Urooj Khan had sworn off playing the lottery after he took an Islamic pilgrimage to the Middle East in 2010, but as he stood in a 7-Eleven near his home on Chicago's Far North Side this summer, he lost his will for a moment, handing over $60 to buy two instant-game tickets.
After scratching off the second ticket, he leaped in the air, shouting over and over again, "I hit a million!"
When Khan, 46, accepted an oversized check from Illinois Lottery representatives days later at the same store with his wife and teenage daughter at his side, he spoke excitedly of how the winnings would help him grow his dry-cleaning business.
Instead, Khan is dead, a victim of an extraordinary poisoning, and police have a mystery on their hands: Did his lottery winnings create a motive for murder?
The month after winning the million dollars, Khan died unexpectedly on July 20. Finding no trauma to his body and no unusual substances such as cocaine or carbon monoxide in his blood, the Cook County medical examiner's office declared his death to be from natural causes. He was buried at Rosehill Cemetery.
But Chicago police and county prosecutors are investigating Khan's death as a homicide.
In an interview, Medical Examiner Stephen J. Cina said that within a week of Khan's death a concerned relative asked his office to take a closer look at the case.
By early December, the medical examiner's office determined from comprehensive toxicology tests that Khan had died of a lethal amount of cyanide.
Now authorities are considering exhuming his body to try to find out how much cyanide he ingested or inhaled, Cina disclosed.
While a motive has not been determined yet, police haven't ruled out that Khan was killed because of his big lottery win, a law enforcement source said.
Preliminary data from Chicago police show that in a violent 2012 — with 506 people slain, the most since 2008 — Khan was the only known homicide victim to be poisoned.
According to an internal police department document, Khan came home from work to his West Rogers Park residence on the night he died. He ate dinner about an hour later and eventually went to bed. He was later heard screaming and was taken to St. Francis Hospital in Evanston, where he was pronounced dead, the document said.
His wife and daughter were home when Khan was stricken, according to Cina.
Interviewed last week while working at one of three dry cleaners her husband owned, Khan's widow, Shabana Ansari, declined to talk about the homicide investigation other than to say she has spoken to police.
Married to Khan for 12 years, she praised him as "extraordinary, nice, kind and lovable."
He was "the best husband on the entire planet," said Ansari, 32.
A native of India, Khan came to Chicago in the late 1980s and began working at a dry cleaners. He saved up enough money to rent property on a stretch of West Rogers Park known for its Indian and Pakistani restaurants, bakeries and bazaars, opening the Style Dry Cleaners on Devon Avenue in 2004.
Khan later opened locations on nearby Western Avenue and another in the Edgewater neighborhood. He ran the day-to-day operations at all three shops, supervising about 10 employees. If a worker called in sick, he often handled the cleaning and delivery duties as well.
"By God's grace, he was a workaholic," his widow said. "Day or night ... he picks up the phone 24/7. He made the clients happy by doing his job. He could not be everywhere, but he had to be everywhere."
He also dabbled in real estate, renting out five condominiums he owned.
Over the years, Khan enjoyed occasionally buying lottery tickets. But after he made hajj, the once-in-a-lifetime pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia required of all able Muslims, he tried to give up gambling to live a more virtuous life. Last June, when Khan stopped at the 7-Eleven, he even told the clerk, Ashur Oshana, about the vow.
But then he changed his mind and bought the two tickets, the clerk said last week while working at the same store. Moments later, Khan grabbed Oshana's hand and kissed it on winning the million-dollar prize. Khan then handed him a $100 bill out of gratitude, apologizing that he didn't have more money on him, Oshana said.
"Take this $100 and I promise I'll make you happy (later)," Oshana recalled Khan telling him. "He was jumping up and down ... by his car."
Khan decided to take the winnings in a lump sum — a little more than $600,000, reduced to $424,449.60 after taxes, according to Michael Lang, a spokesman for the Illinois Lottery.
A check for that amount was issued July 19, a day before Khan's death, Lang said. But Khan never got to see the check.
Khan's unexpected passing stunned friends.
"I couldn't believe it ... on the first day of Ramadan," said a teary-eyed Udayshree Reddy, a tenant in one of Khan's West Rogers Park condos. "The day before he was very good."
Cina, the medical examiner, said each death is handled on a case-by-case basis, but no autopsy was performed on Khan because his death didn't appear suspicious and he was older than 45, the age at which the office didn't do automatic autopsies without some evidence of foul play.
The forensic pathologist who handled the case checked the body from head to toe and found no signs of trauma, Cina said. She also took a sample of Khan's blood — a standard practice at the office for any death — and checked for carbon monoxide, opiates and alcohol. The results came back negative. As a result, the office ruled that Khan had died of natural causes: hardening of the arteries.
Within a week, that finding was turned on its head when the undisclosed relative came forward with concerns and asked for additional testing.
"If a family member has a concern that seems valid, we take those seriously," Cina said in the interview at his Near West Side office. "We can't (ordinarily) look for every toxin under the sun like a CSI episode."
Since then, Cina, who took over as medical examiner last summer, said the office has adjusted its rules by raising the age to about 50 and younger for automatic autopsies. "And I like to see a little bit more medical history," he said.
With the suspicion over Khan's death, the case was reopened and comprehensive toxicology tests were done at the medical examiner's laboratory.
The preliminary results in September showed cyanide in Khan's system but not if it was at lethal levels. The office held off on changing Khan's manner of death but contacted Chicago police about the findings.
By early December, the final results showed Khan had enough cyanide in his blood to kill him. The office changed its ruling on the death to homicide.
