse,

Speaker 33 some physical

Speaker 33 push or a shove, and it was just more and more.

Speaker 35 And then she says she discovered that Mark Lewis had been sending inappropriate text messages to an underage girl.

Speaker 33 You know, I'm just like, I've had enough. Like, I'm done.
And he said, I'm not ready for it to be over. I would just keep telling him, you know, this is, it's over.
We're done.

Speaker 10 Mark grabbed her, she says, and tightly wrapped his arms around her.

Speaker 33 It was meant to be threatening. He squeezed me tight and told me, you've created a monster.

Speaker 17 Sarah and her two young children were living with her parents in Vacaville.

Speaker 40 As the pastor's threats, she says, became more frequent and frightening.

Speaker 33 The first time my car was vandalized, it was actually parked here. He had either himself or had somebody smash my windshield in on my car.

Speaker 10 Sarah was granted an order of protection against Mark Lewis, but it did did not stop what happened next in the early morning hours of January 9th, 2014.

Speaker 33 It was three something in the morning, and I woke up to

Speaker 13 our fire alarm going off,

Speaker 33 and there was smoke filling the hallway, and I checked on my kids.

Speaker 10 A Molotov cocktail had crashed through her parents' bedroom window.

Speaker 33 We were able to put the fire out ourselves. I'd never seen my my dad run so fast out the door

Speaker 20 trying to see if he could see anybody.

Speaker 10 Vacaville police pulled over a U-Haul van within minutes, arresting the driver and two passengers. The trio quickly confessed, telling police they were hired to firebomb Sarah Nottingham's house.

Speaker 36 Hired by the pastor, Mark Lewis.

Speaker 10 He was questioned by local reporters.

Speaker 62 I never gave them any money to do anything

Speaker 10 Pastor Lewis was arrested, charged with arson, conspiracy, and stalking.

Speaker 62 A lot of people are going to throw accusations out there, but until the facts come out, why don't we just wait and see how that goes and let the court decide?

Speaker 13 I'm living in a nightmare.

Speaker 34 My kids are so scared.

Speaker 70 My son knows that this is a pastor, his previous pastor, that is threatening his mommy and his family.

Speaker 23 What do you think you and your family survived at that time?

Speaker 33 Ultimately, death. When the police came into the house, one of them said, this is attempted murder.
And that's exactly what it was, nothing less.

Speaker 41 Surviving the attack, Sarah says, helped answer a lingering question about Joanna.

Speaker 10 How do you see her death?

Speaker 33 By him.

Speaker 6 There's just not a doubt in my mind.

Speaker 15 The point is this. If you saw saw Jesus, number one, you would fall to your face.

Speaker 10 By January 2015, Pastor Mark Lewis's thundering sermons that echoed in the Fellowship Baptist Church were a distant memory as Lewis sat silently in a Solano County courtroom.

Speaker 69 His trial had begun for stalking Sarah Nottingham and hiring people to firebomb her parents' home.

Speaker 3 I hear about the arson charge. I hear about the stalking, but I also feel that he needs to be convicted for what he did to my sister.

Speaker 10 On day three of Mark Lewis' arson and stalking trial, he changed his plea from not guilty to no contest, meaning he would not dispute the charges against him, but also would not acknowledge guilt.

Speaker 18 Lewis was sentenced to eight years in prison.

Speaker 46 How important was that development then

Speaker 10 in allowing you to then go back to the sheriff's office and demand that they reopen the case?

Speaker 21 It was huge because

Speaker 21 it isn't often that you read about a pastor hiring people to firebomb someone's house. Because of media pressure, we felt that now is the time where we can go back and say,

Speaker 21 look at Joanna's case.

Speaker 21 Reopen it.

Speaker 36 The Solano County Sheriff's Office did reopen the case in 2014.

Speaker 44 Remember the churchgoer who called 911 the night Joanna died?

Speaker 23 His name is Andrew Alvarado.

Speaker 28 Back then, he told authorities he had played basketball with Pastor Mark Lewis for about six hours.

Speaker 31 Detectives decided to re-interview him and recorded the call.

Speaker 47 Was anyone else playing basketball with you?

Speaker 13 Yeah, a couple other teenagers.

Speaker 10 This time, investigators learned a new detail.

Speaker 13 I left the go drop him off. I guess I had to go eat dinner or whatever.

Speaker 29 He had actually left the church grounds during those six hours to drive the teenagers home, he says, and wasn't sure what the pastor was doing while he was gone.

Speaker 23 We repeatedly reached out to Alvarado, but never heard back.

Speaker 10 So there were gaps of time when he was not with Mark Lewis.

Speaker 13 Right.

Speaker 8 That still does not change the fact that a lack of evidence on her body does not show a second person involved in her death.

Speaker 10 Mark Lewis was not questioned during the reinvestigation.

