• Officials begin digging up body of poisoned lottery winner

    Officials 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.

    By Andrew Mach, Staff Writer, NBC News

    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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  • Judge allows exhumation of poisoned Chicago lottery winner

    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.

    By Andrew Mach and Carol Eggers, NBC News

    An Illinois judge decided Friday to allow authorities to exhume the body of the Chicago lottery winner police believe was fatally poisoned shortly before he was to collect his winnings.


    Cook County Circuit Court Associate Judge Susan Coleman signed off on the request from prosecutors and the medical examiner, saying no one had objected to exhuming Urooj Khan’s body at Rosehill Cemetery on Chicago’s North Side, though she did not give a time frame for when the exhumation would take place. 

    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. The case was recently reclassified as a homicide when a relative told authorities to take a closer look at Khan's death. 

    An autopsy had not been performed last summer because medical examiners believed Khan died from natural causes, but testing revealed he actually died of cyanide poisoning.

    Police have not announced any suspects in their investigation.

    In court Friday, members of Khan's family said they never believed he died of natural causes and were happy with the judge's decision. 

    “I wanted my brother to rest in peace,” Khan’s sister Meraj Khan said. “If that is what it takes to bring justice and peace, that’s what needs to be done.”

    Khan’s brother-in-law Mohammed Zaman, said he didn’t know who would murder him, saying “I cannot point finger,” but said he didn’t think his lottery winnings were a motive because “he was wealthy before too.”

    During Friday’s proceedings, Khan’s brother, Imtiaz Khan, held up documents that he said proved his brother was murdered, but he wouldn’t comment when asked whether he contacted authorities with that information.

    Court papers said the body was not embalmed, leading prosecutors to indicate that it was “critical” to arrange for the remains to be exhumed as soon as possible.

    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. 

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  • Why use cyanide to murder lottery winner? It's a potent, discreet way to kill

    By Andrew Mach, Staff Writer, NBC News

    Often depicted as the perfect poison in antiquated crime novels, cyanide – the drug police believe to be the cause of death of a lottery winner in Chicago shortly before he was to collect his winnings – is a potent, painful killer that essentially suffocates its victims. 



    Follow @andrewjmach

    David Benjamin, a professor of biomedical forensic sciences at Boston University, said cyanide is the murder weapon of choice for some because it "can be used surreptitiously, it’s very potent and few drugs act as rapidly.”

    Indeed, the Cook County medical examiner initially ruled the death 46-year-old Urooj Khan, a $1 million lottery winner, to be arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease, a condition involving the hardening of arteries, after an external examination. No autopsy was performed, because there were not obvious injuries and no reason to suspect foul play. 

    “Unless there’s significant trauma to the body, and without having a knife sticking out of the guy’s chest, the medical examiner will probably say, 'Oh, it was a cardiac event,'" Benjamin said.

    But several days after Khan's body was released for burial, a family member approached the doctor who examined the body and suggested officials look into the matter further.

    More in-depth toxicology tests, blood analysis and new screening results revealed a lethal level of cyanide in Khan's blood, according to the medical examiner's report. And with that, like something out of a Sherlock Holmes or Agatha Christie murder mystery, Khan’s official manner of death was ruled a homicide.

    Poisoned lottery winner had no enemies, wife says

    Usually found only in scientific labs, cyanide is a potent poison that can be ingested or inhaled. It cannot be legally purchased.

    “It’s basically a poison that impedes your body’s ability to use oxygen,” Benjamin said. “It blocks the ability of your blood to circulate oxygen throughout your body, and you basically die from suffocation.”

    Cyanide poisoning would probably feel “like someone had wrapped your face with Saran wrap,” he added.

    Deborah Blum, an expert on poisons who wrote about the detectives who pioneered forensic toxicology in "The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York," said the once-popular homicidal poison essentially results in "this explosion of cell death." 

    AP file

    This undated photo provided by the Illinois Lottery shows Urooj Khan, 46, of Chicago's West Rogers Park neighborhood, posing with a winning lottery ticket.

    But Blum said the use of cyanide in killings has become rare because it is difficult to obtain. It can also be easy to detect in some cases, leaving blue splotches on a victim's skin, making it less stealthy than killers would like.

    "The thing about it is that it's not one of those poisons that's tasteless," Blum told The Associated Press. "It has a really strong, bitter taste, so you would know you had swallowed something bad if you had swallowed cyanide. But if you had a high enough dose it wouldn't matter, because ... a good lethal dose will take you out in less than five minutes."

    Other cyanide poisonings have made headlines in recent years.

    • A 42-year-old man in North Carolina poisoned himself in November of last year by ingesting or inhaling potassium cyanide. The incident prompted a hazardous material cleanup.
    • The wife of a once-powerful Chinese politician admitted responsibility for poisoning British businessman Neil Heywood in November 2011 with cyanide over dinner. Heywood was found dead hours later in his hotel room. An internal Chinese report confirmed that he died from potassium cyanide added to his drink.
    • An Ohio emergency room doctor was convicted of aggravated murder in March 2010 for lacing his wife's calcium supplement five years earlier with cyanide so he could be with his mistress. On that day, his wife, Rosemarie, collapsed while driving and crashed her SUV into another vehicle.  

