Cursed lottery winner's biggest blow

Record lottery winner Jack Whittaker, who has been cursed with trouble ever since he won €234m, suffered a heartbreaking blow yesterday when his 17-year-old granddaughter was found dead.

Brandi Bragg’s body was found wrapped in a sheet and plastic near her boyfriend’s West Virginia home.

She was last seen alive on December 4 and was reported missing five days later by her grandfather, who on Christmas Eve 2002 won the biggest single jackpot in US lottery history.

A preliminary investigation indicated that Bragg may have died in her boyfriend’s house and her body was later moved.

State Trooper SE Wolfe said: “We are focused on the boyfriend, Brandon Crosier, but I wouldn’t call him a suspect yet.”

Crosier’s father said: “All I know is she OD’d and Brandon freaked out.”

Whittaker, a jovial contractor in a big cowboy hat, became an instant celebrity when he hit the jackpot. But he has had several brushes with the law since then

Earlier this month, a magistrate ordered him to go into rehab and surrender his driving licence after his second drunken driving arrest this year.

Last week, he pleaded no contest to a charge of assaulting a bar manager - and he is also accused in two lawsuits of making trouble at a nightclub and assaulting three female workers at a racetrack.

Whittaker, who took a lump sum of €86.7m after taxes, has made charitable donations of more than €14.4m.

He’s also lost a lot to thieves. Last year, someone stole more than €72,200 in cash from his car, and months later, his briefcase – which held €404,400 – was stolen when he passed out at a strip club.

In September, when Whittaker was away, the body of an 18-year-old friend of his granddaughter was found dead at his home in Scott Depot. Police said the death was not a crime.