Police 'suspect the worst' as lottery winner disappears without trace

Abraham Shakespeare claimed that he was down to his last three dollars when he scooped the jackpot in 2006, but vowed that his life would change for the good after his big win.

His rags-to-riches tale began to sour when a colleague sued him in 2007, accusing Shakespeare, 43, of having stolen the winning ticket from his wallet. The lawsuit failed and Shakespeare – who friends say was barely literate, easily led and prone to trouble – vanished weeks before he was due at an appeal hearing last May. His family only reported his disappearance in November.

"We initially thought maybe he left 'cause he was tired of people tugging at him all the time," said Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd. "But as the investigation goes on, he's had absolutely no contact with his mother and his eight-year-old son, who he loves dearly – we suspect the worst."

Shakespeare bought himself a $1.1 million home with a swimming pool near his Florida hometown of Lakeland, along with a pick-up truck and a BMW car. Another $1 million went into a trust fund for his son.

Then he gave his stepfather $1 million and shared $750,000 among his three stepsisters, while his mother and sister got $22,000 between them.

Within three years, most of his money was gone – and so was Shakespeare.

Adding to the intrigue is DeeDee Moore, 37, a stranger who befriended Shakespeare last year, claiming that she was a writer and wished to pen a book about his life. She has taken over all his assets, including his mansion.

She told investigators that Shakespeare had simply gone to ground because he was fed up with attention from gold-diggers. To assist his getaway, she took over $370,000 in loans that had been owed to Shakespeare, she said, but has since sold them on at a loss because the "idiots, drugheads and cokeheads" refused to pay up and had threatened her.