Martyn Tott, 33, and his 24-year-old wife Kay, from the UK, missed out on a $5 million lottery fortune after losing their ticket.

A seven-week investigation by Camelot Group, the company that runs the UK's national lottery, convinced officials that their claim to the winning ticket was legitimate. But since there is a 30-day time limit on reporting lost tickets, the company was not required to pay up, and the jackpot became the largest unclaimed amount since the lottery began in 1994.

"Thinking you're going to have all that money is really liberating. Having it taken away has the opposite effect," Kay Tott told The Daily Mail. "It drains the life from you and puts a terrible strain on your marriage. It was the cruelest torture imaginable."