Post Mortem | Joe Hunter’s Mission
48 Hours correspondents Anne-Marie Green and Natalie Morales discuss “Survivor” contestant Joe Hunter’s mission to raise awareness about his sister, Joanna, who was found dead in her California home in 2011. Joe and his family believe that Joanna’s husband, Mark Lewis, killed her and staged it to look like a suicide. But the Solano County Sheriff’s office says Joanna was not murdered. Mark Lewis has never been charged with any crime relating to her death.
- Duration
- 25m
- Broadcast on
- 16 Dec 2025
- Audio Format
- other
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[MUSIC] Welcome to Postmortem. I'm your host Anne Marie Green, and today we're discussing Sacramento Fire Captain Joe Hunter, who you might know from the CBS TV show Survivor. He competed in season 48, and he's going to be back again for next year's season, season 50. If you watch the show, you know that Joe talked about the profound impact of losing his sister, Joanna. Back in 2011, 36-year-old Joanna was found dead in her Vacaville, California home, hanging inside a bedroom closet by a bathrobe sash. Her death was ruled a suicide, but her family believes that her husband and church pastor, Mark Lewis, killed her after a history of domestic violence. Now to this day, Mark Lewis has not been charged with any crime relating to the death of Joanna. Joining me now to discuss this case is 48 hours correspondent Natalie Morales, who was the one who reported on this. Natalie, there's so many elements to this case, so much to talk about. I've done true crime stories now for more than a decade, and I got to say for me, and I also know for my crew, the team that worked on this, this is definitely one that stands out. It had such an impact on all of us. Probably the most meaningful and heartfelt, I think, in my career. And I've never really felt more purpose in telling a story than I have with this one. I am not surprised. As you know, after I watched it, I immediately emailed you. My mind was blown and I found myself, you know, speaking to the screen over and over again, I want to remind everyone, if you haven't listened to this episode of 48 Hours, head on over to your podcast feed. You're going to find the full audio of this episode right below this podcast. Go listen, come on back, we're going to have a conversation. So a bit of a recap for everyone. Since Joanna's death in October of 2011, her brother Joe and mother Patricia have never wavered in their belief that Joanna's husband Mark killed her and staged the crime scene to look like a suicide. Joe was especially close to his big sister Joanna, and they often talked about competing together one day on the long-running CBS series Survivor. Yes, he and Joanna had loved the show. They talked about competing on the show. He was never really thinking he was actually going to apply to be a contestant. But when he was overcome with his grief, he had lost his sister and then later lost his dad. There was just so much trauma that he was dealing with. He was meeting with the counselor at the time. And the counselor told him, you know, maybe you should do something with your grief. Here's a clip that didn't make it into the hour. Why it was important for him to be a contestant on Survivor. And my counselor said to do something really spectacular would be to help you manage the situation with Joanna, do something for you and her to help close their eye. And I thought back and I said, she had always mentioned it.
Transcription truncated.
48 Hours correspondents Anne-Marie Green and Natalie Morales discuss “Survivor” contestant Joe Hunter’s mission to raise awareness about his sister, Joanna, who was found dead in her California home in 2011. Joe and his family believe that Joanna’s husband, Mark Lewis, killed her and staged it to look like a suicide. But the Solano County Sheriff’s office says Joanna was not murdered. Mark Lewis has never been charged with any crime relating to her death.