A woman who befriended a Florida lottery winner who later went missing was charged Tuesday as an accessory after the fact in his slaying, five days after his body was found buried in her backyard.
Dorice "DeeDee" Moore, 37, was charged as an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder in the slaying of Abraham
Shakespeare, Hillsborough County Sheriff David Gee said. Moore has denied hurting Shakespeare, 43. No one else has been arrested.
Moore's arrest is another twist in the monthslong and bizarre case. Shakespeare was last seen in April, and officials in Polk County -- where he lived and was reported missing -- have long thought he was slain. Investigators had announced earlier Tuesday that an autopsy showed the Lakeland resident died of "homicidal violence" but would not give specifics.
In January, Polk officials named Moore a "person of interest" in Shakespeare's disappearance. She befriended him after he claimed the $30 million winning ticket in 2006 and took a $17 million lump sum payment.
Moore said she wanted to write a book about Shakespeare, but officials said she actually scammed him out of money. Property records show she bought a $1 million home from Shakespeare for $655,000 and she acknowledged moving $2 million of his money into her bank account.
In an interview Monday with The Tampa Tribune, Moore said she anticipated being arrested. Shakespeare's body was found Thursday buried 5 feet deep under a 30-by-30 foot concrete slab behind the home Moore owns with her boyfriend. Moore told the paper that she ordered it poured for use as a boat and camper skirt.
However, Moore said she never hurt Shakespeare.
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"I would never take another human's life. No amount of money in the world is worth that," she said.
Family members say Shakespeare, a truck driver's assistant, was barely literate, and people constantly hounded him for a piece of his winnings.
Last week, Shakespeare's brother told The Associated Press that Shakespeare often wished he had never bought the winning ticket.
"'I'd have been better off broke.' He said that to me all the time," Robert Brown said.
Moore was being held at the Hillsborough County Jail. Her attorney, John Liguori, did not immediately return a call seeking
comment.
