A lottery winner is discovered dead holding the winning ticket.
According to authorities, a Michigan man who won a $45,000 prize passed unexpectedly with the winning lottery ticket still in his wallet.
On Friday, Gregory Jarvis, 57, was discovered dead next to his boat on a private beach in Saginaw Bay, according to Caseville Police Chief Kyle Romzek.
On September 13, 2021, when he was there, Jarvis participated in and won another Club Keno game named “The Jack.”
He did not have his Social Security card with him at the time, which is a requirement for all lottery prizes above $600 in the state of Michigan. As a result, he was unable to claim his lottery winnings.
After requesting a new Social Security card, Jarvis vanished the following week. Approximately 10 days after winning the lotto, his body was discovered by authorities on a Kaysville beach in Saginaw Bay on Friday.
Jarvis won a $45,000 lottery win for his Keno game when he was staying at the inn. He had to get a new Social Security card, so he was unable to receive the money straight soon. After requesting a replacement card, he started working on his plans to use his lottery winnings to visit family.
Owner of Blue Water Inn Dawn Talasky (above) discussed Jarvis’ bad luck and how he expressed his desire to go to loved ones in an interview with ABC12. He even went back to the inn’s tavern, where he had won the drawing on September 19, 2021, to purchase a round of drinks for everyone.
Talasky observed Jarvis had not materialized, though. His regularity was significant.
She remarked, “We thought something was wrong because he wasn’t here all week.”
Finally, Jarvis’ boss made a date request. On September 22, he visited the Blue Water Inn but was unable to find it.
A Kaysville resident discovered the body on a private beach just two days later. Jarvis died next to his boat, according to the police, who confirmed that it was his body.
The man’s autopsy revealed that he had banged his head before he died from suffocation.
Police later discovered a winning lottery ticket in his pocket-sized wallet. They launched an inquiry to determine whether foul play may have been involved in his death because he was the true winner of such a large sum of money. They determined after an investigation that his death was unintentional.
In the words of Kaysville Police Chief Kyle Romzek (below), “We think he was tying up his boat, slipped and fell, hit his head, and that’s where he ended up in the water.”
“We were concerned about it (the lottery) at first, but after the autopsy and we spoke to customers at the bar, it became clear that he was well-liked and a decent man, which took him off the table,” Romzek continued.
The lucky lottery ticket was delivered to Jarvis’ surviving family members. They will be able to gather the funds and do something special in the man’s memory who perished in the water.
Bar owner Talaski recalled one of her final interactions with the deceased: “Someone claimed someone had just won The Jack and he answered ‘Great’ and someone asked him, ‘Was it you?’ and it was. He was very happy. a very decent man. He was present each day. With that money, he intended to visit his sister and father in North Carolina.