SALT LAKE CITY — Nicolas Rossi, the man who faked his own death to avoid charges, has died, according to the Utah Department of Corrections.
The department says he was pronounced dead at a local hospital on Thursday at 8:32 p.m. Officials say that Rossi died from complications of an existing medical condition following him choosing to discontinue medical treatment.
The delay in the announcement of his death was due to the Department of Corrections needing to notify his family and his victims.
Rossi was serving a sentence of 10 years to life in prison for two counts of First Degree Felony Rape.
Utah authorities began searching for Rossi, whose legal name is Nicholas Alahverdian, when he was identified in 2018 through a decade-old DNA rape kit. He was among thousands of rape suspects identified and later charged when Utah made a push to clear its rape kit backlog.
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 — from an Interpol notice.
He was extradited to Utah in January 2024 after a protracted court battle. At the time, 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.
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