THIS AIN'T A MOVIE

Man Accused of Faking His Death to Flee Rape Arrest Sentenced

Nicholas Rossi escaped to Scotland in an attempt to evade U.S. justice.

A man who faked his own death and fled the country to escape rape allegations has been sentenced after an international game of cat and mouse. Nicholas Rossi was handed a jail term of five years to life in the first of two sentencing hearings in northern Utah, per the BBC. He was convicted in separate trials in August and September for the 2008 rapes of two women in the state, with the second sentencing due next month. Judge Barry G. Lawrence said Rossi was a “serial abuser of women” and the “very definition of a flight risk.” He said Rossi “took on an alias and, even in response to this case, refused to admit who he was.” In February 2020, an obituary of Rossi appeared online, saying he had died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. In reality, the Rhode Island native, real name Nicholas Alahverdian, had fled to Scotland under the alias of Irish orphan Arthur Knight. His ruse came unstuck when he was admitted to hospital in Glasgow with COVID in 2022, and staff there recognized him from an Interpol wanted poster. He appeared in court in Scotland in a wheelchair and was extradited back to the U.S. in January 2024.