When former rapper Tim Blair defrauded Mississippi resident Esther Pilgrim of thousands of dollars in 2007, she fell into a financial abyss. As the investigation developed, Esther noticed an interesting fact: Tim, who also went by the stage name Tim Dog, had conned a lot of women, including a young mother from The Netherlands. She therefore joined forces with the ladies and started gathering evidence as she was determined to bring him down. Similar to this, “Dateline: The Perfect Catch” walks the audience through Tim’s frauds and even shows how he was ultimately apprehended. Let’s investigate the case’s specifics and determine Tim’s status to find out if he is alive or not.
Who Was Tim Blair?
Tim Blair, an Atlanta, Georgia-based rapper who was better known by his stage name, Tim Dog, rose to prominence in the 1990s. Although a couple of Tim’s songs were favourably welcomed by the public, he gradually lost popularity and by 2007 was regarded as a former star. Interestingly, it was at this time that he first met Mississippian Esther Pilgrim on a dating website and started a relationship with her. Esther, a single mother of two, was persuaded by her friends to sign up for a dating website in the meanwhile to help her get past a difficult divorce. As a result, when Tim started expressing some interest, she was initially hesitant but ultimately warmed up to him.
In fact, the programme said that Esther even made the trip to Atlanta to spend an amazing weekend with the rapper, which improved their bond. Esther was unaware that the link would result in financial ruin because Tim had other objectives. Tim indicated that he wanted to return to the music industry one day during a phone conversation. But he insisted that money was scarce and questioned Esther about investing in his future box set in order to make a small profit.
Once the mother of two had given her consent, Tim then requested $25,000 from Esther and even persuaded her to allow him to open several credit cards in her name. Despite Esther’s initial conviction that this was a wise investment, she quickly started to have second thoughts about the plan and even called the record label to confirm the terms. Tim, however, asserted that the record business was unwilling to continue working with him because they were suspicious after the call. He also requested the remaining funds Esther had pledged to invest, despite the fact that there were no signs of any gains.
As the days went by, Esther started to figure out the con and discovered how Tim made the most of the credit cards he obtained in her name. Furthermore, there was no way to stop the harm, and Esther once acknowledged that she was financially exhausted. She nevertheless persisted in her pursuit of justice and got in touch with Noelle Stelling, another victim of an online swindle in 2007. Together, the two women contacted a number of Tim’s victims, including Whitney Trust of Ohio and Danielle Selhorst of The Netherlands. However, despite the proof, law enforcement officials remained hesitant to act.
Is Tim Blair Dead or Alive?
Noelle, who was determined to put an end to the scams, posted her profile as bait and even wore a wire when she met Tim to collect proof. Thank goodness, this proof was admitted in court, and Tim was eventually accused of fraud. Before going to trial, however, the former rapper admitted guilt in 2011 to a single count of grand larceny, and the judge gave him a 5-year term of unsupervised probation. In addition, he was required to make monthly payments of $100 to Esther totaling $19,000.
Surprisingly, press reports stated that the rapper had gone away at the age of 46 from a diabetes-induced seizure on February 14, 2013, which was around two years after Tim was found guilty of grand larceny. Investigators were unable to locate a public death record despite the news being widely reported in the media, which sparked rumours that he had faked his death to avoid Esther from receiving the court-ordered payments.
When a Mississippi prosecutor issued an arrest warrant for the rapper, various unaffiliated organisations, including “Dateline,” started a worldwide search for Tim Blair. This furthered the rumours. However, following a thorough investigation that including going to two homes in Fairburn and Decatur, the investigators learned that Tim had actually gone away on February 14, 2014, while receiving treatment at Hospice Atlanta in Dekalb County, Georgia. Additionally, it is said that the county paid for his private cremation, which took place in a ceremony.
