While I’m busy finishing up the January Horizons Magazine, I posted on Facebook yesterday: will all my psychic friends take a moment to read this story, tune in to this gentleman and give any specific info that might be helpful. If you email  me at horizonsmagazine@gmail.com about it, I can keep track of when more than one person gets the same info. That’s not possible to do when info is being publicly posted in the comments.

Lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare – Woman Says Missing Man Publicity Upended Life By Merissa Green.    LAKELAND | The woman who says she helped missing Florida Lottery winner Abraham Shakespeare disappear now says she desperately wants him to come back.    “I felt like I was helping a man that got taken advantage of,” Dorice “DeeDee” Moore said, tears streaming down her face. “In the same respect, I ended up with all his mess. That was not worth all the money in the world.”   The Polk County Sheriff’s Office on Tuesday posted a $5,000 reward for anyone who could help locate Shakespeare.

Moore, 37, drew immediate attention because she now lives in and owns Shakespeare’s North Lakeland house and other real estate holdings and assets.  She said that was all part of a plan, one she helped Shakespeare craft.  Some people who know Shakespeare expressed doubts and said they questioned parts of her story.  His mother, Elizabeth Walker of Lakeland, said she’s not sure what to think and she’s just worried about her son.

Over nearly three hours last week, Moore described to The Ledger how Shakespeare’s disappearing act was supposed to work and what’s gone wrong since he left.  “He planned on running. He planned on not coming back,” she said. Moore said Shakespeare, whom she met last December, left because he was tired of fighting child-support battles in court and because people kept badgering him for money.  He intentionally did not want to be found. He didn’t care what it took.”

An integral part of the plan included using Moore’s medical staffing company, American Medical Professionals of Plant City, to buy Shakespeare’s assets, including a house he paid $1 million for, she said.  That freed him from obligations and put money in his pocket, anywhere from $800,000 to $1 million, Moore estimated.  “For the way he lives his lifestyle, he’s got enough to live the rest of his life out peacefully,” Moore said.

Moore said she also helped him set up a power of attorney, which was given to a longtime friend whom she refused to name. That meant there would be someone available to deal with legal issues for Shakespeare without his having to be involved.  There was also a promise to ensure Shakespeare’s mother was cared for, Moore said.  But the plan turned out to be a bad one, she said.

Since Shakespeare was reported missing, Moore said she’s been treated like a suspect.  She said sheriff’s detectives have searched her North Lakeland house, the one where Shakespeare used to live, combed through her Hummer, given her a lie-detector test and questioned her for hours. Those searches included checking the house and car for signs of blood or body fluids, she said.  “They (investigators) looked through all my papers. They took my computers, and downloaded the hard drives. Then, the other day, took it over the top. I had my stuff blue-lighted to look for blood. It wasn’t supposed to end up like this,” Moore said, crying.

And for months she said she has failed in trying to collect on debts people owed Shakespeare, debts she said she bought as part of the plan to free him to leave.  County records show that in January, Moore filed paperwork to take over five mortgages totaling about $370,000 that had been owed to Shakespeare. And she said there were many more debts she took over that were not recorded with the county.

The problem is that many of the people who borrowed from Shakespeare have refused to pay, Moore said, and she feels threatened by some of them.  To get out of that stressful situation, she said, she’s sold those loans – at a loss – to someone she declined to name.  “I want these idiots, these drugheads and these cokeheads to know that I’ve sold everything,” Moore said. “Abraham sold me his mess to get a better life, and I practically gave it away to get mine back.”

Instead of everyone treating her like a suspect, Moore said, the focus of any investigation should be on the people who bilked Shakespeare out of his money.  “Because of these people, my life has been turned (upside down) in the last two weeks,” Moore said.  Her friends said it’s hurt them to see what’s happened with Moore. Linda Kickliter, Moore’s nail technician, said she can’t believe how Moore has been treated. She said Moore has a caring heart and on several occasions Moore has brought needy people to her nail salon to receive services.  “She should be getting good Samaritan of the year, not such bad publicity,” Kickliter said.

Brenda White, Moore’s childhood friend, said Moore is a hard worker who comes from a good family.  “I hate to see she’s been ripped apart,” White said. “This country should be about being innocent until proven guilty.”

WHERE IS SHAKESPEARE?
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment on what Moore said about their investigation, including whether they consider her a suspect and whether they have searched her house or vehicle.   For seven months, the Sheriff’s Office said, his friends and family haven’t seen Shakespeare, who won the $31 million Lotto jackpot in November 2006 and opted for a $17 million lump-sum payment.

Moore has a videotape that’s dated April. On it, Shakespeare is seen reviewing footage from security cameras at his former residence at 9340 Redhawk Bend Drive, where Moore now lives, and talking about his problems.  He is heard saying he was tired of people asking him for money. During her video interview with Shakespeare, Moore asked where he wanted to go when he disappeared, asking about California or another country, like Cozumel, Mexico.  Shakespeare’s answer is hard to make out, but he appeared to ask, “Are we about to leave?”

