Nicholas Alahverdian’s obituary appeared on a memorial site called Ever Loved. It detailed how the man, who grew up in foster care became a Harvard Graduate and a vocal critic of Rhode Island’s childcare system after suffering sexual abuse as a child. It also detailed how Alahverdian died of Hodgkin's Lymphoma at 32 years old, leaving behind a wife and two young children who remained at his bedside as he died.
Alahverdian’s death was a lie, an elaborate scheme created by Nicholas Rossi, a man charged with sexually assaulting a former girlfriend in Orem, Utah as well as multiple complaints against him in Rhode Island for alleged domestic violence. David Rossi, the stepfather says at an early age Nicholas would hit his mother, grandmother, and siblings, and wouldn't listen in school. Alahverdian was placed in psychiatric care.
Nicholas Alahverdian, using the name Rossi, was accused of assaulting a young woman he met at Sinclair Community College in Ohio. The two had lunch together. Alahverdian offered to walk the co-ed to her next class. The coed claims Alahverdian then pinned her against a wall in a basement, groped her, and masturbated.
Alahverdian apologized and asked the girl not to tell anybody. She made a police report and Alahverdian, aka Rossi, was convicted of public indecency and sexual imposition, and was required to register as a sex offender.
Two years later, police are called to an apartment in Rhode Island. Officers can hear arguing and screaming. When a woman comes to the door, she has marks on her face neck, and left eye and her right eye is swelling.
The woman tells police she and Alahverdian were arguing and when she tried to leave he slapped her in the face. Police arrest Alahverdian who proclaims his innocence and begins banging his head on the bars in the back of the squad car. Officers have to use pepper spray to make him stop trying to hurt himself. Alahverdian pleads no-contest to domestic simple assault.
Testing reveals Alahverdian's DNA is present in a rape case, and other allegations have already been lodged. Fraud charges also land in Alahverdian's lap, and this is when he fakes his death and heads overseas.
The death of Nicholas Alahverdian is met with skepticism. Alahverdian's foster mother Sharon Lane said she was contacted by Alahverdian's biological mother. The minute Sharon Lane read the obituary, she believed it was written by Alahverdian himself.
Utah authorities continued investigating the first rape allegation against Nicholas Alahverdian and issued a warrant for his arrest seven months after he supposedly died. An FBI search of Alahverdian’s iCloud account and cell phone records led investigators to Scotland.
As investigations were looking for Nicholas Alahverdian and Nichols Rossi in the United States, a man named Arthur Knight was being treated for Covid-19 at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, Glasgow. He had been living a happy new life, married a woman named Miranda, and worked as a tutor, but then he suffered a serious case of pneumonitis, caused by Covid-19.
Someone recognized him through his distinctive tattoos. They were a match to those from a Pawtucket police booking photo of him. In December 2021, they arrested the convicted sex offender in the Glasgow hospital.
Authorities say Knight was just one of Alahverdian’s 16 known aliases, which include Nicholas Rossi, Nicholas Brown, Arthur Brown, and Arthur Knight-Brown.
Nicholas Alahverdian fought extradition back to the US. For over two years, Alahverdian exhausted every legal avenue available in the UK. Ultimately the courts ruled he was a wanted fugitive and agreed to the United States’ request to send him home. Rossi now set for trial.
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