Winning Lottery Ticket Found in Wallet of Drowning Victim [Video]
The body of a 57-year-old man was discovered with a winning lottery ticket in the victim's wallet after he died from drowning and his body washed ashore.
Once authorities arrived at the scene after being alerted by a local beach resident who discovered the body, they were able to identify the man as 57-year-old Gregory Jarvis.
Upon further investigation, police found something in Jarvis' wallet that instantly put a different spin on the investigation.
What initially appeared to be an accidental drowning took a dark turn, and was now beginning to look suspicious.
Winning Lottery Ticket Found in Wallet of Drowning Victim
What police found in Jarvis' wallet was a winning Lotto ticket worth $45,000.
From live5news.com -
"Jarvis was at the Blue Water Inn in Caseville on Sept. 13 when he was playing the Club Keno add-on game The Jack. He hit the jackpot.
He had tried to cash it in but didn’t have a Social Security card that was in good shape. He applied for another but died along the private beach Friday before it arrived."
Apparently in Michigan, winners have to show a valid Social Security card when collecting any type of Lottery winnings.
After not showing up for work for a number of days, Jarvis' boss went to his favorite watering hole, the Blue Water Inn, to ask if the staff and regular patrons if they'd seen him.
Dawn Talaski, owner of the Blue Water Inn knew at that point something was wrong. Jarvis was a regular at the Blue Water Inn, stopping in "every day" according to Talaski.
Caseville Police Chief Kyle Romzek tells WJRT -
"We are thinking that he was tying up his boat, slipped and fell, hit his head, and that’s where he ended up in the water. No foul play is suspected.
At first, we were concerned about it but after the autopsy, and we interviewed people at the bar, he was well-liked around here, he was a nice guy, that took it off the table."
What was beginning to look like it could be foul play is now officially ruled an accidental death after the "autopsy shows Jarvis had head injuries consistent with hitting his head on the boat and he drowned" according to live5news.com.
So, what became of the $45,000 winning lotto ticket?
Caseville police turned the winning ticket over to the Jarvis family.
After what I've quickly learned about the Caseville, Mich community, the fact the ticket was given to the Jarvis family doesn't surprise me. Caseville seems like an incredibly kind and tight-knit community. A place where honesty is paramount and people seriously look out for each other.
Read more at live5news.com.