Latest / Least of These / 244. "Dead Man Talking" - The Case of Nicholas (Alahverdian) Rossi - [Part 2 - FINAL]

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244. "Dead Man Talking" - The Case of Nicholas (Alahverdian) Rossi - [Part 2 - FINAL] · Least of These

0:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to least of these where I cover the cases that need it most because every life matters and everyone deserves justice.
0:10
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm your host, Leia D. Today I'll be bringing you the conclusion of the case of Nicholas Rossi.
0:16
[SPEAKER_01]: If you haven't heard the first episode, skip back one and then meet us right back here.
0:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And with that said, let's get right to it.
0:59
[SPEAKER_01]: By 2020, the walls were closing in on Nicholas Rossi.
1:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Investigators across multiple jurisdictions were looking into a growing list of allegations, and the man who had spent years reinventing himself, while he was running out of places to hide.
1:16
[SPEAKER_01]: and Ohio the FBI was investigating that fraud complaint.
1:20
[SPEAKER_01]: According to Rossi's former foster mother who spoke with the Providence Journal, he had allegedly opened 22 credit cards and loans using her husband's identity and racked up nearly $200,000 in fraudulent charges.
1:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Meanwhile authorities in Utah were investigating rape allegations.
1:39
[SPEAKER_01]: and Rhode Island Rossi was facing charges for allegedly failing to register as a sex offender.
1:45
[SPEAKER_01]: There were additional accusations stretching beyond the United States and to Canada and overseas.
1:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Pressure was mounting from every direction.
1:55
[SPEAKER_01]: So Nicholas Rossi disappeared, at least at first, at first he told reporters that he had fled the country and that he was being persecuted because of his activism.
2:06
[SPEAKER_01]: And then when the questions kept coming, Rossi said he was terminally ill and only had weeks to live, and then he died, or at least that's what he wanted the world to believe.
2:25
[SPEAKER_01]: His supposed widow claimed he had been cremated and buried at sea.
2:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Around that same time, father Bernard Hilly passed her of our Lady of Mercy Church and East Grinich Rhode Island received an unusual phone call.
2:38
[SPEAKER_01]: On the other line was a woman claiming to be Rossi's widow, father Hilly later told Sky News.
2:45
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a woman's voice with an English accent and she was very strange.
2:50
[SPEAKER_01]: It was a name like Evelyn.
2:52
[SPEAKER_01]: She sounded like hyacinth bucket from keeping up appearances, a very high-pitched English accent.
2:58
[SPEAKER_01]: She said she was in Switzerland with her children and wanted a memorial master Nicolas.
3:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Father Healy agreed to do the mass, but then things got weird.
3:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Evelyn or whoever she was sent link the emails with detailed instructions about the service to include elaborate music that Father Healy joked would have required the London Symphony Orchestra rather than a small Rhode Island parish.
3:23
[SPEAKER_01]: She also provided notes about Nicholas's life and suggested exactly what Father Healy should say during the service.
3:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, without his knowledge, the memorial was promoted on Facebook.
3:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Hundreds, possibly thousands of people were invited to attend, including current and former Rhode Island elected officials.
3:42
[SPEAKER_01]: But before the mass could take place, Father Healy received another phone call.
3:47
[SPEAKER_01]: This one came from a Rhode Island state police detective.
3:51
[SPEAKER_01]: The detective's message was simple and straight to the point.
3:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Father, he's not dead, he faked his own death and you can't have the mass.
4:00
[SPEAKER_01]: The detective went on to say that they suspected the mysterious widow wasn't a widow at all.
4:06
[SPEAKER_01]: They believed the caller may have been Rossi himself disguising his voice.
4:10
[SPEAKER_01]: At the time investigators didn't believe Rossi was dead or married.
4:15
[SPEAKER_01]: They believed he was alive and well and had fled to the British Isles to evade capture.
4:20
[SPEAKER_01]: The detective asked Father Healy to quietly cancel the memorial service as not to alert
4:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Father Healy told the woman that he was out of town and needed to postpone the mass, and at first, the response was polite.
4:36
[SPEAKER_01]: But when Father Healy eventually explained that the service probably wouldn't happen after all, the tone of the emails changed dramatically.
