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Subscribe to RSSOfficials in Chicago exhumed the body of a lottery winner who died shortly before he was able to collect his winnings. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
Authorities in Chicago began exhuming the remains of poisoned lottery winner Urooj Khan early Friday in hopes of determining exactly how he was killed.
Officials at the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office said they collected samples from major organs, hair and fingernails Friday from Khan, who died shortly before he was to collect his winnings, later in the day. No initial autopsy took place, NBCChicago.com reported.
One thing they want to find out is how cyanide entered his system, and authorities say Khan's body showed no signs of trauma. The results of Friday's testing should be known in two to three weeks, according to NBC Chicago.
Khan, 46, died July 20, one day after the state issued a $425,000 lump sum payout check for his $1 million winning lottery ticket. The check wasn’t cashed until Aug. 15, possibly by a member of his estate.
An autopsy had not been performed last summer because medical examiners believed Khan died from natural causes, but at the urging of a family member, they took another look and discovered he had been poisoned.
His death was reclassified as a homicide.
Handout / Reuters
Urooj Khan of Chicago is pictured holding his winning $1 million lottery ticket in this undated handout photo from the Illinois Lottery. Khan died of cyanide poisoning on July 20, 2012, and his death is now a homicide investigation.
“We are confident he was a healthy person and cannot die like that,” Khan’s brother, ImTiaz Khan, told NBCChicago.com Thursday. “We are just praying to God that justice will be served, and whoever did this will be punished.”
In an affidavit, Chief Medical Examiner Stephen Cina said it was necessary to do a full autopsy to “further confirm the results of the blood analysis as well as to rule out any other natural causes that might have contributed to or caused Mr. Khan’s death.”
Khan’s widow and father-in-law have denied any involvement with the death. A lawyer described them as devastated. Khan’s estate with his dry cleaning business and his lotto winnings is said to be worth about $2 million.
Police have not announced any suspects in their investigation.
NBC Chicago’s Charlie Wojciechowski contributed to this story.
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I feel bad, he won 1mil and he died not soon after. Someone must have been jealous of him so they killed him.
Yeah, someone in his family.
Could have been someone outside the family. There have been previous posts (mine included) describing how and why someone outside the family would have wanted him out of the way, lottery ticket or no lottery ticket.
And, no, I didn't do it.
Jealous or hoping that they would get the money instead.
He was apparently fine that evening during a dinner with family and friends. One of them sprinkled the evil powder into a drink.
Who fed him his last meal? In an earlier story, his wife says she cooked him dinner, he ate it, and died not too long afterwards. Cyanide takes like 5 to 15 minutes to kill.
As for a relative being responsible, they could have planted the cyanide in the food inside the house. When she cooked him dinner and he died, maybe they were hoping to frame the wife...
Then collect their inheritance. The only catch is if his wife also ate the same meal so they may have put it in the pepper or some spice that they knew the wife didn't like...
Who knows but all our speculation will come out in the wash when they finally reveal the truth. "If", they figure it out....
All in all, it's a terrible shame for this poor guy.....
Of course they're devastated, they're suspects and if they are involved, they're busted!
What stands out is that the only reason they are going through all this is because someone, yet to be named, told police he was poisoned. What if that person was lying, or crazy, or wrong? The man could have just simply died.
But if the person saying he was poisoned is right, then he must also know who did it. Otherwise, how would he know.
TFNJ,
If I recall, his brother said he was too healthy to just die and considering he was fairly rich & just hit the lottery, he asked the police to do a little further investigation.
It's standard issue to draw and save blood and a couple other things when people die "without" immediate suspicion so they tested his blood sample & discovered the cyanide.
Again, if I recall from the earlier stories.
What's the TF stand for?
Creek Dog, what the heck is going on. I've read a few of your posts today, various stories, and I find my self agreeing with you! I mean, it happens occasionally, but never every post! WTF? ;=)
@ Creek Dog I have read the exact article ,like you said when a person die at the medical care, hosp.have some body sample , the brother got suspicious and said he wants more tests done,he was buried in three days (surprisingly because Indian culture cremates body ).They tested the sample and found out he had cyanide in his body and that is how they came to the conclusion of exhume the body for further investigation.
