Con man who posed as doctor, NHL player, found dead in B.C.
VANCOUVER — Timothy Szabolcsi lived larger than life, a charming schemer who scammed his way into different careers and five marriages on both sides of the Canadian-U.S. border. But when Szabolcsi was found dead Friday in Surrey, B.C., not one of those women was there to mourn him. Sheri Brown, whose divorce from Szabolcsi came through six weeks ago, said his ex-wives told her they were surprised it hadn’t happened years ago.
“He was playing with people’s emotions and livelihoods,” Brown said. “When you ... destroy people’s lives, one day you’re bound to run into somebody who will snap.”
The death of Szabolcsi, 52, marked Surrey’s third homicide in five days. Police have released few details about the murder, except to say the man was known to police. But Brown said her exhusband had lived a life based on cons and lies. He would flit across the border, using different names, purporting to be everything from a race car driver to air force police and a psychiatrist.
News reports suggest Szabolcsi, who had been using the name of Andrew J. Szadolc, was convicted of felony theft in the United States in 2009 for impersonating a doctor at Texas Healthcare Systems in the Dallas/Fort Worth area.
The Texas Medical Board, said Szadolc had fabricated identification for the American Medical Association and was fraudulently obtaining payment for his services as a doctor. He spent a year in prison for defrauding a Texas pain management clinic of $30,000.
“He was very charming,” Brown said. “He told me he played in the NHL for the Winnipeg Jets, that he was an ex-Beverley Hills psychiatrist ... It was all a lie.”
Brown, who married him after a whirlwind romance in 2012, said she learned of his past after reading a story from 2007 about a man with his other alias, Szadolc, on the Internet. About that time she also discovered his previous marriages and his six children in the U.S.
Brown estimates she spent $50,000 supporting Szabolcsi until she learned of his past and threw him out of her home — just four months after they were wed.
This year, the couple appeared on Dr. Phil, which aired an episode titled Did She Marry an Impostor? Szabolcsi, who appeared via satellite in “an attempt to clear his name” came under fire from Dr. Phil about his credentials, with the TV host noting that Szabolcsi never completed his NASCAR application, nor is there a University of Budapest, which Szabolcsi said he attended.