This paper proposes an improved multi-stage timing offset estimation scheme for orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems in multipath fading channel environment. The conventional multi-stage timing offset estimation scheme is very sensitive to the random multipath components. By exploiting the sample standard deviation of the cross-correlation values, the proposed scheme achieves a robustness to the random multipath components. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed scheme has a higher correct estimation probability and has a better mean square error (MSE) performance than the conventional scheme in multipath fading channels.