Beware: Fossil the Undead Artist

https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/814455.html

WHO: Fossil The Undead Artist (aka Fossil)

WHERE: Mostly talked in emails. His FA is: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/fossil

WHAT: 4 commissions; the exact amount was removed from evidence for privacy

WHEN: Started September 26th 2012 and continued on until now

MY SIDE OF THE ISSUE:

I had been a longtime supporter and friend to Fossil and well over time I finally was able to commission him first a tattoo for my wife at FurFright and then finally some artwork. Things had been going along smoothly until Hurricane Sandy hit. After this point it seemed things hit the fan for him which was understandable at the time. I had paid in full for four commissions and over time talked to him about it, but mostly was worried about him and seeing if he was alright; then he dropped off the grid. Below are two Dropbox Links that show proof of agreement and then payment:
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/tjit34og1tuophr/Payment discussion.png?dl=0
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/a4pnnbjwh6aq2ce/Payment Confirmation.png?dl=0

At this point I naturally did what any friend would do and waited patiently and he did come back for a moment or two and told me things were bad, but getting better. He finally finishes one of the four commissions and had even began work on the second one as far as inking goes with the third already being sketched out too. So I was confident at this point things were finally on the right track. The following links show multiple contacts and finally the first image sent and date it was sent:
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/4o0w4l7diatazns/Feb 5th 2013 checkin.png?dl=0
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/o6w9v2ro6dqo74x/Feb 18th to March 29th 2014 checkin.png?dl=0
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/vjls76jrrlqvhxn/April 17th 2014 Checkin.png?dl=0
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/h8g03szw81gvvj4/May 14th Checkin and FIRST picture received.png?dl=0

Next, after two months, he contacts me out of the blue with progress showing two more images. One being completed with the third being sketched out:
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/jbhrpgfbifw6ofi/July 21st and SECOND image with THIRD sketch.png?dl=0

He falls off the grid again; this time for good. I go to another con and asked my contacts if they had seen him and come to find out that he had moved to another state and then dropped off the grid to get some affairs in order. Now I had been in contact with him via email up to this point as well and would get the occasional "Still Alive" messages until I tried to email him again to check in on how things had progressed after he had moved, not about my art, but his own situations. This is when I found out he had deleted his email account and I received the lovely return email saying the address is no longer valid. Next shows the email confirming that his email is no longer valid:
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/hy2rlzdk3u2bjgd/Email Failure.png?dl=0

Moving forward I had heard and saw he was working with Crowchild as an artist for High Tail Hall and figured that he had dropped out of that part as well given how much of a hermit Fossil had become, but after today, I have recently found out he is still indeed working with the HTH project and completely disregarded anyone else even if they paid $XXX for a set of commissions. Finally below is the screenshot on FA of Crowchild confirming that Fossil is still working with them:
https://dl.dropbox.com/s/9ddfuob2um2qf4r/Fossil still at HTH.png?dl=0

Two years have come and gone now; now I am not sure what to do or how to go about it because we all know how Paypal has such a small window of reporting and charging back one's account. So I guess this message is to warn others about what happened as well as getting some advice of how to tackle the sum of money, albeit not a full refund as he has finished one image and worked on two others, and how to get anything from him even if it ends up being a message of "Hey I can't do it; sorry".

Also for clarification; there will be some areas that have been removed. This was done to insure the anonymous side of a third person that was involved with this in which I was getting two images as a gift for.