Very interesting story and how people think they can get away with murder......GREED GREED ......
Creek, ok I hadn't heard the part where they mentioned who the source was, or that they confirmed Cyanide.
So why are they digging up the body?
When I first signed up on NV I went by Tony-From-New Jersey. But I wound up closing that account and came back some time later, so wanted a way for people to recognise me.
Good morning Lugdush, Bambi...
TFNJ, here's more of the story from back on Jan 8th or 9th;
They're digging up his body to see how he could have ingested the cyanide and perform a "full" autopsy to find better answers so they can close in on who did it.
I do remember Tony from NJ. 'Cause I'm also a Jersey Boy....Born and raised...Bought my childhood home back in '90 when my parents retired...
I would not enjoy the job of exhuming dead bodies for what ever reason. Creepy.
@bambi@12 Indian culture does not cremate bodies, Hindu culture does. Indians who are Muslim or Christian bury their dead. Mr Khan was Muslim, judging by his first and last name, and the fact that other news reports mentioned that he recently performed a pilgrimage to Mecca.
So, it's not surprising at all that he was buried. I would have been shocked if he was cremated.
I wonder how difficult to was to dig up the body when it's so cold and the ground is frozen. Because, it's not just like digging a grave.....they also need to dig around and lift the body out. And the fact that Muslims don't use coffins (the body is just wrapped in 2 sheets of cloth), and he was buried back in July, what will they even find in that autopsy?
When ever a female spouse is killed the Husband always comes under great scrutiny so why did the wife and in-laws get a lawyer right away. She cooked the food and they all ate together but he was the only one to die, so who was the beneficiary of the money.
That bitch killed him.
Afternoon Tony, C Dog!
"Khan’s widow and father-in-law have denied any involvement with the death. A lawyer described them as devastated. Khan’s estate with his dry cleaning business and his lotto winnings is said to be worth about $2 million."
(snicker) Devastated. Yeah, right. Devastated @ the thought of being caught.
Soon to be Incarcerated. lol
No clue how this will turn out. Maybe it was the butler, in the dining room.
Who stood to gain?
That's your suspect.
All of them.
Ahem...a $425,000 lump sum payout isn't enough money for anyone to commit murder for...I hope!!
People kill others everyday for a lot less than $425,000.00 or don't you read anything else in the news??
lilmschargerfan
Unfortunately, people kill for a lot less. It is being stated that he wanted to reinvest money into his business, and donate to St. Jude's Children's Hospital. Sounds admirable to me, but not so much to someone who feels that won't benefit. There were 3 people there with him that evening...Father-in-law, who reportedly owed thousands in taxes, his wife, who claims that the all ate the same meal that night (lamb curry, a spicy dish that could mask the bitter almond taste/smell of cyanide, and his daughter, who left the house and moved in with relatives after his death. His symptoms, as reported by his wife who witnessed his collapse that night, are the same for a heart attack and severe poisoning by cyanide. He had no previous cardiac or health problems and the fact that cyanide showed up in his system, especially the day after his check was issued (and before he could use it) is extremely suspicious.
Ahem ..... people are murdered for the $125 in a 711 cash register.
lol yeah ppl are definitely crazy. in my local news a couple weeks ago someone murdered someone over $10. its pretty pathetic the way people act these days.
"a $425,000 lump sum payout isn't enough money for anyone to commit murder for."
What year did you walk in? How about a pair of Sneakers, is that enough to commit murder?
GM Bill...
I read a story of a guy who was shot in the back of his head (dead) and robbed of a $5 bill in his pocket and his sneakers. They took his jacket off but only left it 'cause it was covered in blood.
@!$%#, some A-holes will kill you just for looking at them wrong. No respect for human life...This is the gene pool everybody talks about getting rid of....
Cyanide was used as a drug to get high once that only proves the dose makes the poison. Cyanide is illegal to purchase, as most other fun stuff, but would come in really handy in a pill when the IRS drags you in for a audit. lol
Warren, would you care to test out that hypothesis?
Knicks
Are you sure you're not thinking of stricknine?
I actually thought he meant formaldehyde. But I have no knowledge of whether Cyanide was used in drugs or not.
I think they used stricknine in some or all LSD types.
