Police fear missing Lotto winner may have been killed

Truck driver Abraham Shakespeare was reported missing on November 9, by his family who told the Polk County sheriff's office they hadn't seen him since April.

Ten months after a multimillion-dollar Florida lottery winner was last seen, police Wednesday said they feared for the worst. When Thanksgiving passed without word from the missing man, authorities raised the reward for information to $5,000.

"Circumstances are mounting, according to our homicide detectives, that leads us to believe there is a very good chance he met with an untimely death," Sheriff Grady Judd said. "We don't have a body, we don't have Abraham Shakespeare alive," Judd said. "We don't know if he is dead or alive, but we are very suspicious and fear he is the victim of a murder."

Truck driver Abraham Shakespeare, 43, won a $31 million Florida lottery prize in 2006. A year later, he won a court challenge from a fellow trucker who accused Shakespeare of snatching the winning ticket out of his wallet while the two were delivering meat to Miami restaurants.

On the chance that Shakespeare is still alive, Judd urged him to contact authorities.