4:44
[SPEAKER_01]: They quickly became angry and abusive, so the father cut off all contact.
4:50
[SPEAKER_01]: There was no mass and eventually Evelyn stopped e-mailing.
4:54
[SPEAKER_01]: But for Father Healy, there was one detail that made the whole situation even more unsettling.
5:00
[SPEAKER_01]: Nicholas Rossi wasn't exactly a stranger.
5:04
[SPEAKER_01]: As it turns out, Father Healy had met a teenager Aussie when he was working alongside lawmakers in the state house.
5:12
[SPEAKER_01]: Investigators were convinced Rossi was alive and just run in from the multiple charges he was facing.
5:18
[SPEAKER_01]: So that Interpol wanted notice was issued.
5:21
[SPEAKER_01]: But Rossi remained on the run of Aiding Capture until December of 2021.
5:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, like we talked about last week, in December of 2021, he was rushed to the intensive care unit at Queen Elizabeth in Glasgow.
5:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Rossi had COVID and his symptoms were life threatening.
5:39
[SPEAKER_01]: He was innovated in place on a ventilator.
5:42
[SPEAKER_01]: And as he recovered, he claimed his name was Arthur Knight, and that he was an orphan who had spent his entire life in the United Kingdom.
5:50
[SPEAKER_01]: But staff at Queen Elizabeth recognized those tattoos and police were notified.
5:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Authorities in the U.S. wanted Rossi extradited back to the state's defacence charges, but they'd have to prove he was indeed Nicholas Rossi and not Arthur Knight as he claimed.
6:06
[SPEAKER_01]: That would take time in court proceedings, and of course, Rossi would have to recover from his illness and be discharged from the hospital.
6:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Nicholas Rossi did recover.
6:16
[SPEAKER_01]: And according to the BBC, when a nurse and doctor came in to tell Rossi the good news that he was going to be discharged, well, the shit hit the fan.
6:25
[SPEAKER_01]: The two staff members would later tell the Glasgow Sheriff's Court that they were left
6:34
[SPEAKER_01]: Dr. Evelyn Miller and her nurse Yasmin Bagley told the court that Arthur Knight, aka Nicholas Rossi, became agitated after they told him that he was going to be discharged from the hospital that day.
6:46
[SPEAKER_01]: He had already started to complain about his treatment by the NHS.
6:50
[SPEAKER_01]: But when he was told he was well enough to leave the hospital, the man who had been using a wheelchair to get around became very angry, very quickly.
6:59
[SPEAKER_01]: He jumped out of the hospital bed, moving toward the two staff members at rapid speed.
7:04
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, they were shocked, this was a man who had been relying on a wheelchair and wearing an oxygen mask, and now he was flying across the room like a rabbit raccoon.
7:13
[SPEAKER_01]: Dr. Miller later stated in court, he was inches from our faces.
7:17
[SPEAKER_01]: We were just utterly terrified.
7:19
[SPEAKER_01]: We thought he was coming to harm us.
7:22
[SPEAKER_01]: It was extremely frightening.
7:24
[SPEAKER_01]: The doctor and nurse ran from Rossi's room.
7:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Five minutes later, nurse Bagley returned and found Rossi sitting on the floor and shouting,
7:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Rossi claimed that he couldn't have attacked the staff because he couldn't even stand on his own two legs, but the court found that claim was quote not credible.
7:42
[SPEAKER_01]: He was later found guilty of abusing medical staff and find 400 pounds.
7:47
[SPEAKER_01]: And that wouldn't be the last time the court found one of Rossi's claims to be less than credible.
8:17
[SPEAKER_01]: In a series of hearings at the Edinburgh Sheriff Court, Rossi insisted he was actually Arthur Knight in the victim of mistaken identity.
8:25
[SPEAKER_01]: He showed up to court in an electric wheelchair wearing an oxygen mask speaking with a thick British accent at times wearing a three-piece suit and at other times in his pajamas and slippers.
8:36
[SPEAKER_01]: He had all kinds of stories.
8:38
[SPEAKER_01]: He was an Irishborn orphan who had never been to America.
8:42
[SPEAKER_01]: He had been given the distinctive tattoos used to identify him while he was lying unconscious in the hospital.
8:47
[SPEAKER_01]: He was being framed by authorities.
