Joanna Hunter was found dead in her Vacaville, California home on Oct. 6, 2011, hanging inside a bedroom closet with a bathrobe sash around her neck. Her husband, Pastor Mark Lewis of The Fellowship Baptist Church, told authorities he had discovered her body when he returned from playing basketball outside. Solano County Sheriff's deputies ruled Joanna's death a suicide. More than fourteen years later, her brother Joe Hunter—who reached the finals of "Survivor" season 48—has not stopped fighting for answers.
Background
Joanna and Mark Lewis began dating in high school. According to her mother Patricia Hunter, at age 17 Joanna came home with a black eye. At 20, she documented Lewis choking her and obtained a restraining order against him. Even so, Joanna returned to the relationship. When she was 21, after reporting that Lewis "grabbed my neck and twisted it," she obtained another restraining order.
In 1996, when Joanna was 22, she was hospitalized with a sprained neck. Mark Lewis was convicted on a domestic violence charge and sentenced to 36 months in Solano County Jail, according to court documents. Despite this conviction, Joanna returned to him after his release from custody, her mother said. Joanna married Lewis at age 25 without telling her family.
Patricia Hunter told "48 Hours" correspondent Natalie Morales that she went directly to Lewis with her fears about his treatment of her daughter. She recalled Lewis responding with what she described as a sneer: "When she's a better woman and a better Christian, you won't have to worry about that."
Joe Hunter, a Sacramento firefighter, said he confronted Mark Lewis multiple times over the years about his abuse of Joanna. "After physically going after him... him then taking it out on her," Joe recalled. He eventually backed off from pressuring his sister, fearing he would lose her entirely.
The Investigation
On Oct. 6, 2011, a church member called 911 at 9:25 p.m., reporting that Pastor Mark Lewis had come out of the house upset and believed his wife was dead. When deputies arrived fourteen minutes later, they found Joanna, age 36, hanging in a bedroom closet. The deputy cut her down but found no signs of life.
A note reading "Take care of dogs" was found in an open suitcase in the bedroom. Mark Lewis provided a statement to investigators saying his wife "did not appear to be depressed," had "no history of mental illness" and "has never attempted suicide." He said he last saw Joanna at 1 p.m. that day.
The Solano County Sheriff's Office did not treat the scene as a crime scene—no fingerprints were taken, no DNA was collected, no phones were seized, and no homicide investigators were called to the house, according to Captain Jackson Harris who reviewed the case with "48 Hours." The deputy in the field did not have access to Lewis's prior domestic violence conviction from 1996, which was more than fifteen years old at the time of Joanna's death.
An external autopsy determined the ligature marks on Joanna's neck were consistent with suicide. A toxicology report came back clean a month later, and the case was closed as a suicide.
The Case Reopened
In 2014, Pastor Mark Lewis was arrested and charged with arson, conspiracy and stalking after he allegedly hired three people to firebomb the home of Sarah Nottingham, a former church member who had obtained an order of protection against him. On day three of his trial for hiring people to burn down Nottingham's parents' house, Lewis changed his plea from not guilty to no contest—a plea that meant he would not dispute the charges but would not acknowledge guilt.
Lewis was sentenced to eight years in state prison for the firebombing plot. The conviction and resulting media attention prompted Patricia Hunter to return to the Solano County Sheriff's Office demanding they reopen Joanna's case, which they did in 2014.
During the reinvestigation, detectives reinterviewed Andrew Alvarado, the church member who originally told authorities he had played basketball with Lewis for about six hours on the day Joanna died. This time, investigators learned that Alvarado had actually left the church grounds during those six hours to drive teenagers home and was not sure what Lewis was doing while he was gone—creating gaps in Lewis's alibi.
The sheriff's office had another forensic pathologist, Dr. Scott Luzi, review Joanna's case. He agreed with the original coroner: suicide. The case was closed again for a second time.
DNA Evidence Raises Questions
In 2015, the Solano County District Attorney's Office announced its own investigation into Joanna's death and ordered DNA testing on her bathrobe sash—the garment that had been used as the noose. The results proved significant: Joanna's DNA was found on the sash along with an unknown male profile—but it did not match Mark Lewis.
Captain Jackson Harris confirmed to "48 Hours" that investigators were aware of this finding but said the case remained closed because there was still no evidence on her body indicating a second person had caused her death. Mark Lewis exercised his constitutional right to have his attorney present and did not speak with investigators during either investigation into Joanna's death.
Key Takeaways
- Joanna Hunter, 36, died on Oct. 6, 2011 in Vacaville, California; authorities ruled her death a suicide
- Her husband Mark Lewis had a prior domestic violence conviction from 1996 for choking her
- In 2014, Lewis was convicted for hiring people to firebomb Sarah Nottingham's home and sentenced to eight years in prison
- DNA testing on the bathrobe sash used as a noose found an unknown male profile that did not match Mark Lewis
- The Solano County Sheriff's Office has closed and reopened Joanna's case multiple times over the past decade, always returning to the suicide ruling
What's Next
Joe Hunter continues his quest for answers about his sister's death. While Mark Lewis remains imprisoned on the firebombing conviction—expected release around 2020 based on his eight-year sentence—the question of what actually happened to Joanna in October 2011 remains officially unresolved according to Solano County authorities, who maintain there is insufficient evidence to change the classification from suicide.
The Hunter family has maintained for fourteen years that Mark Lewis murdered Joanna and manipulated both church members and investigators. Joe Hunter's emotional tribute to his sister during "Survivor" season 48 brought renewed attention to their fight for justice.