Convicted rapist who faked death and fled U.S. has died

A man who was accused of faking his own death and fleeing to Europe to evade rape charges in the U.S. has died after he was taken to a hospital from a Utah prison, authorities said Friday.

Nicholas Rossi, 38, was serving at least 10 years in prison in Utah following his convictions in 2025 in two sexual assault cases.

Rossi died Thursday night from “complications of an existing medical condition after choosing to discontinue medical treatment,” the Utah Department of Corrections confirmed in a statement to CBS News on Friday.

His victims and his family were notified, the department said.

Richard Piatt, a spokesperson at the department, told the Associated Press he couldn’t disclose details about Rossi’s health problems. But during court appearances, he had appeared in a wheelchair and used oxygen.

Rossi, also known as Nicholas Alahverdian, was extradited to Utah from Scotland in 2024.

Utah authorities had been searching for him when he was identified in 2018 through a decade-old DNA rape kit.

Months after he was charged in that case, an online obituary claimed Rossi died on Feb. 29, 2020, of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. But police in his home state of Rhode Island, along with his former lawyer and a former foster family, cast doubt on whether he was dead.

He was arrested in Scotland the following year while receiving treatment for COVID-19. Hospital staff recognized his distinctive tattoos, including the crest of Brown University inked on his shoulder, although he never attended.

Rossi insisted he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who was being framed. Investigators say they identified at least a dozen aliases Rossi used over the years to evade capture.