8:50
[SPEAKER_01]: He claimed he quote was not and had never been known as Nicholas Rossi.
8:55
[SPEAKER_01]: And one interview obtained by ABC News, he broke down as he claimed infatically that he was Arthur Knight.
9:10
[SPEAKER_02]: I do not prefer to be called Arthur, Knight, I am Arthur Knight.
9:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, he could, I don't know.
9:19
[SPEAKER_02]: I believe that it's not me.
9:24
[SPEAKER_01]: He was Arthur Knight, or so he said.
9:27
[SPEAKER_01]: He went on to tell the BBC that he grew up in an orphanage in Ireland and didn't know his birth parents.
9:33
[SPEAKER_01]: He claimed he had escaped Ireland on a boat to London where he survived by reselling books with some of the boys he had left with.
9:41
[SPEAKER_01]: But all of the friends he had left Ireland with had fallen in love with a life on the street, and he didn't know where they were now.
9:49
[SPEAKER_01]: He had worked hard and eventually became successful and married a woman named Miranda.
9:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, there was no one to back his story, not one of these street boys, not an official from the orphanage in Ireland.
10:02
[SPEAKER_01]: No one that is except for his wife Miranda, who stood by him through it all.
10:07
[SPEAKER_01]: It's unclear exactly when the two got married, but sometime after he fled the United States, under the alias Arthur Knight, he married a woman named Miranda.
10:17
[SPEAKER_01]: and as for Miranda, she didn't believe she had married Nicholas Rossi.
10:21
[SPEAKER_01]: She was in love with Arthur Knight, and she just couldn't believe the accusations, but Miranda was about the only one.
10:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Rossi was unable to produce a birth certificate or any official documentation proving that he was Arthur Knight.
10:36
[SPEAKER_01]: He refused to voluntarily submit his DNA in fingerprints and had to be ordered by the court.
10:42
[SPEAKER_01]: And it appeared his identity wasn't the only thing he was lying about.
10:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Prosecutor Julie Clark told the court that Rossi fake seizures and despite the fact that he constantly had noxygen mask plastered on his face, doctors reported that he had no long problems.
10:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Months turned into years as both sides tried to prove Rossi's identity so he could be extradited back to the United States.
11:05
[SPEAKER_01]: According to court TV, Rossi cycled through at least six different attorneys.
11:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Each time pushing the case further down the road.
11:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And soon, things came to a grinding halt.
11:16
[SPEAKER_01]: The reason?
11:17
[SPEAKER_01]: British authorities were also investigating Rossi in connection with the rape allegation reported in the city of Calmsford in April of 2022.
11:26
[SPEAKER_01]: That investigation could complicate and potentially delay any extradition to the U.S.
11:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Then things took another turn after Rossi failed to appear for a scheduled court hearing in Scotland.
11:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Halees arrested him and Glasgow's Woodland's neighborhood on a warrant issued by the Edinburgh Sheriff Court.
11:44
[SPEAKER_01]: His bail was revoked and he was sent to prison while the proceedings continued.
11:48
[SPEAKER_01]: From behind bars, Rossi insisted he was being denied adequate medical care.
11:53
[SPEAKER_01]: According to the Times, he claimed prison officials were unable to provide the level of
12:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Despite his complaints, the court refused to release him on bail.
12:05
[SPEAKER_01]: It was around the same time that Rossi appeared in court wearing a black robin keeper, telling the court he'd converted to Judaism while incarcerate it.
12:14
[SPEAKER_01]: As the hearings continued, prosecutors methodically tore apart his claim that he was Arthur Knight.
12:20
[SPEAKER_01]: His fingerprints match Nicholas Rossi's, the tattoos matched.
12:24
[SPEAKER_01]: He couldn't produce a single legitimate document identifying him as Arthur Knight.
12:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Investigators also established that he had used at least 10 different aliases over the years while evading authorities.
12:36
[SPEAKER_01]: In the end, the court had heard enough.
12:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Judge Norman McFade and described Rossi as quote, as dishonest and deceitful as he is evasive and manipulative.
12:46
[SPEAKER_01]: He called Rossi's claim that he was Arthur Knight implausible and fanciful, and said he was unwilling to accept any statement made by Rossi unless it was independently corroborated.
