Abraham Shakespeare Murder: Police Say Suspect Incriminated Herself

Feb. 4, 2010— -- The chief suspect in the killing of a Florida lottery winner incriminated herself before her Tuesday arrest by revealing unreleased information about the man's death, police said today.

Dorice "DeeDee" Moore, 37, who was charged as an accessory after the fact to first-degree murder, has denied having anything to do with Abraham Shakespeare's death and told reporters this week, "They are saying that I took a gun, put it up, and killed another human being, and I would never ever, ever do that."

Moore had yet to be charged at that point, and Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd told "Good Morning America" said today, authorities had never said publicly that Shakespeare had been shot.

"The first one to mention that fact was DeeDee Moore," he said.

Judd called Moore a master manipulator and a con artist who managed to take $1.8 million from Shakespeare.

"She tried to con the police, and now she's trying to con the media and the public," he said.

Moore's story began to fall apart at the very first interview with the police shortly after Shakespeare was reported missing in November.

"From the very beginning of our investigation, which started seven months after he went missing, we found out she still had Abraham Shakespeare's cell phone and was texting his friends as well as her own cell phone pretending to be Abraham," Judd said.

"She became more desperate and more desperate," he said. "As we put more heat on her in December, that's when she ... said, "Hey, I have to get rid of this body."

Shakespeare's body was found last week, buried under a cement slab in a wooded area on a rural Florida property owned by Moore's boyfriend, Shar Krasniqi.

Police have said Shakespeare was killed April 6 or 7, 2009, at the house next door to the property where he was buried.

Killing Under Active Investigation

Moore allegedly asked an unnamed witness if he knew anyone awaiting a prison sentence who would be willing to take the rap for the killing, The Associated Press reported, citing an arrest affidavit.

She also allegedly told an unnamed witness to dig up Shakespeare's body and move it somewhere else, and showed the person the grave Jan. 25, according to the affidavit.

"It's still very much an active investigation," Judd said. "We'll get to the bottom of it."

Moore had said that the lottery money that had caused so much difficulty for Shakespeare was now cursing her.

"Abraham went and had a life of drama; a very hard life of drama because of the money," Moore said after her arrest. "The money was like a curse to him. And now it's become a curse to me."

Moore had said authorities would never be able to find anything improper about her handling of Shakespeare's money and was confident she'd be acquitted.

"There is no jury that's going to convict me," she said.

No one else has been charged, but investigators believed there were others involved in the killing, Hillsborough County, Fla., Sheriff David Gee said after Moore's arrest.

"I won't say we have identified all of the players involved," Gee said. "We're going to find out everyone that was involved. We're going to seek justice."

Shakespeare made headlines in 2006 when he won $31 million in the Florida lottery, only to be sued the next year by a co-worker who alleged that Shakespeare had stolen the winning tickets from him. A jury sided with Shakespeare in October 2007, and he took home a lump sum of $17 million.

His remains were found Jan. 28 after days of digging in the woods on the Plant City, Fla., property and after heavy equipment had been brought in to break through a large piece of concrete. An autopsy the next day confirmed that the body was that of Shakespeare. The identity was determined through fingerprints, the sheriff's office said.

Shakespeare's Remains Found Under Concrete Slab

Authorities have not said where the tip came from or even when it came in.

Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Debbie Carter declined to comment on what exactly was found in the grave, only that it was clear the body had been there for a while.

Moore, who befriended Shakespeare in early 2009, when his millions were dwindling, had said throughout the investigation that she only helped Shakespeare vanish to get away from people asking him for loans.

"I wish, I hate to say this, but I wish I did a lot of things differently, but I've never did anything unethically, unprofessional, or anything he did not want done," Moore said this week. "Everything he wanted done, all that stuff that they keep bringing out, that has, all has witnesses to back it up.

Moore had made several attempts to make it look as if Shakespeare had been communicating with his family -- offering someone a $200,000 house in exchange for reporting a false sighting, sending his son $5,000 in cash for his birthday and sending text messages -- even though Shakespeare had already disappeared, Polk County authorities said.

In February 2009, two months before Shakespeare was last confirmed to have been seen, Moore opened up a limited-liability account with his money and gave herself signing authority, according to the Polk County Sheriff's Office. She then rewarded herself with $1 million, which she spent on a Corvette, a Hummer and lavish vacations.

The only previous arrest that had any connection to the case came in late January when Polk County authorities arrested Lakeland police officer Troy McKay Young, charging him with providing Moore with confidential information from law enforcement databases in exchange for compensation.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.