Some people think that PCP (Angel Dust) contains formaldehyde.
Cyanide is used in the preparation of medications. Alone, it is poisonous. As an additive, it increases the potency of the main ingredient in some medications. Prussic acid is another pharmaceutical "poison." Alone, just a drop is deadly. In micrograms, it is a beneficial additive.
Also, some Caucasian people are unable to detect the odor of almonds in cyanide. I believe a person has to have inherited two recessive genes from his/her parents in order to be unable to smell it. That means, 1 out of 4 Caucasian persons cannot detect the odor of cyanide.
Other ethnicities are even more prone to lacking the ability to smell the bitter almond odor associated with cyanide.
Warren, are you certain? I thought cyanide was just a poison, not a drug...just a tiny amount could kill you...
amsterdamsel WAAAAAIT
it could have been arsenic instead of cyanide that was used in small doses as a drug to get high. You probably would not want to get as high as arsenic would bring you. Of course it depends on what you call a tiny amount.
One teaspoon of potassium cyanide mixed in 4-6 oz. of fluid is 50x the amount needed to ingest to kill someone. The question is; where does someone get this?
The following is from an interview with Sanjay Gupta, MD. He is the well-known Medical Correspondent for CNN.
GUPTA: You know, it's remarkably easy to purchase cyanide online as well as several other highly toxic substances. These are substances you can buy on chemical Web sites, other Web sites, all sorts of things.
In fact, we had some producers right here in the newsroom just for our own little internal test to try and do it themselves. ... They actually clicked on potassium cyanide. ... It tells you it's toxic. [It shows a] skull and crossbones. And then it gives you a price. I think this one was about $110. And you can actually click it, purchase it and have it sent to your home.
Potassium cyanide, a substance that people have known for a long time to be very toxic, Bill. So you can just see, we did it ourselves. You can see how easy it is to buy cyanide, along with several other toxic substances.
Here is part of an interview conducted with Sanjay Gupta,MD, the Medical Correspondent for CNNIn fact, we had some producers right here in the newsroom just for our own little internal test to try and do it themselves. ... They actually clicked on potassium cyanide. ... It tells you it's toxic. [It shows a] skull and crossbones. And then it gives you a price. I think this one was about $110. And you can actually click it, purchase it and have it sent to your home.
Potassium cyanide, a substance that people have known for a long time to be very toxic, Bill. So you can just see, we did it ourselves. You can see how easy it is to buy cyanide, along with several other toxic substances.
I actually looked myself, and sure enough...There were sites that openly sold cyanide.
Still not something you would find in the general population. Someone had to purchase it and if his murder had anything to do with this lottery win it was purchased recent to his death. This one should be solved fairly quickly.
SO if the authorities thought he died of natural causes and didn't do an autopsy, why did they do tests? Why now? There is way more to this story. Thanks for dropping the ball again "journalists"...
An unnamed family member called police and voiced suspicion.
A family member thought it was highly suspicious that this man, who was overweight but had no real health issues, suddenly died the night after a check was issued for the lottery winnings. That, coupled with the fact that his wife said he shared a dinner of lamb curry (he was vegetarian) with her, his father-in-law, (who owed thousands in back taxes) and daughter, and how quickly check was cashed by a "member" of his estate". The coroner then ran further toxicology tests not usually done routinely, and found the cyanide.
Detroit, for some reason they have been dragging this case out now for weeks. More than a week ago there was an article that the body would be exhumed.
An anonymous tip said that he had been poisoned.
Haven't seen you around for a while. Good to see you here again.
Thanks Tony, good to see you as well
Almost certainly not in the meal. Cyanide acts very quickly generally you go from ingestion or inhaling to dead in under 3 minutes. I would look at medication he was taking or even a glass of water beside the bed.
Previous stories said that "someone" tipped them off and suggested they do a tox screen - where they discovered the poisoning.
[Sorry - this was meant to be a reply to Detroit-Storm above]
stevephoenix;
I agree with you; however what is interesting is that he apparently had no real health issues and no mention of medication use was mentioned. Perhaps he complained of a headache and was slipped the cyanide in a pain-relief capsule. Maybe he routinely took vitamins in capsule form. If wife did it, she probably would not tell them that he was complaining of headache. No reason to believe that the man wanted to commit suicide. I think the wife did it, with the cyanide, in the bedroom. But innocent until proven guilty.
