US fugitive Nicholas Rossi, who allegedly faked death and fled Europe to avoid rape charges, dead at 38

A Rhode Island man who allegedly faked his own death and fled to Europe to avoid rape charges has died in a Utah prison.

Nicholas Rossi — a convicted serial rapist arrested in Scotland in 2020 — died “complications of an existing medical condition after choosing to discontinue medical treatment,” the Utah Department of Corrections said on Thursday.

It took authorities 10 years to finally link Rossi — whose legal name was Nicholas Alahverdian — with two rapes committed in Utah in 2008.

He fled to Europe using a string of false names and a bogus obituary to evade capture.

Rossi was arrested in Scotland in 2021 while receiving treatment for COVID-19. Hospital staff recognized his distinctive tattoos.

Rossi was extradited in 2024 and finally convicted of two sexual assaults in 2025.

“Mr. Rossi was a sexual predator who tried to escape accountability,” Salt Lake County prosecutor Sim Gill said. “The survivors of his heinous acts have the consolation that he died in prison with the knowledge of the crimes he committed.”

Two women in Utah had accused him of sexual assault. One said Rossi raped her in an apartment after she had gone there to collect money that he had stolen from her to buy a computer.

Another woman said she met Rossi through a personal ad that he had posted on Craigslist. They began dating and were engaged within a couple weeks. She testified that Rossi asked her to pay for dates and car repairs, lend him $1,000 so he wouldn’t be evicted, and take on debt to buy their engagement rings.

“I am not guilty of this. These women are lying,” Rossi said at a sentencing hearing last October.

Investigators say they identified at least a dozen aliases Rossi used over the years to evade capture.

The false obituary, posted in 2020, claimed he had died of 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.

When he was finally bagged in Scotland, Rossi insisted he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who was being framed.

With Post wires