LOTTERY BIG WINNER LEFT BROKE AFTER 5 YEARS
Powerball lottery winner who took home a $27million jackpot in the early 2000s is penniless and living in a storage shed after 5 years.
David Lee Edwards, a convicted felon from Ashland, Kentucky, won a one-quarter share from the Powerball jackpot of $280 million during August 2001, which came to about $27million after taxes.
David Lee Edwards won the Powerball lottery in 2001 and gained $27 million and over the course of five years, Edwards spent the entire fortune.
At the time, the jackpot was the third biggest in US jackpot history, per the Lexington Herald Leader.
Not long after the lucky draw, Edwards quickly married his girlfriend Shawna Maddux in Malibu, California, and they quickly set out to spend his newfound fortune.
The massive purchases included a $1.6m mansion within a gated community in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, along with over a dozen luxury cars including a $90,000 Dodge Viper and a $200,000 Lamborghini Diablo, and even a $1.9m private Learjet, per the Courier-Journal.
Hoping to invest, he also spent another $4.5million on a fibre optics installation company and a limo business.
He even paid half a million to another ex-wife and her husband over custody of Edwards’ then-teenage daughter, Tiffani.
Only five years later in 2006, drug addiction and over-spending left Edwards and Maddux penniless and housed in a storage shed allegedly covered in human feces.
According to Edwards, Ms. Maddux soon left and re-married. She and her new husband eventually took Mr. Edwards in before finding a space for him in a hospice.
The hard living had taken its toll and in 2013 Mr Edwards died aged just 58 in 2013. By the end of his life, he had gone through all the winnings and even owed thousands to others.
Source: https://www.the-sun.com/
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