TAMPA, Fla. – A 43-year-old man who had won millions in a lottery jackpot before he went missing nine months ago died of “homicidal violence,” Florida authorities said Tuesday.
Further information on how Abraham Shakespeare died would not be released, Hillsborough County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Debbie Carter said in a news release. The body of the former truck driver’s assistant who won $30 million in the lottery in 2006 was found Thursday, buried behind a home beneath a concrete slab.
Shakespeare, of Lakeland, was last seen in April of 2009 and officials in Polk County – where he lived and was reported missing – have long thought he was slain.
No arrests have been made in the case.
In January, Polk officials named a “person of interest” in Shakespeare’s disappearance: Dorice “DeeDee” Moore, who befriended the lottery winner after he claimed the winning ticket and took a $17 million lump sum payment.