Now it is consulting with police and prosecutors on exhuming Khan's body to try to gather more evidence from an autopsy about how he died.
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Wow
Sad... May he rest in peace
I turn my phone OFF when I go to bed at night.
The clerk did it........................
i don't think its clue
I think giving the clerk money could be the source of "the curse" here, NOT the lottery ticket.
ok
thanks
Why did he blab his big mouth about his "vow" and then scratch the ticket in the store??
Working in a dry cleaning buisness the police may need to investigate wether he was around a clothing fire before death occured. Smoldering or burning of certain types of clothing material gives off hydrogen cyanide which could be fatal.
Why would it matter where he yelled it??? If you are of no blood relation you're not going to get anything......It had to be someone close but his wife was gonna get some cash anyways.....I mean it's only a million dollars and it was consideraby less after taxes.....
Winning the lottery & getting poisoned is the stuff of Hollywood.
even if you are blood relation you aren't going to get anything. At least that's how I feel.
Anyhow, it took an incredibly long time, 59 days, for Illinois Lottery Headquarters office to cut his check!!!
Actualy,considering that Illnois is broke,it wasn't such a long time.There are cities & towns & school districts in Illinois that have been waiting for years for money that the state of Illinois owes them.Illinois can't pay its bills.I wouldn't take a check from them because it would probably bounce.
It matters because Muslims kill people arbitrarily and call it sharia law.
Such a sad story
I'm sure we'll hear more.
Well if you go by that.....he was a dead man walking anyways.......arbitrarily
well that is sad, and i would guess that it was someone in his house that poisoned him.
I think the illinois lottery department did a good job for taking 59 days to cut his check at least they gave him 59 extra days to live . if they had delayed his check two more weeks he could have had 14 more extra days. And back to the investigation if the entire family was poisoned l will blame outsider but the fact that the family knew when the check was coming and didnt eat from the pioson that tells me the wife and daughter should be prime suspect and must be given polygraph test for any exclusion and to make matters worse for them they where not the ones to raise suspicion about his death probably because they are busy planing on there next shopping list lol
on the other hand the only mistake he did was breaking is vow not to play the lottery may be the wife took that vow too seriously and her vow was to terminate him if he ever breaks the first vow . very important folks to ask your wife to list all her secrete vows you never know cyanide may be on the list lol
And very soon the lottery will now become Death Row Records so the big question who wants to win the next lottery lol say i
The relative who told them to take another look probably knows someone who might have had a motive.
it was colonel Mcginnin56 in the study with a with a bottle of poison
Scratch-offs are bad luck.
I'd believe it
I also think it was someone close to him who might of done this.
Someone took this man out the exact day before he was to receive the check
59 days to get the check, nothing! The day before he's dead? what the heck?
He didn't even get to see it!! Made sure he wouldn't even get to spend one penny!!
I wouldn't know the first thing about buying cyanide, where do people get this crazy stuff!!
Like on the tv shows don't you have to special order it or sign something? I hope there is
a paper trail do who did this.
Hi stranger!!!!! Glad to see you're no longer MIA!!!!!!
I for one WOULD take a check from IL.......and RUN all the way to CA with it.
I just saw this story on MSN and knew it would be posted here.
Just one more reason to keep quiet about your winnings.
Hey woman, where you been?
Probably still enjoyin' that Chicago weather if I know you.
That's really sad especially because he sounded like a nice man. RIP.
I would guess it's the wife. She was just a liiiiiittle too complimentary about him. I've learned to be suspicious of complimentary wives. lol
"Married to Khan for 12 years, she praised him as "extraordinary, nice, kind and lovable."
He was "the best husband on the entire planet," said Ansari, 32."
I was born in CA, but that is the last state even after the likes of MS, AR, and AK that I would run to with a bundle of cash and investment accounts! For me it would be AZ, TX, and FL that could expect me to come flying in to roost! AZ gets on the list for taxes and fact I could carry a weapon. TX and FL rank higher though since I like the climate and ease of travel options as well as tax treatment.
If he was a Sikh, i would of blamed the poisoning on those chinese made turbans.
This is pretty puzzling. Since he was pretty well off already, there seems to be little incentive for his wife to kill him for a mere $400,000 or so. He easily would have turned that money into millions judging by his financial acumen.
Strange as it may seem, he may have felt guilty about breaking his vow and guilty about taking the money which would make more sense that he would end up dead before he collected the money, not after and he would have access to cyanide in his line of work.
To kill her husband the day before he was to collect the check would just be ignorant and even an idiot would know that would draw lots of attention.
Deeply religious people do strange things, he would not be the first.
BTW, Illinois Lottery is privately run and their checks clear just fine.
Just seen the story on Good Morning America.
After he died (killed) the money went to his estate and the check was cashed
one month after he died.
She was 20 and he 34 when they married.
Maybe secretly she didn't like him and wanted him axed.
I've heard Muslims are not always the kindest to their womenfolk...
Yes, in today's world he is considered ultra wealthy.............
And thank for the reassurance about Illinois state checks......
Gee, I wonder if MSN mentioned how Muslims randomly kill people (and each other)??????
Deeply religious people do strange things, he would not be the first.
Excellent point, it could have been a suicide............
I think the wife had some role also.
1/9/13
I would concurr w/those among U who think he might have committed suicide, having read the entire story.
He was a Muslim, and most of them R very deeply devoted to their Religious beliefs and Prophet Mohammad.
He might have begun to feel tremendous guilt when the knowledge that he was to receive the winning funds
finally sunk in. He had taken that trip and given himself spiritually to God thru prayer and devotion.
It might turn out to be something else, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were suicide.