Speaker 8 He exercised his constitutional right to have his attorney who did not allow him to speak to us.

Speaker 10 The sheriff's office had another forensic pathologist look at Joanna's case. Dr.

Speaker 45 Scott Luzzie agreed with the original coroner, suicide.

Speaker 10 The case was closed again. And then in 2015, the County District Attorney's Office announced its own investigation.

Speaker 11 which included DNA testing on Joanna's bathrobe sash.

Speaker 29 The results?

Speaker 24 Her DNA was found on the sash along with an unknown male, not Mark Lewis.

Speaker 20 Was anything done to investigate that further?

Speaker 20 Could it have been anybody else associated with Mark Lewis?

Speaker 8 That DNA that was collected from there, my understanding is that it was entered into the DNA, I believe it's called CODIS, the database.

Speaker 25 CODIS is the FBI's criminal DNA database.

Speaker 8 It did not come up with a hit.

Speaker 10 Captain Harris says the anonymous male DNA has never been identified.

Speaker 14 They should find out whose DNA is on that damn on that robe.

Speaker 23 Darrell Snedecker, former church member and retired Solano County Deputy Sheriff, says things were missed.

Speaker 14 Based on what I know today, the totality of the circumstances, I think they did fail that family.

Speaker 14 And I think if they didn't follow up and find out whose male DNA is on that night robe, that's a catastrophic failure right there.

Speaker 48 And a team of experts was about to come forward for the Hunter family, offering help and hope.

Speaker 64 This is a homicide. There is no question.

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Speaker 59 Welcome to Radio Rental.

Speaker 59 The scariest stories you've ever heard in your life.

Speaker 57 All told by real people.

Speaker 57 And off we go.

Speaker 55 This wasn't a human being that I saw.

Speaker 57 There's something here in this house.

Speaker 59 Something not of this world.

Speaker 57 There was a woman moving through the hall.

Speaker 74 I stepped back and I was completely alone.

Speaker 57 Radio rental is available now.

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Speaker 23 This is Dr. Bill Smock.

Speaker 45 He is sure that Joanna was murdered and says he can prove it.

Speaker 64 Every injury will tell you a story if you take the time to analyze it.

Speaker 10 In 2023, Smock was hired by the Solano County Sheriff's Department to look at the case.

Speaker 51 He is a medical doctor who, by his count, has reviewed thousands of autopsies and examined forensic evidence for police departments across the country.

Speaker 16 The state will call Dr.

Speaker 9 William Smock.

Speaker 25 Smock also has been an expert witness in high-profile cases, including testifying against Derek Chauvin in the 2021 George Floyd murder trial.

Speaker 64 What I've spent 40 years doing is analyzing injuries, reconstructing how injuries occur.

Speaker 37 And where the Solano County Sheriff's Department saw a bathrobe sash, a note, and a suicide, Smock saw something else, something new.

Speaker 64 There was a braided nylon marine rope three feet from Joanna. The murder weapon was there in the room with Joanna.

Speaker 64 When you look at the photos of the mark that was created on her neck, the only thing in that closet that could have created that was the marine rope.

Speaker 10 But because he was required to sign a non-disclosure agreement, no one outside the sheriff's office saw Smock's report.

Speaker 64 I could not talk to the family. I could only talk to the lieutenant at Solano County regarding my findings.

Speaker 49 Here was everything the hunters had been looking for, but they did not even know the rope existed or how Smock made his determination.

Speaker 49 Smock was eventually released from the NDA and was able to show us using mannequins and red paint.

Speaker 10 Smock says Joanna's neck had two different ligature marks.

Speaker 43 One is from the sash and one is from the marine rope.

Speaker 64 We're going to apply the rope and see what type of imprint it creates.

Speaker 64 You'll notice along the edge that there is a distinct fabric imprint, which is the type of fabric imprint we saw on Joanna's neck.

Speaker 49 Here is the autopsy photo, which we are showing you with the family's permission.

Speaker 64 She was dead

Speaker 64 when the bathrobe sash was applied to her neck. Joanna's scene was staged.

Speaker 64 She was killed with a rope, and then to make it look like a suicide, she was hung up by the bathrobe sash after she was already dead.

Speaker 5 Domestic violence homicides are the number one staged murders in America.

Speaker 10 Casey Gwynn was sure Joanna's case was what he calls a hidden homicide.

Speaker 10 He and Gail Strach are the co-founders of Alliance for Hope International, an advocacy group for survivors of domestic violence and their families.

Speaker 5 If you kill a total stranger, nobody knows who you are. But if you kill your wife or you kill your girlfriend, everybody's going to be looking at you as a suspect.

Speaker 5 You have to make it look like something else.

Speaker 10 When they took up the hunter's cause, they believed that Joanna's history of neck injuries told them they were looking at a strangulation.

