Juan Villasante's life was never a very happy one. For many years he lived as a poor Spanish immigrant in Uruguay and, on his return to his native Galicia, worked as a street sweeper in the small village of Caraminal near La Coruna.
He never married, was not a gambling man and lived a quiet life in a small cottage, occasionally visited by a niece, Maria Antonia, who came in to clean for him. He would have been the last to imagine that one day he would be a wealthy man because he never lived to see that day - and his family cannot find the money, either.
Now a police guard has been ordered around his grave to prevent bounty hunters from attempting to find a missing winning lottery ticket which he may have with him in his coffin.
Although he rarely played any of the many lotteries which abound in Spain, two weeks ago Mr Villasante (76), while having a drink with a friend, was persuaded to buy one of two unsold Blind Lottery tickets for the next day's draw. His friend, Antonio, took the last one. Only a few hours later, on his way to see his doctor to arrange a cataract operation, Mr Villasante had a heart attack and died.
That night four lucky customers of the village bar learned they each had won five million peseta (£25,000) prizes; the dead man's ticket was the only one unclaimed.
Mr Villasante's niece and her family only learned about the winning tickets after their uncle's funeral. They searched his home but found no sign of it, nor was there any record of it among his possessions returned to them from the clinic where he died.
He went to his grave in his Sunday best suit, the very one he was wearing only two days before when he bought his lottery ticket. Maria Antonia and her husband, an unemployed disabled builder, believe that it was buried with him.
They have asked a local judge to investigate the missing ticket, to interrogate anyone who was with the man the day he died, and even exhume the body to search inside the coffin.
A police guard was ordered around the grave.
"The ticket must be somewhere," says Maria Antonia. "I don't believe it has gone to heaven with Uncle Juan." The judge is expected to give his findings within a few days.