Zachery Tims Death: Medical Examiner's Office Delays Toxicology Results
The toxicology results that are to determine whether Florida minister Zachery Tims had drugs in his system at the moment of his death were not obtainable Friday, despite previous reports that the results would be available this week.
A representative with the New York Chief Medical Examiner's office informed The Christian Post on Sept. 23 that the results would be available the following week. As of Friday, no updates were available. CP has been following up daily with the examiner's office and was told Friday, Sept. 30, that the toxicology results for Tims were not yet ready.
Seven weeks have passed since the senior pastor of New Destiny Christian Church (NDCC) in Apopka, Fla., was found dead in his room at the W. Hotel in Times Square on Aug. 12.
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Investigators were reportedly considering the possibility that Tims might have died from a drug overdose.
The minister, who was in town for a speaking engagement, was found on the floor of his hotel room. Sources close to the investigation told the New York Daily News that a glassine envelope of white powder was found in Tims' right pants pocket.
Church administrators have not commented on the suspicious substance found on Tims, but Bishop T.D. Jakes, who delivered the minister's eulogy during his Aug. 21 funeral, insinuated that Tims struggled with personal problems.
The charismatic preacher battled drug addiction before becoming a Christian, a subject which he focuses on his memoir It's Never Too Late.
Tims, a Baltimore, Md., native, shared in a TBN broadcast on July 12: "At the age of 14, I shot a man and tried to kill him. I was locked up till I was 16. I was a drug addict till I was 19."
But Tims professed that God turned his life around.
"I'm a living witness [that] it is never too late," he stressed on TBN's "Praise the Lord" program, which he frequently hosted.
In the eulogy, Jakes compared Tims to Jacob from the Bible, whom God renamed Israel.
"I thought I was the only one who knew how unhappy Zach was, how broken he was, how afraid he was if anybody was to see any flaw in him," Jakes said. "He tried hard to heal himself, to fix himself … I don't know what happened in that room in New York, but I can only hope that as Zach was dying, Dr. Tims stood up."
