Poisoned Lottery winner Urooj Khan’s wife, Shabana Ansari, told a reporter she prepared her husband’s final meal the night he collapsed and died in July.
The family, including Khan’s 17-year-old daughter from a previous marriage, Jasmeen, and Ansari’s father, sat down to eat a traditional dinner of Indian Kofta curry at the beginning of the holiest month for Muslims.
Ansari, 32, told the Chicago Sun-Times that Khan, 46, complained he wasn’t feeling well after dinner. She said he retired early, falling asleep in a chair. He awoke hours later in agony, and collapsed. She called 911.
Khan was pronounced dead at a local hospital. The Cook County medical examiner determined there was no sign of foul play so his death was attributed to unspecified heart disease, such as hardening of the arteries.
Khan, a native of India, had cashed in a $1 million instant Lotto ticket the day before his death. He settled for a lump sum payout of $425,000. The money is now in probate while the investigation into his death continues.
Khan was buried at Rosehill Cemetery in Chicago.
Several days after a death certificate was issued, a family member asked the medical examiner’s office to take a second look into the circumstances surrounding Khan’s death.
Khan’s wife says she was not the family member who requested the 2nd investigation.
The initial toxicology report did not include tests for cyanide or strychnine. The medical examiner’s office retested Khan’s body fluids. The test results came back in November, showing a lethal level of cyanide. Khan’s death was reclassified as a homicide.
Ansari, who had been married to Khan for 12 years, wanted to make it clear that she had nothing to do with her husband’s death.
“No, I loved him to death,” she said. “I loved him and he loved me the same way.”
“I want the truth to come out in the investigation, the sooner the better,” Ansari said. “Who could be that person who hurt him?”
“It has been incredibly hard time,” she added. “We went from being the happiest the day we got the check. It was the best sleep I’ve had. And then the next day, everything was gone.”
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