Nicholas Rossi, a 38-year-old convicted rapist who faked his own death and fled to the United Kingdom to evade justice, has died in a Utah hospital. The Utah Department of Corrections confirmed his death on Thursday night, stating it resulted from complications of an existing medical condition after he chose to discontinue treatment.
Rossi, also known as Nicholas Alahverdian, was serving a 10-year sentence for raping two women in Utah in 2008. He was identified through a decade-old DNA rape kit in 2018. In 2020, an obituary falsely claimed he had died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, but he was later found living in the UK under multiple aliases, including Arthur Knight.
Rossi was arrested in Scotland in December 2021 after hospital staff recognized his distinctive tattoos while he was being treated for COVID-19. He was extradited to the US in January 2024 after a lengthy legal battle. During court appearances, he appeared in a wheelchair and used oxygen, though details of his health issues were not disclosed.
Rossi used at least a dozen aliases over the years, including Arthur Brown, under which he married a British woman. His victims and family were notified of his death.