The man who fled to Europe and faked his death to avoid rape charges in Utah died while serving his sentence
Nicholas Rossi, accused of raping two of his ex-girlfriends, died less than a year after being convicted
A Rhode Island man who fled to Europe and faked his own death to evade rape charges in Utah has died less than a year after being convicted.
Nicholas Rossi, 38, was pronounced dead at a local hospital at 8:32 p.m. on Thursday, June 25, the Utah Department of Corrections said in a statement the next day.
“Rossi died from complications of an existing medical condition after deciding to discontinue medical treatment,” the statement read. “This notification follows communication with Rossi's family and his victims.”
More details about his health were not immediately known.
Rossi, who was also named Nicholas Alahverdian, was serving a cumulative sentence of 10 years to life in prison at the time of his death, the Utah Department of Corrections said.
He was convicted in two separate rape cases in August and September 2025, People previously reported.
Salt Lake County prosecutors said he raped his 21-year-old girlfriend, whom he met online in 2008 and dated for about a month, at her apartment in Orem, Utah, during an argument about the breakup and whether they would get married.
In 2017, Rossi fled to Britain or Ireland. He then used one of his many aliases to move to Scotland, The New York Times reported. A year later, authorities identified him as a suspect in a second rape case in 2008 by reviewing old rape kits, according to the outlet.
In that case, authorities claimed Rossi raped another ex-girlfriend in his apartment when she went to get money she said he had stolen from her, CBS News reported.
Months after being charged in the second case and still in Scotland, Rossi faked his own death. An online obituary stated that he had died on February 29, 2020 from non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
He was arrested the following year at a Glasgow hospital, where he was being treated for COVID-19, after someone recognized his distinctive tattoos shared in an Interpol tip, according to the Associated Press. He was extradited to the United States in January 2024.
Rossi, who appeared in court in a wheelchair and wearing an oxygen mask, maintained his innocence even after his conviction. He claimed he was an Irishman named Arthur Knight who was being framed, according to the AP. According to reports, he also spoke with a fake British accent.
"I'm not guilty of this. These women are lying," he told the court at his October 2025 sentencing, the AP reported. The judge described Rossi as “a serial abuser of women,” according to the outlet.