Moore said she shot that video so she could show people later that Shakespeare had planned to disappear.

“I wanted some protection,” she said. “I did it for my protection because of the amount (of money) and what he was doing with everything. Unfortunately I should have videotaped every step so I didn’t have the controversy I had to go through, but it’s OK, I’m not like O.J. Simpson. I don’t have anything to run from.”

Moore would not comment about the last time she either saw or talked to Shakespeare, saying it was under investigation.  For months before Shakespeare was reported missing, Moore had been in contact with The Ledger, saying she could set up an interview with the elusive millionaire. And last week, she said she used to have a way to contact him, but not since the storm of attention stirred up by the missing-person report.

Besides telling The Ledger she could set up a meeting, Shakespeare’s mother said Moore also promised one to her.  Elizabeth Walker, who works in the cafeteria at Florida Southern College, said Moore and the woman who has power of attorney for Shakespeare told Walker she would see her son in August. That never happened.  “Another thing that depressed me is … I feel like he would’ve called me or put something in the mail,” Walker said.

Moore told The Ledger that Shakespeare let his mother know Moore was taking over his assets. But Walker told The Ledger she knew nothing about that.  Walker said Moore has been helpful toward her and Shakespeare, though she did sometimes wonder why someone they had known only briefly was doing so much for them.  Shakespeare did have reasons to want to escape, Walker said, because wealth had brought him problems.

In August, Walker said her nephew, Cedric Edom of Lakeland, hand-delivered a card with a cross and $100 inside and told her it was from Shakespeare. Walker said she recognized the signature on the card to be Shakespeare’s, but she said Edom didn’t tell her how he got it.  “When my nephew brought me the card, I relaxed that he was out there somewhere,” she said.  Walker said she has since given that card to detectives.

The Sheriff’s Office said Edom is the person who reported Shakespeare missing, but Edom has adamantly insisted to The Ledger that he didn’t. He wouldn’t answer when a reporter asked who had given him the card for Walker.

The last time Walker saw any sign of her son, she said, was in September when his cell phone number appeared on her caller ID at home. She said that was unusual, because the call came while she was at work, and Shakespeare would not have called her during the day.  “I called the number back, and it went straight to the voice mail,” she said.

MOORE AND SHAKESPEARE
Moore met Shakespeare through Barbara Jackson, a Realtor and former Winter Haven resident. The two talked about the lottery winner when they attended a conference for business people interested in doing work for the government.  Jackson, who was Shakespeare’s real estate agent when he bought the Redhawk Bend house, said they discussed Moore writing a story about Jackson and Shakespeare for a local magazine.  Moore said Jackson introduced her to Shakespeare because Moore expressed interest in telling his story in a book.

As Moore grew close to Shakespeare, she said she noticed his business dealings were shaky, and her role expanded from book writer to being an adviser. He allowed her to review his financial books, Moore said.
Jackson said she was shocked when Moore told her she had bought Shakespeare’s house.  “I think she saw a cash cow, because the story she said she was going to write never happened,” she said. “I really feel like she misled me.”

Moore said Jackson and her husband, Franklin, were among the group of people who may have received unrecorded loans from Shakespeare. Moore also said Shakespeare paid too much for the house Jackson helped him buy.  Jackson said she never got any money from Shakespeare; the only money she received was from the purchase of his house.  “I spent so much time with that man for free,” she said. “I did nothing but try and help.”

David Waller, the listing agent for the house, said the $1.075 million price Shakespeare paid was fair and included the parcel next to it and furniture in the house.

As for the book, Moore said she has already written eight chapters.  “I don’t feel like I lost anything because the book is going to be phenomenal, Moore said. “I don’t care what they say. The book is priceless.”

But in the end, Moore said, helping Shakespeare wasn’t worth what she has had to go through in recent weeks.  “Nobody should have to endure that in a lifetime, all over trying to help somebody else,” she said.

[ Merissa Green who wrote this article can be reached at merissa.green@theledger.com or 863-401-6968. ]

Mmmm, the makings of a made for tv special: a lottery winner, his disappearance, an alleged druggie lifestyle, a young blondie who ends up with millions in assets while his mother works at a school cafeteria, a videotape remarkably timely made (with blondie supplying the dialogue) as alibi.

A compelling storyline?  Sure.  Enough legal evidence to do anything about it?

Now that’s another story.

January 6, 2010 Update Florida Police Fear Missing Lottery Winner Was Killed
January 26, 2010: Florida Investigators Dig for Evidence in Missing Lottery Winner Case
January 29, 2010: Police: Remains buried under driveway are of lottery winner
February 3, 2010 Dorice Moore charged .