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Jan 30, 2010

Lottery winner's body found

PLANT CITY (Florida) - WINNING millions of dollars in the Florida Lottery should have been the best thing that ever happened to Abraham Shakespeare. But with his newfound wealth in 2006 - US$17 million (S$23.8 million) in a lump sum payment - came a string of hangers-on who constantly hit him up for money. Nine months ago, he vanished. Friends and family hoped he was on a beach somewhere in the Caribbean. But on Friday, detectives confirmed that a body buried under a concrete slab in a rural backyard was his. The home Shakespeare was found behind belongs to the boyfriend of a woman who befriended him in 2007.

Authorities believe he was murdered and the woman may know something about it, but they do not yet know how he died and have not arrested anyone. Shakespeare's brother, Robert Brown, said on Friday that Shakespeare often wished he had never bought the winning ticket. ''I'd have been better off broke.' He said that to me all the time,' Mr Brown said. Hillsborough County sheriff's detectives used fingerprints to identify Shakespeare's body, which they found covered by a concrete slab. Before 2006, Shakespeare was an assistant truck driver who lived with his mother. He was barely literate and had a criminal record. After he won the lottery, he bought a million-dollar home and was extremely generous to others. -- AP