Nicholas Rossi, an American rapist who appeared to faked his own death in an attempt to escape justice, has died in a US hospital.
The 38-year-old, also known as Nicholas Alahverdian, was serving a jail sentence in Utah for the rape of two women in 2008.
The Utah Department of Corrections confirmed his death at 8.32pm on Thursday, stating it resulted from complications of an existing medical condition after he chose to discontinue medical treatment.
Rossi’s exact arrival in the UK remains unknown, though he resided in Bristol for a period before moving to Scotland.
His eventual capture occurred in 2021 at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, where he was being treated for Covid-19.
Hospital staff recognised him by his distinctive tattoos, identifying him as a person sought by US authorities for extradition.
During subsequent court proceedings, Rossi vehemently denied his identity, claiming the arrest was a case of mistaken identity and that he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight.
However, a Scottish judge ruled in November 2022 that he was indeed Nicholas Rossi, leading to his extradition to the US in 2024 to face justice.
An online obituary claimed that Rossi died on February 29, 2020, of late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
However, police in his home state, along with his former lawyer and a former foster family, cast doubt on whether he was actually dead.
He was arrested in Scotland in 2021 while receiving treatment for Covid-19 after hospital staff in Glasgow recognized his distinctive tattoos from an Interpol notice.
Rossi was extradited to Utah in January 2024 after losing an extradition appeal, in which he claimed he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who was being framed.
Who is Nicholas Rossi?
Rossi was born as Nicholas Alahverdian in Rhode Island, in July 1987 to Diana and Jack Alahverdian, according to reports in US newspaper The Providence Journal.
He was adopted by his stepfather David Rossi, and changed his surname to Rossi.
He grew up in Rhode Island foster homes and made a name for himself as a vocal critic of the state’s Department of Children, Youth and Families.
According to his former lawyer, Rossi had moved to Ireland in 2019 but the exact location is unclear.
A sealed arrest warrant for the Orem Utah rape was issued in 2020 after he was identified as a suspect a decade after the alleged incident.
That delay was due to a backlog of DNA test kits at Utah State Crime Lab.
Under the guise of Arthur Brown, Rossi is believed to have met his wife, Miranda Knight, in Bristol in 2019 and married her in early 2020, assuming the name Arthur Knight.
The pair moved up to Glasgow in 2021 where he claimed to be a professor teaching at the University of Glasgow.
Rossi was extradited to the US after losing his final appeal in December 2023.
