E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSSUrooj Khan, 46, won $1 million off a scratch lottery ticket he bought at a 7-11 in Chicago last June, but just one day after receiving his check, he died. Now, his death has been ruled a homicide, as toxicology reports showed deadly cyanide in his system. NBC's Andrea Canning reports.
A lottery winner was fatally poisoned with cyanide just as he was about to collect his payout on a $1 million instant lottery ticket, a Chicago medical examiner said Monday.
Urooj Khan died July 20, one day after the state issued a check to him for $425,000, which represented the after tax amount on the lump sum payout on his winning ticket. The check wasn’t cashed until Aug. 15, likely by a member of his estate.
After a limited exam, Cook County Medical Examiner Stephen Cina found no trauma or unusual substances in the 46-year-old's body, and the medical examiner's office declared that he died of natural causes.
Khan was buried at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago, but within a week a concerned relative asked the medical examiner's office to take a closer look.
“They had concerns that it was deemed a natural cause of death and wanted us to look harder,” Cina told NBCChicago.com. “And we did.”
The medical examiner’s office determined from comprehensive toxicology reports that Khan had ingested a deadly amount of cyanide and his death has been reclassified as a homicide.
Police are considering exhuming his body as part of the investigation.
Lottery winner killed by cyanide was immigrant, family man
“It’s a very lethal drug,” Cina said of the lethal dosage of cyanide investigators found in Khan’s toxicology samples. “It’s a chemical poison. It basically asphyxiates you at the biochemical level, so a little goes a long way.”
Khan bought his winning ticket at a 7-Eleven near his home in West Rogers Park, a neighborhood on Chicago's North Side. A native of India, he came to Chicago in the late 1980s and began working at a dry cleaners. He grew his business to include three Chicago-area dry cleaners, and reportedly planned to invest his lottery winnings in his stores.
He also planned to give some of his winnings to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Khan described his gleeful reaction to winning in a June press release from the Illinois Lottery. “I scratched the ticket, then I kept on saying, ‘I hit a million!’ over and over again,” Khan said. “I jumped two feet in the air, then ran back into the store and tipped the clerk $100.”
Khan’s wife declined an interview with NBCChicago.com outside one of her deceased husband’s dry cleaners. Her husband was a “kind and good-hearted person,” she said.
“He was a family man who worked hard for his family,” friend Jimmy Goreel told NBCChicago.com. “I just can’t see it happening. If that’s true, it’s sad."
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
More content from NBCNews.com:
- Rewards planned in possibly linked killings of elderly Calif. women
- Some wounded vets shine on 'Alive Day,' others wear black
- California man says he can drive in carpool lane with corporation papers
- Police: 4 dead, including gunman, in Aurora, Colo., hostage situation
Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook
Leave a Comment:
Who cashed the check? He died on July 20, but the check wasn't cashed until August 15...
Doesn't cyanide cause heavy foaming at the mouth?
F'inCrazy
Are you retarted or just crazy?
Money can't buy happiness, but it can damn sure buy death.
For those wondering why the ME did not look for poison until family requested it....Unless a person displays obvious signs of poisoning or the police on scene do not suspect poisoning it is not looked for. This is especially true if the deceased had a prior health problem such as heart and or lung.
My question is if he died 1 day after receiving that check on July 20 then who cashed it in August? That would be the first person I'd consider as possible perp.
The majority of these posts have nothing to do with the death of this man. It's time for people who want to respond to a post to stay on the subject posted. Perhaps if we all showed a little compassion, for others (the man and his family) we could stop some of the nonsense that goes on in the world.
I'd suspect the coroner, city and state for the crime. One way to keep from paying out on Lottos and they can fudge the autopsies.
I cant believe it wasn't looked at more carfully in the first place.Its getting really bad when the family cant wait a day even,lol.
Ok, I get the politics junk going on here. Everyone needs a place to vent. What I do not understand is that the article says he dies on July 20, yet the check was cashed on AUGUST 20!!!! Who does not think that is a little weird. If the check was in his name and he was dead for almost a month, WHO CASHED THE CHECK?!?!?!