    Chicago Medical Examiner Stephen Cina, who is overseeing Khan's case, told the AP that out of 4,500 autopsies he has performed, he has only seen two incidences of cyanide poisoning.

    Khan's body will be exhumed within the next two weeks, Cina said, in order to complete an investigation into his death.

     

  • $1 million lottery winner fatally poisoned by cyanide

    Urooj 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.

    By Andrew Mach and Matthew DeLuca, NBC News

    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. 

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  • Report: Dad says he put poison on dead son's pizza

    By Jonathan Dienst, NBCNewYork.com

    NEW YORK -- A 5-year-old Bronx boy died and his 7-year-old sister was hospitalized Wednesday after spending the evening with their father, who was apparently distraught and told police he put poison on their pizza.


    Law enforcement sources tell NBC 4 New York that the children's parents had recently split up. The kids were spending the day with him, and just after midnight, he called their mother and told her he was going to kill himself, sources say.

    As she headed to the Morris Heights apartment where he was staying with his step-mother, the stepmother called police and said the father had locked himself in the bathroom with his son.

    When police and the mother arrived, the boy was unresponsive and the girl was vomiting. The boy was later pronounced dead at Saint Barnabus Hospital. The girl's condition was not immediately known.

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    Police are questioning the father. Sources say he told police he poisoned the children and himself with something on their pizza.

    In a separate child death case, police were called to the Boulevard Houses on Linden Boulevard in East New York Tuesday night at about 11:30 p.m. for a report of an unconscious girl. When they arrived, they found the child, Halii McCord, unresponsive. She was taken to Brookdale Hospital, where she was pronounced dead.

    Sources say the boyfriend of the girl's mother is being questioned.

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  • 5th graders accused of plotting to poison teacher

    .

    Police in Fresno, Calif., are investigating shocking allegations that three elementary school students plotted to poison their teacher. Click on the video for more.

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  • Former 'Amazing Race' producer Jeff Rice found dead in Uganda

    By Ian Johnston, msnbc.com staff

    An American television producer has been found dead in mysterious circumstances while working in Uganda, his brother-in-law told msnbc.com on Wednesday.

    Paul Blackman said that family members had heard that poisoning was suspected in the death of father of two Jeff Rice, 39, who is originally from Oklahoma.

    Blackman, who is the brother of Rice's wife Sally, added that the situation was unclear and relatives were trying to establish what exactly had happened

    Rice, who previously worked for shows including "The Amazing Race" and Animal Planet's "Whale Wars," died on Friday night. 

    Rice's assistant, who Blackman declined to name, also became ill and was taken to a hospital in Uganda.

    "We've sent people up there to get some answers," Blackman told msnbc.com by phone from Durban, South Africa. "Nothing is finalized yet.

    Addressing media reports that Rice had been fatally poisoned, Blackman said: "I don't know where they are getting this 'definitely poisoned' thing."

    Rice moved to South Africa about 13 years ago and holds dual citizenship, Blackman said. His wife is South African.

    Rice's death was first reported by FoxNews.com.

    'Really tough to handle'
    Blackman said Wednesday morning that he was looking after their children, girls aged seven and two, while Sally Blackman tried to get information from the South African police.

    He said his sister was finding the uncertainty "really tough to handle, but, yeah, she's strong."

    "There's so much stuff in the air about possible poisoning, all that kind of stuff," Blackman said. "At the moment, we're trying to get Jeff's body out of there to get some answers."

    Blackman said Rice had been "a historian, tour guide kind of person" in the United States and had started to work in television about three years ago. He and his wife ran SB Productions in Durban.

    He added his brother-in-law was working on either a future show or documentary in Uganda.

    "He was a fantastic producer apparently, a very, very sought-after producer," he said. "The messages (of condolence) coming in have been very, very good actually. It's been fantastic, he's a very well-liked character. He was a good guy, very relaxed and just a very good guy."

    The "about us" section of SB Productions' website says Rice decided there were "better ways to spend his time" after five years "contributing to the stalemate of the 405 in LA."

    "From pie in the sky to looking no futher than his nose, his mind is always churning. If Jeff isn't crunching budgets or breaking down scripts, he can probably be found in some unusual African location with his Power Book and a bottle of the local brew. Jeff has an incredibly calm nature and a wicked sense of humor," it adds.

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  • Suspected dog-poisoning spate investigated

    By Associated Press

    Investigators are looking into the deaths of nearly a dozen dogs in southwest Oklahoma that may have been the result of poisoning.

    Kiowa County Sheriff Russ Tate said as many as 10 dogs have died in the Roosevelt area this month.

    Resident Marie Montgomery said a relative found her pet Chihuahua, Pepe, in a ditch suffering from convulsions last week.

     

    The dog survived, but his veterinarian, Dr. Jim Bentley, suspects the dog was poisoned with strychnine, a pesticide.

    Tate said his office had contacted the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations to help look into the possible poisonings because the agency has resources for toxicology testing.

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.