Mirlande Wilson, a McDonald’s employee from Maryland who claimed to hold one of the winning lottery slips, had yet to produce a ticket and has disappeared, leaving Mega Millions officials skeptical.
The mystery surrounding the Mega Millions winners deepened as lottery executives said until the lucky three came forward with tickets, any claims to have scooped the top prize were nothing but speculation and rumor.
Three ticket-holders in Maryland, Kansas and Illinois will split the record $656 million payout. No winner has yet come forward to lottery officials in the states to claim their multi-million dollar share.
Stephen Martino, Maryland lottery director, told ABC: “We don’t know any more than the public or media does and it’s all speculation and we’re not going to get involved in that.”
Another official added: “It’s probably not this person.”
Winners in Maryland and Illinois have six months to claim the money – Kansas’s newest multimillionaire has up to a year.
Both Maryland and Kansas will allow winners to remain anonymous but the lucky ticket-holder in Illinois will be identified.
Mirlande Wilson, 37, had enraged her co-workers with claims of her scoop after she revealed to the New York Post that she was not planning on sharing the millions – despite the fact they had pooled their money for tickets.
Workers at the McDonald’s restaurant bought a number of tickets together for the biggest lottery in world history but Mirlande Wilson claimed she separately bought one of the three winning tickets.
“We had a group plan, but I went and played by myself. [The winning ticket] wasn’t on the group plan,” Mirlande Wilson told The New York Post.
