A body found buried in fresh concrete at a home in Florida may be that of missing lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare.
The 43-year-old has been missing since April last year, after becoming embroiled in a bitter legal battle over the £19.3million jackpot.
Today, police made the discovery after a tip-off, which suggested officers would find human remains near a home in Plant City where new concrete had been laid.
Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee said the body was slowly being uncovered.
He added their investigation and information specifically led them to the area after they began to believe Shakespeare might be dead because of ‘sinister means and motives’.
Gee said: ‘Our indications were it would be there.’
On Wednesday, the newly finished concrete slabs were scanned and removed.
Yesterday, they discovered the remains – which officers claim appeared to have been there for a while - buried five feet below underground.
Shakespeare, a 43-year-old truck driver, won a $31 million Florida lottery prize in 2006.
A year later, he won a court challenge from a fellow trucker who accused Shakespeare of snatching the winning ticket out of his wallet while the two were delivering meat to Miami restaurants.
Shakespeare's family reported him missing in November 2009, telling the Polk County sheriff's office they hadn't seen him since April.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd said when their investigation began, they had hoped to find Shakespeare alive ‘and he truly had just wanted to hide from those who were asking him for money’.
He added: ‘As our investigation continued, the information we developed led us to believe he may very well have ended up with an untimely death.’
Both Judd and Gee said they would not comment on whether anything else was found inside the manmade grave, or whether a previous person of interest was connected to the area.
The home, according to a local TV station, belongs to the boyfriend of a person of interest in the disappearance of Shakespeare.
While they await identification of the remains, police said they would begin to shift their focus to a murder investigation.
‘It's painfully obvious he didn't get there by himself,’ Judd added.
Gee said police from Polk and Hillsborough Counties were already working with prosecutors on the case and hope to bring to justice the person responsible for what they believe is clearly cold-blooded murder.
‘Somebody put that body in that hole,’ Gee said.
‘This isn't by any means just where we find someone on the side of the road. Somebody has obviously put him there.’
-----
------
0 comments:
Post a Comment