Fla. sheriff fears missing lottery winner killed

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LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) — The winner of a $30 million Florida lottery jackpot is missing — and authorities suspect he was killed.

Forty-three-year-old Abraham Shakespeare won the jackpot in 2006. He’s been missing since April.

His mother hopes he is somewhere in the Caribbean, lying on a beach and enjoying the good life away from all the hangers-on who were constantly hitting him up for money. The sheriff has a more ominous theory: Shakespeare was killed.

Shakespeare won the big jackpot after buying a lottery ticket at a convenience store in a town called Frostproof.

Shakespeare had a criminal record that included arrests and prison time for burglary, battery and not paying child support. He took a lump-sum payment of $16.9 million instead of annual installments.