{"id":212637,"date":"2022-05-09T10:57:35","date_gmt":"2022-05-09T17:57:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=212637"},"modified":"2022-05-10T12:09:24","modified_gmt":"2022-05-10T19:09:24","slug":"mystery-as-murdered-south-philly-man-may-have-won-1m-on-lottery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mystery-as-murdered-south-philly-man-may-have-won-1m-on-lottery\/","title":{"rendered":"Lottery Winner of $1M in South Philadelphia Murdered, Police Probing Case"},"content":{"rendered":"

A man found brutally murdered in South Philadelphia may have won $1 million on the lottery before he was killed, according to local radio station KYW<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"Francis
The last sighting of Francis Decero on security video, around midnight, April 26. He left his jeep double-parked before getting into an unknown vehicle, which then drove away from the area. (Image: FOX29<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Francis Decero, 25, had been missing since April 26. His body was found in bushes on a quiet suburban street. He had been burned, stabbed, and shot.<\/p>\n

\n

KYW<\/em> previously reported that a man named \u201cFrancis D\u201d recently won $1 million on an \u201cExtreme Green\u201d scratch-off ticket. The ticket was sold at a store about a mile from Decero\u2019s home, according to Pennsylvania Lottery<\/a> records. Decero was known to be an avid lottery player, according to local reports. It\u2019s not clear whether his possible lottery win is linked to his death.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Philadelphia Police Department has opened a homicide investigation and is working to determine whether he was tortured before he was killed.<\/p>\n

If Decero did win the lottery, he did not inform his family about his win, relatives said. Philly police told The US<\/em> Sun<\/em> that they could neither confirm nor deny Decero’s reputed win.<\/p>\n

Homicide Investigation <\/strong><\/h2>\n

Decero was officially reported missing by his family last Monday. Family members who went to look for him found his car double-parked in the area of 13th and Bigler streets, according to KYW.<\/p>\n

Police are now examining the security video that showed Decero driving up, exiting his car, and getting into another vehicle that then left the area.<\/p>\n

“I just hope they find who did this, this is what I want to know. Everybody loved that kid,” the victim\u2019s father, Lou Decero, told the CBS News Philadelphia. “I have to know who did this, there was no reason. I don’t know who would [have] done this, I hope they find him,” he said.<\/p>\n

Danger Money<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Lottery winners are often targeted by criminals and have in the past been murdered.<\/p>\n

\n

In 2016, Craigory Burch Jr, a forklift truck driver from Georgia, was shot dead during a home invasion two months after winning a $434,272 jackpot. Burch was killed in front of his wife and two young children after masked robbers demanded his bank card, which Burch could not locate.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Seven men were later charged with his murder.<\/p>\n

Burch had used some of his lottery win to buy gifts for the neighborhood children. Prosecutors said the defendants had interpreted his generosity as \u201cflexing\u201d and \u201cshowing off.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2006, Florida laborer Abraham Shakespeare won $31 million in the lottery. He wound up dead under a concrete slab three years later, murdered by a woman who had befriended him for his money. His killer, Dorice \u201cDee Dee\u201d Moore<\/a>, 49, recently told CBS from prison that she backed a bill that would guarantee anonymity<\/a> for Florida lottery winners.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt puts a target\u201d on them, she explained.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A man found brutally murdered in South Philadelphia may have won $1 million on the lottery before he was killed, according to local radio station KYW. Francis Decero, 25, had been missing since April 26. His body was found in bushes on a quiet suburban street. He had been burned, stabbed, and shot. KYW previously […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":212638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13699],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMystery as Murdered South Philly Man May Have Won $1M on Lottery<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Francis Decero was found murdered in South Philly, records suggest he may have won the Pennsylvania Lottery shortly before.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mystery-as-murdered-south-philly-man-may-have-won-1m-on-lottery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mystery as Murdered South Philly Man May Have Won $1M on Lottery\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Francis Decero was found murdered in South Philly, records suggest he may have won the Pennsylvania Lottery shortly before.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mystery-as-murdered-south-philly-man-may-have-won-1m-on-lottery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-05-09T17:57:35+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-05-10T19:09:24+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/decero.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"932\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"524\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mystery-as-murdered-south-philly-man-may-have-won-1m-on-lottery\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mystery-as-murdered-south-philly-man-may-have-won-1m-on-lottery\/\",\"name\":\"Mystery as Murdered South Philly Man May Have Won $1M on Lottery\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mystery-as-murdered-south-philly-man-may-have-won-1m-on-lottery\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mystery-as-murdered-south-philly-man-may-have-won-1m-on-lottery\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/decero.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-05-09T17:57:35+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-05-10T19:09:24+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Francis Decero was found murdered in South Philly, records suggest he may have won the Pennsylvania Lottery shortly before.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mystery-as-murdered-south-philly-man-may-have-won-1m-on-lottery\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mystery-as-murdered-south-philly-man-may-have-won-1m-on-lottery\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/mystery-as-murdered-south-philly-man-may-have-won-1m-on-lottery\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/decero.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/05\/decero.jpg\",\"width\":932,\"height\":524,\"caption\":\"The last sighting of Francis Decero on security video, around midnight, April 26. 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