Virginia woman wins $5 million

Drawing Date: 12/13/2016

December 22, 2016 - When Linda Evans told her sister that she’d won $5 million playing Mega Millions, her sister thought she was joking.  

“She was waiting for the punchline, and it never did come!” she said.

That’s because the Dry Fork, Va., woman wasn’t joking.

She matched the first five numbers in the December 13 Mega Millions drawing. Normally, that wins $1 million, but Ms. Evans spent an extra dollar for the Megaplier when she bought the ticket. The Megaplier number in that drawing was 5X, increasing her prize to $5 million.

She bought the ticket at Murphy USA, 474 Mount Cross Road in Danville, Va. On December 22, she returned to the store to receive her check from the Virginia Lottery. The store received a $50,000 bonus from the Lottery for selling the winning ticket.

The winning numbers were 2-15-26-34-41, and the Mega Ball number was 14. She picked three of her numbers and allowed the computer to randomly fill in the other three. If she had matched all six numbers, she would have won a jackpot estimated at $51 million.

“I don’t plan to do anything drastic,” she said. “I still plan to live a simple life.”