7.62 is correct. We need to ban cyanide. Then all lead pencils. Then cars (they kill), then knives (so so sharp!), spoons, and forks. Then burping and farting (too much 'green gas' emissions). Whew! To enforce this, let's hire every adult that can work and pay them $60,000 a year (at least) plus a pension and full health benefits plus 401K (matching 50% up to the first 6%). We will have solved world peace by then, have full employment, elected Obama the 4th time (after tearing up the Constitution--who needs that thing bringing us down?) and be safe--we can unlock all our doors. Just send the bill to China. Now, can someone please direct me to the nearest park with the unicorns and free candy?
Thanks for the chuckles!! ;-) themanishere. love your comment! Read it nearly 5 minutes ago and still chuckling...
Just a passing thought here. The man came to the US from India in 1980. Are Indian men prone to being abusive of spouse and or female children? I say female because it is my understanding the male child of a couple from India can do no wrong.
Just wondering if it was the wife or daughter who did him in (or both) perhaps the man was prone to beating the females of his household? Way to strict about their involvement outside the home???
As I said just a passing thought since it could turn out to be someone set the women up for the "fall".
As usual the news teases, they have tiny bit of information and before actually getting the facts they rush to be the first to report that "teaser". We may never learn what the actual story is until whoever did it goes to court or we may have to wait until the case shows up on one or all of the following programs, Dateline, 48 Hours, 20 20, or Investigative Discovery.
What, he only got 425,000 after taxes, what the h---, I guess the lottery is taking more money than I thought for taxes, what a rip off, now that it's privately owned I guess they can rob you blind, that's Illinois for ya.
diddy..you got that right...the tip of the iceberg with illinois corruption ...most we dont know is in cement in the I-294 toll road
Diddy: You are the real PDiddy that's why you only care about the MONEY more than the man's life! I can't help but feel that you had something to do with the murder!!
The real crime here is that out of $1 million dollars he only got $425,000. The wife thought that wasn't enough to share, so he had to go. Or he got so depressed after being reamed so hard by taxes he just couldn't take it any more.
Ok. Here's the deal: when a person wins a lottery, there are 3 dollar figures to consider. 1. the face value won. 2. the lump sum. 3. the after-tax amount. In this case, the face value was $1 million dollars. The lump sum was $425,000. The tax rate can be assumed about 40%, so he would have owed $170,000 in fed/state taxes. So his actually take home pay would have been $255,000. I am assuming that the state did not take out any taxes and left that up to him to pay. He could have collected $1 million, but only over the course of about 25 years, but each year he would face a tax burden which would most likely increase over the years.
Wrong, There is no lump sum amount on scratch offs. The face value is the lump sum. $1,000,000 is the amount he won minus taxes, federal, state and city or county. There is an alternate tax rate for non citizens.
ok...so if logic prevails the person in line to collect his estate would be suspect...and im sure the cops have a few someones in mind
O'Bama did it. He needed the money to pay his new tax increase of 39.6%. He makes over $ 400,000 per year.
And, the $ 475,000 gives him a profit of $ 75,000. While everybody else in the same category loses. But, what
does he care?... As he vacation's in the Hawian paradise, costing the taxpayers $ 4,000,000.
Tom: you did it! I know you were having an affair with the Victim's wife!!
I hate news articles that are so incomplete. The following is quoted from the Huffington Post:
The odds are that the somebody mentioned in the above quote knows how he got the cyanide.
It would take something like India cuisine to cover up the bitterness of cyanide....one of the bitterest substances around.
The longest, hardest look should be at the person who cashed the check.....and/or cooked his dinner on the 20th of July.
This is a travesty of justice, and an incompetent autopsy. Shame on you Chicago.
Sat: maybe the coroner was in on it!!
He may not have even had the chance to deposit the check and change his will (if he had one) and make arrangements for his finances...so sad...
It's like a black fly in your chardonnay.
Very Simple Deduction... It was either a partner, or a competitor. if it was a partner, the partner did not want
him to donate to a charity, and if it was a competitor,did not want him to expand his dry cleaning businesses.
Thus, putting the competitor out of business. Doubt it was anybody in his family.
Jane: good point! The coroner did it with the help of the victim's wife!
Poisoned and greatly over taxed. He didn't know how good he had it before winning. The new America baby.....even when you win you lose. Arn't you proud? Thanks Obama, thanks a million; oh I sorry, I mean thanks 425,000.
Where is the winning money now? Who will be the beneficiary? Where was the source of cyanide, and how did the killer get it?
Horrible, but it is Chicago.
That's Obama care for you! lol
You goons learn how to spell poison!