A 36-year-old man who authorities say faked his own death in the United States — after he was charged with sexual assault in Utah — was extradited to the U.S. from Scotland, according to a Utah County Attorney spokesperson.
The Utah County Attorney’s office did not immediately provide further details Friday on where Nicholas Rossi was. The BBC reported that “it is understood Rossi ... left on a private flight from Edinburgh Airport on Friday.”
Rossi was identified as a suspect in a 2008 Orem rape, but the case was closed without being referred to prosecutors for screening, according to a news release from the Utah County Attorney’s office. DNA evidence collected in the case was submitted for testing as part of the State Bureau of Investigation’s Sex Assault Kit Initiative — and in 2018, a match was found from another rape case in Ohio, where Rossi was also a suspect.
Rossi was charged in the Orem case in September 2020. During the investigation, authorities found that Rossi was a suspect in “a number of similar offenses in Utah and throughout the United States,” the news release states. In July 2022, he was charged in the 2008 rape of a South Salt Lake woman.
Rossi was known by a number of aliases, authorities said. According to The Providence Journal, he was living in Rhode Island under the name Nicholas Alahverdian, when he allegedly faked his own death in February 2020. Investigators believe he then fled to Ireland and then Scotland to avoid arrest.
Rossi was arrested in a Glasgow hospital in December 2021 while he was being treated for COVID-19, according to The Scottish Sun. He had been living in Scotland under the name Arthur Knight.
Rossi was granted bail in February 2022, but was arrested again on July 5, 2022, at a Glasgow hospital under suspicion of obstructing the course of justice and threatening or abusive behavior. Authorities have been working on Rossi’s extradition ever since, according to a news release.
Tribune reporter Scott D. Pierce contributed to this story.
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