Winner? I Don’t Think So…

Five years ago, Virginia Metcalf Merida, 51, won the Powerball jackpot lottery. She told the press after she won the $65.4 million prize that she was going to quit her job making corrogated boxes, and buy a house. Her husband, a forklift operator, wanted to quit too, and make a fresh start in Australia. The AP told this sad tale today.

Mr Metcalf died in 2003, while living in a replica of George Washington’s Mount Vernon estate built in Corbin, KY. He had been charged with drunk driving, not paying child support, and other run-ins with the law before his sudden death.

A man’s body was found in a 5000-square foot custom built geodesic dome house she had built, coroners said he died from a drug overdose. Later the wealthy winner bought another house, but when she tried to evict the tenant, the renter sued her.

When the police found Mrs Merida at their home overlooking the Ohio river, she had been dead for many days before anyone found her.