Feb. 23, 2015, 1:35 PM PST / Updated Feb. 23, 2015, 2:21 PM PST. In January 2016, McDow in anticipation of incarceration executed a power of attorney and named Holmes as his agent, according to the lawsuit. The $5 purchase paid off in a big way as she learned she was the lucky winner of one of the game's top $400,000 prizes, according to a release from the NC Education Lottery. The 27-year-old single mother of four won $188 million in North Carolina's Powerball lottery in 2015. April 27, 2023 2:19 PM. Money has always been a source of strife among married couples. Kenya Sloan of Shelby, North Carolina, won a $2 million prize from a $20 scratch off Diamond Dazzler ticket she bought in October, according to a press release from the North Carolina Lottery. type: 'POST', cache: false, Lottery officials said Underwood . McDows attorneys argue that Holmes failed to act openly, fairly and honestly by secretly giving away McDows property. Shes an alumna of Kennesaw State University and joined McClatchy in 2020. Since then, Holmes has believed that random chance led to her good fortune. She had the choice of taking the $1 million as an annuity of 20 payments of $50,000 a year or a lump sum of $600,000. Wood claimed her prize Tuesday at lottery headquarters in Raleigh. National Council on Problem Gambling website. Related video above: Attorney advises lottery winners what to do after they . NBC Sheriffs officers arrested McDow on drug charges in November 2014, two months before Holmes became the largest jackpot winner in North Carolina history, the lawsuit says. She chose the lump sum of $600,000 and took home $427,503 after required federal and state tax withholdings. FILE - This 1955 file photo shows Carolyn Bryant, was later remarried and named Carolyn Bryant Donham. That ticket turned out to be a $1 million winner. Slocum had one of two tickets that matched all five numb The North Carolina Education Lottery (NCEL) is run by the government of North Carolina. She couldn't contain her excitement and recalled how she had to immediately share the good news with someone. On Nov. 8, a single ticket sold in California, Single winning ticket for $2.04B Powerball jackpot sold in California. According to the lawsuit, the couple met in 2012 when Holmes was working at McDonalds and living with her mother and three kids in a single-wide mobile home. During their relationship, they had two children together. She became infamous for using her money to repeatedly bail her boyfriend out of jail.