Well I guess the Tax Man felt he didn't get it all.
Obama has someone checking the corpse for a few loose thousands.
Michelle needs another 6,800 dollar jacket.
Victor...
If you have nothing of merit to add, please don't use a thread to throw in your dislike of the POS; totally irrelevant and very immature.
An American made, American designed jacket that was on show on the same stage as European designers, and probably cost the same or even less than what the other women were wearing. Mrs. Obama did it once. What was she supposed to wear, J.C. Penny's, made in China?
Nancy Reagan did it all the time, wearing outfits that cost more than what a family made in a month at numerous events while her husband dragged us into a recession and dumped the mentally ill out of their under-funded hospitals onto the less-funded streets.
"Nancy Reagan"
Aw yes. A real lady. Not only did she behave like a lady, she dressed like 1, 2.
Women today could learn a lot from her............if they tried.
Maybe he committed suicide after he saw how much money the government took.
Khaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan!!!
Saavik: You lied.
Spock: I exaggerated.
The American dream gone very bad. Immigrant strikes it rich - family doesn't get enough - family kills immagrant. End of dream.
I guess no one told the family that if the winner takes the installment payout and dies - so does the rest of the $$$$$$.
He took it in a lump sum...That's why the check was in the amount of $450,000.
Now the wife's gotta CryCleaning Business!
I think ole Joe and Barack need to set up a task force and get cyanide banned or at least make it where one would be limited to the amount used to try and poison someone. I see executive orders coming soon.
Steve
Your obsession with guns is very clear, but do not bore those of us who can focus upon other things.
Ya there are plenty of other forums about the Gun topic and emperor Obama to speak your opinion on.... stick to topic whats it matter how much money the Obamas spend (ALOT!) or if they put purple drapes in the whitehouse..(they did). Ok back to topic who ever benefits from him dying most likely did it..(the wife)
Not what one would call a fashion mogul.
Some of you people are heartless on here geeeeeeeez.
This was possibly an "honor" murder because he was gambling and gambling is forbidden in Islam. It was also reported that he was going to give some of it to a charity where Christians are involved, also forbidden in Islam. It could have just been simple, stupid greed and Muslims are as stupid as they come without going backward down the evolutionary branch that led to humans. Islam is, after all, a death cult and they worship death. (Hey, don't yell at me for saying that, yell at the Muslims. They screech it all the time.) 99.99999999% chance it's someone in his immediate family or someone they hired. It's just too obvious. Muslims love to kill.
Khan emigrated from India in the late 1980s. That would make him most likely Hindu, Buddhist, or possibly Jainist or Sikh, not Muslim. Check your facts before you start to besmirch someone's character.
"Khan... A native of India, [sic] 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."
There's lots of muslims in India, Heather
Pray Hard
Take your own advice and pray that you will be released from your bonds of bigotry, hatred, heartlessness and pure idiocy. The guy was a vegetarian...Not exactly the dietary practice of most Muslims. You would be surprised how many Muslims drink, and gamble,which is also forbidden. This guy was westernized; he also had his daughter by someone other than his present wife. Sex outside of marriage is forbidden, divorce is forbidden (unless you can show just cause that the wife has done something to shame him, usually sex with another)so either he committed sins of the flesh with a woman other than his wife, or divorced the first one.
As far as honour killing...Where did you get the notion that a man would be killed for shaming his family? The honour killings are because a female has brought shame to the family. Men are not killed for shaming one's family.
I believe I did read in another article that he was a Muslim, but what does that have to do with someone murdering him here? Your idea that it was a honour killing is absurd (have you ever researched who are the victims of honour killings? Buying lottery tickets is considered gambling and thus not allowed under Sharia law, but a family member would murder him for winning this money by winning a lottery ticket? One of them obviously went ahead and cashed the check. Who had access to the check, and who benefits from his death?
You also are totally brainwashed by what people like to portray the normal Muslim to be. Muslims who are not controlled by governments that follow Sharia law, and even many that are, do not go around slaughtering each other just for the pleasure of it. How many Muslim citizens here are convicted of murdering people just because? The few that you hear of are usually committed against young women because of an archaic view of what is acceptable behavior, and what is the definition of shame.
somedude-506636
80% of the population in India is hinduism where as 13% is Muslim.
