In 2017, Joshua Winslet was 22 and living paycheck to paycheck when he made a decision that would change his life forever.

With the last $19 left in his bank account, the young Australian plumber bought a ticket for that week’s $100million Powerball draw.

That night, he became the sole winner of a division prize of $22million.

It was a dream come true for Josh, who was living on New Zealand’s South Island at the time, after a miserable childhood that saw him bullied throughout school because of his ‘physical deformities’.

The massive windfall should have been a happy ending.

But despite his good fortune, Josh’s life would quickly unravel over the next five years, ending in unimaginable tragedy…

Josh had always been described as a ‘battler’ – an Australian term for a scrappy underdog who fights against the odds.

During his early years, he endured many operations to treat his Duane syndrome and Goldenhar syndrome – two rare, incurable conditions he’d had since birth.

Young Australian plumber Joshua Winslet (right) won a staggering $22million on the Powerball lottery in 2017 when he was just 22 and living in New Zealand 

Duane syndrome occurs when the eye muscles do not develop properly, which results in difficulties rolling one or both eyes outward or inward.

And Goldenhar syndrome causes abnormalities in the formation of the bones in the face and head, which can lead to facial asymmetry, a partially formed or absent ear, benign cysts on the eye and spinal issues, and can also impact internal organs.

In Josh’s case, the latter condition meant he was born with a singular horseshoe-shaped kidney and an irregular heartbeat that meant he couldn’t play contact sports.

He underwent plastic surgery when he was young to try to correct some of his physical abnormalities, but still struggled with looking different.

School can be a cruel place, and Josh was picked on mercilessly until he threw in the towel at Year 10.

He went on to study at Adelaide University Senior College in South Australia for about six months, before quitting to start a plumbing apprenticeship.

When he was 20, he made the move to New Zealand’s South Island to look for work. 

It was about this time he used the last of his savings to buy a last-minute entry into the Powerball draw that made him an instant multimillionaire.

It was a dream come true for Josh after a miserable childhood that saw him bullied throughout school because of his ‘physical deformities’ 

Sara*, a friend of Josh’s, recalls the moment he won.

‘He called me and my boyfriend at the time to say he’d won the Powerball. We thought he was joking because he would joke about something like that,’ she tells me.

But Josh was serious.

‘He sent a screenshot of his lotto app and we still almost didn’t believe him. It was something that doesn’t happen to someone like Josh, you know? Especially $22million,’ she adds.

Karen*, who also went to school with Josh, was overjoyed to hear he had won.

Police raided his Adelaide home in 2020 and charged him with supplying MDMA and possession of an unlicensed firearm (Pictured: a bowl of white powder in the plumber’s fridge)

In the squalid house Josh owned was a framed photo of his winning lotto entry (pictured)

Police photos showed the state of Josh’s party house, including tables crammed with beer bottles, soft drink cans and bongs

The court released photos of Josh’s trashed ‘party house’ showing countless nangs (nitrous oxide bulbs) laying on a marble table beside cigarettes, bottles and half-drunk glasses of wine

‘When I found out he won through the grapevine, I thought, “Oh, wow, that’s extraordinary.” I was so happy for him. Out of everyone from our school, and after all the bullying he copped, he deserved it more than anyone,’ she says.

The Powerball win should have set Josh up for life – and things looked promising to start with.

His millions were placed in a trust managed by Josh’s parents, and he used a large portion to buy several investment properties in South Australia and New Zealand. 

But the responsible spending didn’t last. Soon, the lure of hedonism took hold of a young man shaped by a childhood of isolation and loneliness. 

He began using the cash to buy drugs, including MDMA, cocaine and marijuana – something that deeply worried his friends, including Sara. 

But for every concerned friend, there were dozens of freeloading users happily flocking to Josh’s new mansion to plunder his abundant drug stash. 

In 2020, police raided his home in New Port, Adelaide, and found 27.3g of MDMA – some of which was stored in a bowl in his fridge near a box of Red Bull – 2.27g of cocaine, along with a Mauser handgun and ammunition in his bathroom.

He pleaded guilty to supplying MDMA and possessing a firearm without a licence, and in August 2022 was sentenced at South Australia’s District Court to three years and nine months in jail, with a non-parole period of 18 months. The time behind bars was suspended on a two-year good behaviour bond, with supervision.

During sentencing, Judge Heath Barklay detailed the extent of Josh’s drug addiction – including how he would supply to his addict friends and allowed them to turn his house into a squalid drug den.

‘Because of the money that you had won, there was no motivation on your part to work or do anything other than enjoy yourself,’ the judge said.

During sentencing, a judge detailed the extent of Josh’s drug addiction – including how he would supply to his addict friends and allowed them to turn his house into a squalid drug den

For every concerned friend, there were dozens of freeloading users happily flocking to Josh’s new mansion to plunder his abundant drug stash

‘You had lots of money so you could afford to buy large amounts of drugs, which you would use yourself and supply to your so-called friends from time to time.’

Shocking photos from inside the property showed a bowl of white powder inside a largely empty fridge, bagged MDMA, cocaine and marijuana, nangs (nitrous oxide bulbs), several large bongs and countless empty drink bottles and cans.

In another room, rubbish and clothes were strewn on the floor beside an electronic drum kit and floor-to-ceiling projector screen.

The floors were filthy and beds were left unmade. Garbage, including empty drink cans and takeaway food containers, accumulated in every room.

Hung on one of the walls amongst the chaos was a printed screenshot of Josh’s winning lottery ticket, now a symbol of the cursed windfall.

The court was told his arrest should be considered ‘a wake-up call’ – but this sadly wasn’t the case and his drug abuse only escalated.  

Sara recalls her frequent visits to Josh’s home as his mental health declined following his arrest. She admits feeling ‘terrified’ she would one day arrive to find him dead from an overdose.

‘I just remember one time he was sitting in a chair chipping away at this massive cocaine brick. I knew he needed serious help but he didn’t think he needed it,’ she tells me.

‘I told him bluntly, “You need to stop this or you’re doing to die”. And he would just shrug it off. 

‘I wanted to help him. I was his friend, the one who really cared. He had other people around him just using him to get drugs.’

Sara also reveals Josh became ‘paranoid’ police would raid his house again at any time. He suspected there were secret hidden cameras installed in the light fixtures, so tore them out. 

In December that year, Sara’s prediction came true.

Josh’s mother quietly informed close friends that he had died at home. An autopsy later confirmed the cause: health complications from excessive drug use.

Despite his brief celebrity – first for a lottery win, then a drug conviction – his death went unreported in the New Zealand and Australian press.

This article marks the first public acknowledgment of his passing.

‘It was such a shock and absolutely devastating, but sadly a lot of us were so worried this is what it was coming to,’ Sara says.

Looking back, she can’t believe it’s been nearly three years since Josh died.

She prefers to remember the friend he was before Powerball – not the paranoid, drug-addled millionaire he became.

*Names have been changed