Lottery winner drowns on private beach with winning ticket still in his wallet

A man who won $45,000 (£33,500) in a lottery game drowned with the ticket still in his wallet before he was able to cash it.

Gregory Jarvis, 57, was found dead on a private beach in Caseville, along the Saginaw Bay in Michigan, on Friday.

An autopsy confirmed he drowned, but police were concerned when they found the ticket in his wallet.

According to local media, Mr Jarvis won the jackpot when he played the Club Keno add-on game 'The Jack'.

It has been reported that he tried to cash the winning ticket before his death but could not do so as he did not have a Social Security card, which is required for jackpots above $600 (£446) in the state.

He applied for another card but was found dead before it arrived in the mail.

Mr Jarvis hit the jackpot (ABC 12)

Blue Water Inn owner Dawn Talaski said the lottery winner visited the bar a week later and bought rounds of drinks, but had not been able to cash in the jackpot yet.

She said: "He couldn’t cash it because he didn’t have a Social Security card at all, it wasn’t any good, so he applied for a new one."

Mr Jarvis had plans to visit his family with the money, but Ms Talaski said she became worried after not seeing him for a few days.

She told ABC12 : "Sometimes he’s up north working, he wasn’t here all week and we thought, something is wrong."

His body was found next to his boat (ABC 12)

Ms Talaski said Gregory's boss also visited the bar as the man had not shown up for work.

On Friday last week, a resident along a private beach said a body had washed ashore near a boat - which was later identified as Mr Jarvis' body.

Caseville Police Chief Kyle Romzek said: "We are thinking that he was tying up his boat, slipped and fell, hit his head, and that’s where he ended up in the water, no foul play suspected."

He added that police did some further investigation after finding the winning ticket in his wallet.

But Mr Romzek said: "At first, we were concerned about it but after the autopsy, and we interviewed people at the bar, he was well-liked around here, he was nice guy, that took it off the table."

According to reports, Mr Jarvis' relatives now have the winning ticket.