Huron County, Mich. (WJRT) – A Caseville individual wins the Club Keno Jackpot, but never gets a chance to redeem the winning ticket.
The body of 57-year-old Gregory Jarvis was found on a private beach in Saginaw Bay on Friday morning.
An autopsy confirmed that he had drowned, but police were concerned when they learned he had a lottery ticket in his wallet.
Jarvis tried to redeem the ticket before his death, but he didn’t have a Social Security card that was in good condition.
He applied for another but before the mail arrived, he was found dead on the side of that private beach.
“Very nice guy, he was here everyday,” says Blue Water Inn owner Don Talsky.
Jarvis was at the Blue Water Inn in Caseville on September 13 when he was playing the club canoe add-on game “The Jack”. He hit the jackpot.
“$45,000. Someone said someone just won “The Jack” and he said, great, and someone asked him if it was you and it was him, so he was so excited,” says Talaskey. .
She says that on the night of the 19th, Jarvis was back at Bluewater, buying rounds of drinks, but still not cashing in on the $45,000 ticket at the time.
“He couldn’t cash it because he didn’t have a Social Security card at all, it wasn’t good, so he applied for a new one,” she says.
He may have walked out of the Blue Water Inn and it is believed that this was the last time anyone saw Jarvis. When he didn’t show up at the bar the next day, Talsky sensed something was wrong.
“Sometimes he’s working up north, he wasn’t here all week and we thought, There’s something wrong there,” she says.
She says that the next Wednesday Greg’s boss came to the bar and said that Greg was not up for work. Then on Friday morning, a resident along a private beach in Caseville called police saying a body had been washed ashore near a boat. It was Gregory Jarvis’s boat.
“We’re thinking he collided with his boat, slipped and fell, hit his head, and that’s where he ended up in the water without a hitch,” says Caseville Police Chief Kyle Romzek. There was no doubt about it.”
Romzek says that when his department found out about winning lottery tickets, they did some further investigation.
Romzek says, “At first we were worried about it, but after the autopsy, and we met people at the bar, he was very much liked around here, the nice guy who took it off the table. Removed “
The autopsy shows that Jarvis suffered a head injury on the boat due to a head injury and drowned. Don Talsky says that Jarvis had some plans for the money.
“She was planning to take that money and go see her sister and her father in North Carolina,” she says.
The Michigan Lottery Commission confirms that prize winners over $600 must provide a photo identification and their Social Security card, the original card, to receive their winnings.
Greg Jarvis’ relatives now have the winning ticket.
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