Posted on 11/26/2005 10:24:25 PM PST by LibWhacker
NEWPORT, Ky. (AP) -- A woman who won a $65.4 million Powerball jackpot with her husband five years ago was found dead at her home overlooking the Ohio River, where she had apparently been for days before anyone found her, police said.
Virginia Metcalf Merida's son discovered her body Wednesday. Police were awaiting autopsy and toxicology results before announcing a cause of death.
When the woman and her husband, Mack Wayne Metcalf, won the jackpot, they told lottery officials they were going their separate ways to fulfill their dreams. Merida planned to quit her job making corrugated boxes and buy a home. Metcalf, a forklift operator, wanted to start fresh in Australia. He never did.
Metcalf died in 2003 at age 45 while living in a replica of George Washington's Mount Vernon estate built in Corbin, Ky. His death followed multiple run-ins with the law, including a child-support dispute from a previous marriage and a drunken driving charge filed before he hit the jackpot.
Neighbors said Merida stayed out of public view until last December, when a body was found in her 5,000-square foot, custom-built geodesic dome house. Campbell County Deputy Coroner Al Garnick confirmed that the man died of a drug overdose. Official records of the case were unavailable because of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.
Merida used part of her winnings to buy a second home, but when she tried to evict the resident, the renter sued. A hearing was scheduled for Wednesday.
Carol Terrell Lawson, who is still renting the home, said that she never met Merida in person and only learned of the death after reporters began calling her.
"but in a few months you will return to your baseline."
Reminds me of what I was told many years ago.
If you redistribute all of the wealth in the world, it will take only a short time for it to return as it was.
Excellent points! I had never thought about it in just that light, but it sure seems to hold true when I do a cursory examination of the lives of people in my circle of acquaintances.
What about Bruce Wayne?
The stories of big lottery winners is a fascinating topic. The tragedies that afflict the vast majority of these people is mortifying.
Seems that so much money just amplifies the problems already existing in their lives. They just buy a bigger hammer for life to smash them with.
This must be why some, including myself, call the lottery.... the "stupid tax"
Ah, yes, the stupid tax.
A tax on people who don't know math!
A Wayne in gain falls vainly from their fame...
LOL That is the way I read it too, she's dead but still looking at the river. Badly written in several places. She stayed out of sight UNTIL a man was found dead in her home? Was that what she was waiting for so then she could come out? Or I guess the police dragged her out to question her about it? Oh well, I don't really care.
Because the higher the prize, the more publicity and greater the frenzy of buying.
If the lotteries were harmless fun, then a ticket would cost a dollar and the most someone might win would be fifty or a hundred bucks.
And there would be lots of winners.
But this business of giving millions to just anyone, even child molesters, is insane.
Government should be in the business of encouraging people to work for their money, and not in the business of giving fortunes away for free.
Lest the work ethic be eroded, as it has been.
This is why I always say that if I win the lottery, I'll keep on working....until the first time somebody really pi$$es me off....
Exactly correct.
Those that haven't earned the money, will not have learned the proper value and use of money.
Such wisdom comes from struggle and hard work.
Just like giving technology to third world countries that haven't developed it from scratch, as did the West.
Those Third World countries the West gives technology to, too often wind up using that technology to act out their medieval fantasies upon the world.
Apu: You see, whether igloo, hut, or lean-to or a geodesic dome, there's no structure I have been to, which I'd rather call my home.
That's not completely true. One can understand the value of money through working (but not making a lot of money,) taking a longer view of financial prospects and desires and subordinating the excess of consumerist impulsiveness to longer-term goals.
Meaning: If I won the lottery, even though I don't have a large income, I would be set for life and would be living responsibly and morally after I did so.
Don't forget, there are also those who've been irresponsible with wealth and status after EARNING it.
It's all what the person brings to the table beforehand and how much the desire for money was a function of a design on security vs. a hunger for status.
"Seems that so much money just amplifies the problems already existing in their lives"
As the old axiom states: "money only makes of you more of what you already are"
Here's where you can read the last few months' columns:
http://www.newsoftheweird.com/archive/index.html
I guess it's every couple of months they do the "Classic Middle Name" update.
No, you're not cursed. I hope. We used to bug our boss about it as his middle name was Wayne--but a more straight-laced, law-abiding, prim-and-proper guy you'll never meet.
Here's a partial list of the Waynes:
http://www.newsoftheweird.com/wayne.html
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