Mr. Kahn went on the pilgrimage to Mecca. Somewhere along the trip he pledged to give up gambling. That's why people are guessing that he's Muslim, because only Muslims are allowed into the city. And that is why I agree that it's possible that someone decided to publicly punish him for going back on his vow.
Starbuck49.
Somedude "There's lots of muslims in India"
2010 - 177,286,000 in India... That is a lot...No?
india music for the hard of hearing...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOgALTFzFbQ
Lol bob.
I love the May He Poop On My Knee song.
"2010 - 177,286,000 in India... That is a lot...No?" I'd say that qualifies , and also theres lots of Sihks . I know the majority are Hindu .
No, no, it's a Zionist plot by evil Jews to make Muslims look stupid, violent and barbaric!
Oh, wait, never mind, Muslims are stupid, violent and barbaric.
Islam is poison.
Pathetic.
sad
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translated means im so irritated that the page was yanked before I could finish typing my worthless spew... waaaaa!
I hate it when that happens.
Exhumed and then then sold to science to pay the rest of the back taxes. Hey, its a racket collecting taxes.
did they embalm his body? if so can they find any proof of a crime...........
No; embalming is not considered acceptable, therefore finding cyanide is a lot easier.
Dies the day after getting check? Was with 3 close relatives the night before at dinner? This is a no-brainer....it most likely wasn't anyone else but one of those three....or all in it together.
I have read numerous reports that Khan was Muslim and had been on hajj-a Muslim pilgrimage in recent years. He was not vegetarian; his wife Shabana Ansari is. What is interesting in these reports is that the only person who ate the traditional Indian kofta curry was Khan-reports state father-in-law was on a *diet* and daughter Jasmeen did not eat it either.
Ex-wife Maria Jones lives in Indiana and reported that she did not contest custody of Jasmeen during their divorce because she was too poor to do so and that family members of Khan told her that Khan left Illinois and returned to India with their daughter. I find it strange that the ex-wife did not make more of an effort to confirm where her daughter was living.
NOT embalming leads to more rapid deterioration which could affect autopsy reports.
Father-in-law owes more than $120,000 in back taxes and lived with Khan and Ansari. Step-daughter Jasmeen moved in with Khan's relatives after her father died. I have read reports that it was Khan's brother who raised the suspicion and family feuding in court because Khan's family wants to make sure that Jasmeen *gets her fair share.* Khan left no will so under Illinois law both wife and step-daughter will share equally according to reports I have read. Monies are tied up in probate and auntie obtained legal custody of Jasmeen. Why not stay with step-mom who raised her since she was a little girl? What's up with that?
My suspicions lead me to think that Ansari and her father were involved-and the big question is: Will the autopsy really reveal much since the body will be in such a state of deterioration because Khan was not embalmed-because what they will be looking for is how the cyanide was ingested. I will be surprised if any arrest is made but I think the deciding factor will be autopsy results/confirmation of route of cyanide ingestion- if the autopsy can even show that. Who knows, it could have been inhalation in the bedroom when Khan was sleeping and that's why he woke up screaming in the middle of the night because wouldn't you think if a fatal dose of cyanide was ingested during a meal that symptoms would have appeared sooner? I have read that fatal doses of cyanide can suffocate you within minutes to an hour-and an agonizing death.
as we speak...they are digging a hole...RIGHT NOW!!!
Observations:
With a name as 'Imtiaz Khan', a step-daughter named 'Jasmeen'(Yasmin, like in the flower), and a wife with the name of 'Ansari', tells me that he is a Moslem.
Where religious law is applied to marriage, divorce and inheritance, a Moslem guy can divorce his wife merely by saying: I divorce thee, I divoce thee, I divorce thee. Shias however, require you to utter the statement on different days, in case you were having a fit of rage. Her avenues for divorce are limited to: Unequal treatment given to her in comparison to that given to his other wives(if any), sodomy, infidelity, he does not want children.
Sometimes I wonder why there are so many "Muslim Experts" here on Newsvine.