News writer; Opinion columnist
It sometimes seems like tragedy and the lottery walk hand in hand. While everyone dreams of winning millions of dollars someday, too often, those dreams turn into nightmares when winners are murdered, robbed, arrested, or simply left destitute just a few years after collecting a big check.
However, if anyone should have known how to handle an unexpected fortune, it would be Chicago resident Urooj Khan. At 46, he was a successful businessman with a loving family. He had both the knowledge and experience to manage a lottery jackpot responsibly.
Unfortunately, we'll never know how Khan would have handled his million-dollar fortune because he died just hours after receiving his winnings from the Illinois lottery.
While the police initially believed he died of natural causes, they eventually discovered evidence proving he was murdered. Now, both his family and the police want to know who killed Urooj Khan and why.
American dream
Urooj Khan didn't need a lottery jackpot to feel like a winner. As an Indian immigrant, he built a successful life from almost nothing and lived the American dream.
Khan was born to a large family in India. His father was a successful property manager until he unexpectedly died of a heart attack when Khan was a teenager. In need of work to support her large family, Khan's mother immigrated to America with all of her children in the late 1980s.
Khan worked hard to adapt to his new country, quickly learning English and working hard in school. However, he couldn't afford college, and with only a high school education, he had few job opportunities and worked as a gas station attendant, making just $7 an hour.
While he had humble beginnings, Khan was intelligent, ambitious, and willing to strive for what he wanted. He saved his money and learned about business, and in 2004, he opened Style Dry Cleaners, his own dry cleaning business, with his wife, Shabana Ansari.
The shop was so successful that he opened two more, and the revenue from his business allowed him to purchase several rental properties and eventually buy his own home.
He went from having almost nothing to living the American dream in fifteen years.
Big win/big loss
As a young man, Khan enjoyed playing the lottery and was known to buy tickets every week at his local convenience store. However, he was also a Muslim, and after making a traditional Hajj to Mecca in 2010, he swore that he would give up gambling, which is forbidden by Islam.
Despite his promise, Khan felt the pull of his old habits, and in 2012, he purchased two Illinois Lottery $30 instant-win tickets from his local 7-11. He scratched them off while standing in the store, and after uncovering the second one, he leaped up and down, kissed the hand of the clerk, and handed him a hundred-dollar bill.
Khan had won big. His scratch-off ticket was worth one million dollars, and a man already living his dream suddenly found himself with an even larger fortune. He opted for the lump sum payout, and after taxes, he collected approximately $425,000.
Two months later, Illinois State Lottery officials gave Khan his check in the same 7-11 store where he purchased his winning ticket. He was surrounded by his family, including his wife Shabana and daughter Jasmeen, his only child from his first marriage.
With a broad smile plastered across his face, Khan told the reporters in the store that he planned to reinvest his money back into his business and donate some to the St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.
Whatever other big plans he had to spend his fortune, whether it was to take a vacation to Aruba or pay for his daughter's college, we'll never know because, within hours of collecting his money, he was dead at the age of 46.
The same night he received his check, he woke up complaining that he was in pain, went to the hospital, and died within a few hours of his arrival.
Shortly after his death, his sister Meraj told reporters, “He was a very, very good man, very giving. He was very lovely, very friendly. The best brother in the world.”
Mysterious death
The medical examiner who studied Khan's body initially ruled that he had passed from natural causes. Dr. Stephen Cina determined that his cause of death was atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease, which hardened his arteries and restricted blood flow to his heart.
As part of the exam, he ran a standard blood test, which looked for the presence of drugs, alcohol, and carbon monoxide, but it came back negative for all three. He also noted that there were no signs of physical trauma on his body, such as a head injury or other wounds.
However, Khan's brother, Imtiaz, was not satisfied with the medical report, and he did not believe that he died of natural causes.
Imtiaz told reporters:
I kept saying, 'He didn't die by heart attack. It was a murder. Can you please check more into it?'
Dr. Cina agreed to perform a more invasive autopsy, and this time he found something troubling. He conducted a comprehensive toxicological test, which revealed the presence of cyanide in Khan's body.
Cyanide is a highly potent poison, and while it's often featured in films and TV shows, it's difficult to acquire in real life and rarely seen in murder cases.
Dr. Cina said that of the thousands of autopsies he's performed, he's only seen cases of Cyanide poisoning twice. Following his discovery, he contacted the Chicago police and reclassified Khan's death as a homicide.
Khan's family buried his body after the autopsy. However, the police determined they needed to perform further testing, and his body was exhumed and examined by a forensic pathologist a few months after his funeral. The results of her findings were inconclusive.
Investigation
Cyanide is a fast-acting poison, which means there was only a tiny window of time between when he collected his check and when someone would have poisoned him. Police recreated his movements in the hours before his death and learned that after receiving his prize, Khan went home and enjoyed a lamb curry prepared by his wife.
He ate dinner with Shabana, his father-in-law, Fareedun Ansari, and Jasmeen. Shortly after eating, he fell asleep in a chair. A few hours later, he woke up screaming in pain. His family rushed him to St. Francis Medical Center, where he died just a few hours later.
Police searched the West Rogers Park home that Khan shared with his family, but they didn't find any poison. They interviewed Shabana in the presence of her lawyer for several hours, but turned up no evidence that she was responsible for the death of her husband.
The Chicago Police Department still considers Khan's death to be an open homicide investigation, but if they've made any progress on determining who killed him, they haven't shared it publicly.
The lack of resolution has caused pain for his family. In an interview, Imtiaz said, “I keep getting the same answer - they are looking for a witness. How long is it going to take? Who could be the witness?
A source claims that the investigation is at a standstill because people who may have evidence about Khan's death are not cooperating with detectives.
Family Feud
Following Khan's death, there was an intense conflict between his widow and his siblings over who should control and ultimately receive Khan's estate, including his cash, businesses, and real estate worth well over $1 million.
Complicating matters was that Khan died without a will, which means there was no apparent heir to his fortune.
While Khan was a successful businessman, there were strained tensions in his home life, which some of his family members attributed to his father-in-law, Fareedun Ansari. He allegedly owed the IRS more than $120,000 in back taxes, and a lien had been taken out against the home he shared with Khan.
Following her father's death, Jasmeen immediately moved out of the home he shared with his second wife and went to live with an uncle.
Settlement
In the absence of a will, Jasmeen and Shabana went through a protracted probate battle to determine who was entitled to Khan's estate.
After years of bitter litigation, both parties reached a settlement, and Jasmeen received $250,000 and several of her father's rental properties. His second wife, Shabana, received his dry cleaning business, worth approximately $1 million, and the remainder of his lottery payout.
As part of the terms of the settlement, neither party can sue the other for wrongful death, unless a criminal probe turns up new evidence.
While the case was settled legally, Shabana's attorney, Al-Haroon Husain, says that the rift between the sides of the family remains unhealed. He said:
They're always going to be at opposite ends on this. The most we can do right now is just make sure all the matters get settled in court and have both parties get on with their lives. …This is not an ending anybody would hope for. But it is what it is.
Who killed Urooj Khan?
As of this writing, Khan's death is still considered an unsolved case, and it's been several years since police have announced any significant developments.
While Jasmeen has avoided speaking with the media, Shabana claims she still has no idea who would want to harm her husband. She stated to reporters:
This is a shock for me. This has been an utter shock for me, and my husband was such a good-hearted person who would do anything for anyone. Who would do something like this to him? We were married 12 years, and he treated me like a princess. He showered his love on me, and now it's gone.
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