A Chicago man who won $1 million in the lottery and then dropped dead a month later was poisoned, cops say.
Urooj Khan, 46, hit the jackpot last June on a scratch-off ticket he bought at a 7-Eleven on the city’s north side, according to local reports.
The hard-working Indian immigrant, who owned three dry cleaner businesses, said he planned to donate some of the money to St. Jude’s Children’s Research hospital, pay off his debts and invest the rest in his businesses.
Several weeks later, at a ceremony publicizing his win, he told lotto officials, “Winning the lottery means everything to me.”
The actual check for nearly $425,000 was cut on July 19.
Khan died the next day.
According to police, Khan came home from work, ate dinner with his wife, Shabana Ansari, and daughter, Jasmeen, and went to bed, the Chicago Tribune reported.
He woke up screaming in pain and was eventually taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, where he was pronounced dead.
Initially, the Cook County medical examiner listed the cause of death as heart disease.
But a few days after his autopsy, family members urged investigators to perform more tests.
In November, toxicology reports showed his body contained lethal levels of cyanide.
His death has been ruled a homicide, and medical examiners were considering exhuming his body for further tests, the Tribune reported.
Police sources told the Tribune and investigation was underway, and they couldn’t rule out Khan’s lottery win as a motive.
His wife told the newspaper Khan was “the best husband on the entire planet.”
“By God’s grace, he was a workaholic,” Ansari, 32, told the Tribune. “He made the clients happy by doing his job. He could not be everywhere, but he had to be everywhere.”
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