Speaker 5 The fact is that if you strangle a woman one time in an intimate relationship, she's 750% more likely to be killed by you.

Speaker 65 Smock, who works for Alliance for Hope, confirmed their suspicion.

Speaker 29 But when the sheriff's office agreed to hire Dr.

Speaker 49 Smock, it also commissioned another review, this one one by Dr. Brian Peterson, a pathologist and former president of the National Association of Medical Examiners.
He disputed Smock's findings.

Speaker 10 I see neither injuries nor toxicology findings that would support the physical involvement of another person, the report said.

Speaker 8 And after hiring Smock, actually, in hindsight, I completely disagree with qualifications.

Speaker 40 The Sheriff's Office took issue with the fact that Dr.

Speaker 10 Smock is not a forensic pathologist.

Speaker 10 Harris also took issue with Smock's methods.

Speaker 8 This is not someone who has their body weight hanging. This is simply draped over a mannequin.
That is not how she was killed.

Speaker 25 Smock sent us his contract with the sheriff's office, which requested his opinion as to the cause and manner of her death.

Speaker 25 He also told us the sheriff's position was disingenuous because I didn't agree with what they wanted me to say.

Speaker 20 So, Bill Smock's report, are you completely discounting everything that he reports in it?

Speaker 8 I'm disputing his conclusion that it was a homicide.

Speaker 10 And so what Dr.

Speaker 27 Smock called the murder weapon was never examined.

Speaker 20 But where is the rope?

Speaker 8 I don't have the rope. I don't know.
We also don't have every electrical cord that was there. We didn't go through the garage to look for absolutely everything.

Speaker 10 What was missed?

Speaker 20 What about the history of domestic abuse?

Speaker 52 Was that missed?

Speaker 8 I don't think it was missed.

Speaker 10 Because three different forensic forensic pathologists and three separate reviews, starting with the original coroner's report in 2011, the 2014 reinvestigation, and Dr.

Speaker 40 Peterson in 2024, all found suicide.

Speaker 10 Captain Harris maintains that even if they had initially taken the domestic violence into account,

Speaker 26 nothing would have changed.

Speaker 8 And other than creating a hypothetical situation that Mark murdered her, there is no evidence to support that. The prior incidents of domestic violence,

Speaker 8 those were not considered at the time of the death. You're right.
But that doesn't mean that they were the cause of death.

Speaker 20 Knowing all that you know now, though, you said you would have called Mark Lewis's past into question and you would have investigated.

Speaker 8 If I could rewind knowing what I know now about Mark Lewis? Yes, this would be a totally different investigation knowing now.

Speaker 50 But there is no rewinding, says Harris.

Speaker 20 So is this still an open case now no it's closed

Speaker 10 gail and casey's experience with joanna's case led them to create a checklist of 10 factors to be considered by law enforcement they had begun drafting a new law a law that included the red flags that could signal a homicide among them

Speaker 50 the first one is someone dies prematurely well joanna was 36 years old the second one the scene looked like a suicide or an accident.

Speaker 50 Prior history of domestic violence, prior history of strangulation. The partner is the last person to see the victim alive.

Speaker 5 We've never had a case with all 10 that wasn't a homicide. Joanna Hunter had all 10 factors.

Speaker 10 Mark Lewis has not been charged with any crime relating to the death of Joanna.

Speaker 65 After serving five years for the firebombing of Sarah Nottingham's house, he was released on parole.

Speaker 36 He currently lives in Arizona, works for a plumbing and drain cleaning company, and has married again.

Speaker 23 48 Hours tried to reach Lewis repeatedly and received no response.

Speaker 70 The microphone is here powering on.

Speaker 39 So after suiting up with hidden cameras, we decided to go in person.

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Speaker 77 Hey Ryan Reynolds here wishing you a very happy half off holiday because right now Mint Mobile is offering you the gift of 50% off unlimited. To be clear, that's half price, not half the service.

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Speaker 5 It is our earnest intention that one day, Pastor Mark Lewis will be charged with first-degree murder in the death of Joanna Hunter.

Speaker 13 Okay, we're going out.

Speaker 67 With hidden cameras rolling, there was Mark Lewis.

Speaker 67 Mark Lewis, hi.

Speaker 32 I'm Natalie Morales with 48 Hours. We've been trying to reach you.

Speaker 45 Oh, no, it's all good.

Speaker 32 We've sent you a couple of letters and correspondence.

Speaker 13 It's okay, puppy.

Speaker 32 Would you be willing to speak with us on camera, sir?

Speaker 79 Did you have anything to do with your late wife, Joanna Hunter's death, Mark Lewis?

Speaker 32 Mark, please, if you would just give us otherwise, we want your side of the story, Mark.

Speaker 32 People would really like to hear your side of the story. We've tried to reach you many ways.

