DEARBORN, Mo. -- A family that's been facing some hard financial times won't have to worry about stretching their dollars anymore. The Hill family went public at a news conference on Friday. After taxes, they’ll take home a lump sum payment of about $136 million from the record Powerball jackpot last Wednesday.
Almost everybody in town, it seems, gathered in the high school gymnasium for the news conference. Dearborn is about 40 miles north of Kansas City. Many people here already knew the Hills won half of the record $588 million jackpot, but Missouri Lottery leaders officially took the wraps off the mystery.
Cindy Hill bought the winning ticket at a convenience store here. She called her husband with the life-changing news but he didn’t believe it until he saw the quick-pick ticket himself.
"It's just surreal. It's like you’re in a dream and it's not really happening,” she said.
This is the new $293 million pre-tax reality for Mark and Cindy Hill, who have been mostly out of work over the last year. Mark Hill is a mechanic. Cindy Hill was laid off from her job as an office manager. They have three adult sons and a 6-year-old daughter recently adopted from China. They’re now considering a second adoption.
“I think we're going to have a pretty good Christmas. And I think we're going to go on a vacation or two,” said Cindy.
They plan to set up college funds for grandchildren, nieces and nephews, create a scholarship for the local school district, and donate to several charities. Mostly, though, they’re just trying to figure it all out right now. They also expect a lot of requests for financial help from others.
“It's all just kind of a fuzz, it's all kind of a blur,” said Mark Hill.
One thing that is clear is the name of this now famous community that most out-of-towners have been pronouncing “dear-born.”
“It’s ‘dear-burn,’” said Cindy Hill.
Meanwhile, some store security video in Upper Marlboro, Md., may hold a clue as to the other jackpot winner who purchased a ticket near Phoenix, Arizona.
”He said, ‘Is this the right numbers?’ And I looked at him and said, ‘Yeah, yeah, you got ‘em all,’” said a store clerk.
People at that convenience store said the guy, who was dressed in a neon construction suit, walked into their store on Thursday, pulled lottery tickets out of his pocket and checked them at a machine. Seconds later, he started celebrating and showed the ticket to the clerk, which the man said he bought in Arizona.
The man then showed his ticket to another customer to verify the numbers.
The mystery man told people he lives in Maryland and is a member of the military.
No winner has come forward yet in Arizona, which means it is possible this mystery man in Maryland holds a ticket worth $294 million.