12:57
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, he made his ruling.
12:59
[SPEAKER_00]: By the evidence of fingerprint, photographic and tattoo evidence taken together, supported by the evidence of changes of name, that Mr. Knight is indeed Nicholas Rossi, the person sought for extradition by the United States.
13:14
[SPEAKER_00]: I would have been prepared to accept the finger print evidence alone as sufficient for that purpose, and equally, I would have been prepared to accept the photographic facial identification evidence and tattoo evidence taken together as sufficient for that purpose.
13:28
[SPEAKER_00]: I therefore require to answer the question in section 784A of the act in the affirmative.
13:34
[SPEAKER_00]: The person appearing before me is Nicholas Rossi, the person whose extradition is requested by the United States.
13:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Once the Scottish courts determined that Arthur Knight was in fact Nicolas Rossi, the formal extradition process to the United States finally began.
13:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Hearings rescheduled for early 2023, but that investigation in England was still underway.
13:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Police and Essex confirmed to the independent that they were investigating Rossi in connection with a rape allegation reported in the city of Kelmsford that occurred in April of 2022.
14:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Investigators also revealed that under Section 76A of the U.K.'s extradition act, domestic criminal matters have to be resolved before someone can be extradited to another country.
14:20
[SPEAKER_01]: If Rossi was charged in England, his return to the U.S. could be delayed indefinitely.
14:25
[SPEAKER_01]: As the court sorted it all out, Rossi remained behind bars at H.M. prison Edinburgh.
14:31
[SPEAKER_01]: In January, 2023, he asked to be released on bail, claiming inmates were taunting him, repeatedly singing John Denver's leaving on a jet plane.
14:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Months later, in October of 2023, Essex Police arrested Rossi in connection with the Kelmsford investigation.
14:49
[SPEAKER_01]: However, even as that investigation remained ongoing, the Scottish government approved Rossi's
14:58
[SPEAKER_01]: But in December of 2023, Scotland's High Court of Justiceiary, the country's highest criminal court, upheld the extradition order.
15:07
[SPEAKER_01]: This time there would be no more delays.
15:10
[SPEAKER_01]: On January 5, 2024, Nicholas Rossi did in fact leave on a jet plane.
15:16
[SPEAKER_01]: He was extradited to Utah where he would face two separate rape charges and two different jurisdictions.
15:23
[SPEAKER_01]: As soon as he got to Utah, Rossi made a formal request that the county jailers refer to him as Arthur Knight, but that request was denied.
15:31
[SPEAKER_01]: And soon, Nicholas Rossi would abandon Arthur Knight altogether.
15:36
[SPEAKER_01]: But first, during his initial virtual court appearance in Utah, Rossi appeared wearing an oxygen mask and speaking in the same exaggerated British accent he'd used throughout the Scottish proceedings.
15:48
[SPEAKER_01]: He insisted his name was Arthur Knight, leaving Judge Kimberly Horneck briefly confused about whether the correct defendant had appeared before the court.
15:56
[SPEAKER_01]: Prosecutors quickly straightened things out and Rossi was held in the Utah County jail on a $350,000 bond.
16:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Hearing after hearing Rossi interrupted the proceedings and objected to routine statements from prosecutors and continued insisting he was Arthur Knight.
16:12
[SPEAKER_01]: His accent seemed to grow stronger whenever he addressed the court.
16:17
[SPEAKER_01]: At one hearing, he refused to appear altogether.
16:20
[SPEAKER_01]: When the judge asked where her defendant was, Rossi's attorney could only say that his client declined to show up.
16:26
[SPEAKER_01]: If he's not ill, he has no reasonable excuse.
16:29
[SPEAKER_01]: The judge stated,
16:31
[SPEAKER_01]: She authorized reasonable force to compel his initial appearance.
16:35
[SPEAKER_01]: During a later evidentiary hearing, Rossi acknowledged that he had used multiple aliases over the years, but claimed he had done so because of threats against his life stemming from his work as a child welfare advocate.
16:48
[SPEAKER_01]: He claimed there were two credible death threats he received by phone and email from elected officials within the government of Rhode Island.
16:55
[SPEAKER_01]: When prosecutors asked who had made those threats, he refused to identify them.