Speaker 63 Hello, sir.

Speaker 10 With Lewis inside the house, we approached his father-in-law in the garage.

Speaker 63 I'm just wondering if you have any concerns about your daughter's own safety, given his past history with domestic violence.

Speaker 63 His late wife was found hanging to death.

Speaker 64 I know the whole story.

Speaker 54 Yes.

Speaker 76 I know the whole story.

Speaker 63 Did you know his late wife, Joanna Hunter?

Speaker 9 Yes, I did.

Speaker 45 Did you go to the church?

Speaker 76 Yeah, I did. You did.
Okay, look.

Speaker 73 I know this is a difficult, this is a difficult situation, but we just want to make sure.

Speaker 9 I think this is really unnecessary.

Speaker 63 I really

Speaker 63 appreciate that, but I hope you understand there are a lot of questions still that the Hunter family would like to have answers to.

Speaker 63 And so I'm here simply doing my job, giving your son-in-law a chance to answer some questions.

Speaker 55 I can feel for them.

Speaker 9 But there's really no more to say about it. It's over.
It's done.

Speaker 67 Mark Lewis was moving on with his new family, while his previous one was aching for answers.

Speaker 3 For years, I was just trying to get to the next hour, to the next minute, because the pain was unbearable at times.

Speaker 3 It's finally happening. It's finally happening.

Speaker 48 The hunters, so accustomed to grief, were thrilled when Senate Bill 989, Joanna's Law, became California state law on January 1st, 2025, passing unanimously.

Speaker 21 Joanna's law gave us a sense of

Speaker 21 we've done something wonderful for Joanna.

Speaker 29 Joanna's law requires investigators responding to reported suicides, drug overdoses, or fatal accidents to check for a history of domestic violence.

Speaker 21 And if there is a documented history of domestic violence, to assume that this is a suspicious death

Speaker 3 And that they treat that scene like a homicide.

Speaker 10 Casey Gwynn and Gail Stratch, who helped write Joanna's law, are using her case to spotlight the connection between suspicious deaths and domestic violence.

Speaker 16 We have people from all over the country here in this room.

Speaker 37 At this conference in Denver, they're guiding law enforcement officers on how to identify those 10 red flags.

Speaker 42 Look for evidence that could reveal hidden homicides.

Speaker 16 How many of you believe that this case should have a complete independent homicide investigation? Raise your hand.

Speaker 10 48 Hours has learned the California Department of Justice has agreed to review the Solano County DA's decision not to bring criminal charges related to Joanna's death.

Speaker 10 The hunters hope that will move the case forward.

Speaker 61 I look at it this way, nothing can be kept in the dark forever.

Speaker 17 Joe's wife, Katie, is a sideline reporter for the Sacramento Kings and a former player in the WNBA.

Speaker 10 She experienced domestic violence herself in a teenage relationship.

Speaker 18 Have you talked to your daughter about domestic abuse?

Speaker 61 In the most basic form. She's six right now.

Speaker 63 Wait, Dad, that's just what I need.

Speaker 61 But we talk to her about...

Speaker 61 How you treat others and how you should be treated, and that will evolve over time. Say hi to everybody, JoJo.

Speaker 74 This is Jesso.

Speaker 61 But it's also conversations that we have with JoJo, with our son,

Speaker 61 because it is our responsibility to also teach him what is acceptable behavior and treatment of women.

Speaker 13 Period.

Speaker 12 I'm sorry

Speaker 12 that I couldn't protect you from that. Maud's throat.

Speaker 51 Joe's tribute to Joanna on Survivor Season 48.

Speaker 8 I'm sorry.

Speaker 65 Moved millions.

Speaker 40 This spring, he'll compete again in a landmark season 50 to celebrate the game, which will also keep attention on his sister's case.

Speaker 8 In advocating for his sister, he's advocating for other victims, other women.

Speaker 33 Enter the shop.

Speaker 61 And our daughter's going to be so proud of it. Our son.

Speaker 21 And she gives us

Speaker 21 so much love.

Speaker 6 Every day I feel it.

Speaker 21 I'm here to be her voice.

Speaker 10 For as long as she's able, Patricia will tell Joanna's Joanna's story, often at the Sacramento Family Justice Center, a resource for survivors of domestic violence.

Speaker 21 Joanna was light. She was joy.

Speaker 3 So when we talk about her, I just try to light the room up with her.

Speaker 65 They hope Joanna's law and Joanna's light will help save lives.

Speaker 10 and shine the way forward for survivors of domestic volce.

Speaker 3 She fought from the beginning to her last breath. So, no matter how hard it gets,

Speaker 6 never give up.

Speaker 5 That's her legacy.

Speaker 3 If you or someone you know is a victim of domestic abuse, call 1-800-799-SAFE or visit thehotline.org.

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