Sheriff: Fla. man who won millions in lottery before vanishing died of ‘homicidal violence’

By AP
Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Sheriff: Fla. lottery winner’s death a homicide

TAMPA, Fla. — A 43-year-old man who had won millions in a lottery jackpot before he went missing nine months ago died of “homicidal violence,” Florida authorities said Tuesday.

Further information on how Abraham Shakespeare died would not be released, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Debbie Carter said in a news release. The body of the former truck driver’s assistant who won $30 million in the lottery in 2006 was found Thursday, buried behind a home beneath a concrete slab.

Shakespeare, of Lakeland, was last seen in April of 2009 and officials in Polk County — where he lived and was reported missing — have long thought he was slain.

No arrests have been made in the case.

In January, Polk officials named a “person of interest” in Shakespeare’s disappearance: Dorice “DeeDee” Moore, who befriended the lottery winner after he claimed the winning ticket and took a $17 million lump sum payment.

Moore said she wanted to write a book about Shakespeare, but officials said she actually scammed him out of money. Property records show she bought a $1 million home from Shakespeare for $655,000 and she acknowledged moving $2 million of his money into her bank account.

In an interview Monday with the Tampa Tribune, Moore said she anticipates being arrested because she and her boyfriend own the home where Shakespeare’s body was found.

Moore told the paper that she ordered the concrete slab poured on the property for use as a boat and camper skirt.

However, Moore said she never hurt Shakespeare.

“I would never take another human’s life. No amount of money in the world is worth that,” she said.

Family members say Shakespeare was barely literate, and people constantly hounded him for a piece of his lottery winnings.

He told his family and friends that he wished he had never won.

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