Urooj Khan

Urooj Khan was 46, an immigrant from India who had come to Chicago in the 1980s and built up three dry-cleaning shops and five rental condominiums. In June 2012 he bought Illinois Lottery instant tickets at a 7-Eleven near his home in West Rogers Park on Chicago's North Side; one was a $1 million winner, and he tipped the clerk $100. On 26 June he posed with an oversized cheque at the store with his wife and daughter. He chose the lump sum, worth about $600,000 before tax and $424,449 after it, and said he wanted to pay bills and his mortgage and donate to St Jude Children's Research Hospital. The lottery issued the cheque on 19 July 2012. Khan died the following day, 20 July. A Cook County medical examiner's external examination attributed the death to arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease and it was ruled natural. After a relative asked for a closer look, stored blood was tested and in late November 2012 showed a lethal level of cyanide; the death was reclassified as a homicide. Khan's body was exhumed in January 2013 and a full autopsy, reported on 1 March 2013, confirmed cyanide poisoning, with severe coronary artery disease a contributing factor. Medical examiner Stephen Cina said he could not determine how the cyanide was administered.

No one has been charged. In December 2013 Khan's estate was settled, with two-thirds of the lottery money going to his daughter and one-third to his widow, and the family barred from wrongful-death suits unless charges were brought or new evidence emerged. In June 2016 Chicago police told Global News it was "still very much an open and active investigation", while Khan's sister said detectives had done almost nothing; the killing remains unsolved (2016).