Chicago police suspect that an Indian-American man who won a $1 million lottery last year and died soon after, was murdered.
According to a Jan. 7 Chicago Tribune report, Urooj Khan, 46, owner of several dry cleaning businesses and rental properties in Little India and elsewhere, died last July 20, a month after hitting the jackpot with two instant-game tickets he bought at the 7-Eleven near his house in Chicago’s North Side.
A week after he was buried following what was considered a death by natural causes, a relative contacted the police to express doubts.
Tests by the medical examiner’s office found enough cyanide in Khan’s blood to cause his death.
Medical Examiner Stephen J. Cina told the Tribune that Khan’s body was to be exhumed to verify with greater accuracy how much cyanide he consumed or inhaled. The death is now being described as a homicide, according to the Tribune.
Quoting internal police documents, the Tribune reported that Khan ate dinner at his West Rogers Park home an hour after returning from work. He began screaming some time later while in bed, and was declared dead at St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, Ill.
The Tribune spoke to his wife, Shabana Ansari, 32. The couple also have a teenage daughter. Both wife and daughter were in the home when Khan died. Shabana Ansari told the Tribune her husband was an “extraordinary, nice, kind and lovable” man and “the best husband on the entire planet.”