17:00
[SPEAKER_01]: And then, an assault lake county Utah courtroom on October 16, 2024 after years of denial's fake accents and an elaborate story, Nicholas Rossi admitted that he
17:13
[SPEAKER_01]: He told the court that he had faked his own death in identity, and that he was in fact born Nicholas Aliburdian.
17:43
[SPEAKER_02]: Albertian 2008, I also felt a duty to honor my Armenian heritage.
17:51
[SPEAKER_01]: And just like that, the whole charade was over.
18:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Rossi finally admitted to his true identity, but still denied the crime she was accused of in Utah.
18:26
[SPEAKER_01]: The two rape cases were to be tried separately, one in Salt Lake County and the other in Utah County.
18:33
[SPEAKER_01]: The first trial began in Salt Lake in August of 2025, and just like in the last
18:42
[SPEAKER_01]: Prosecutors told the jury that in 2008, Jane was recovering from a traumatic brain injury when she responded to one of Rossi's personal acts on Craigslist.
18:52
[SPEAKER_01]: What began is a world-win romance quickly spiraled into abuse.
18:56
[SPEAKER_01]: She told the court that the charming, attentive man she met became controlling and hostile within weeks.
19:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And one night after driving him home after an argument about the status of their relationship, Rossi assaulted her.
19:09
[SPEAKER_01]: She recounted that he pushed her onto the bed, held her down, and forced her to have sex with him.
19:15
[SPEAKER_01]: Jane said, I was afraid of him and froze, I was a little bit more of a timid person back then, and so it was harder for me to stand up for myself.
19:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Jane didn't immediately come forward, she told her parents, but she didn't go to authorities, for years she carried that assault in silence.
19:32
[SPEAKER_01]: It wasn't until she learned about the other young woman in Utah who accused Rossi of rape that she decided to come forward.
19:39
[SPEAKER_01]: She knew she wasn't alone.
19:42
[SPEAKER_01]: When it came time for the defense, the defense portrayed her as a bitter exfianse motivated by revenge.
19:50
[SPEAKER_01]: But the jury heard testimony from her mother who recalled Jane telling her about the assault back in 2008.
19:55
[SPEAKER_01]: A trauma counselor testified and explained that delayed reporting is common among survivors of sexual violence, and that only a minority reported immediately.
20:06
[SPEAKER_01]: cell phone records in the credit application for the engagement rings help corroborate her story.
20:12
[SPEAKER_01]: After a three-day trial, the jury found Nicholas Rossi guilty.
20:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Before sentencing Jane address the court, she said that Rossi left a trail of fear, pain and destruction behind him.
20:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Jane stated in part, this is not a plea for vengeance, this is a plea for safety and accountability, for recognition of the damage that will never fully heal.
20:36
[SPEAKER_01]: given the opportunity to speak.
20:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Rossi accused the women of lying.
20:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Here's Nicholas Rossi and his own words.
20:45
[SPEAKER_02]: And there's that a symbol.
20:47
[SPEAKER_02]: I don't have a lengthy statement full of flowery language and hyperbole.
20:53
[SPEAKER_02]: That.
20:57
[SPEAKER_02]: I want the court to consider however I would say that these women are lying and that
21:06
[SPEAKER_02]: is unjust, unkind, and not plausible in the eyes of the law.
21:12
[SPEAKER_02]: So when I do say, which I do say now, that I am not guilty, and I plan to lodge an appeal and do course, is with the utmost sincerity of who I know I am, and who I strive to be, which is a kind person who has
21:34
[SPEAKER_02]: The capacity for sympathy and empathy beyond, what can be described here?
21:38
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I can say, is that I know who I am, and I am not the person as aforementioned.
21:46
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you, Your Honor.
21:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Judge Barry Lawrence didn't buy that sad story.
21:52
[SPEAKER_01]: He described Rossi as a quote, serial abuser of women, and the very definition of a flight risk before he sentenced him to five years to life in prison.
22:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Weeks later a second jury heard a strikingly similar story.
22:07
[SPEAKER_01]: In September of 2025, the trial in Utah County was underway.
22:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Sandy testified that she met Rossi in 2008 through my space.
22:21
[SPEAKER_01]: After ending their relationship, she went to his apartment to recover money that he odor.
22:26
[SPEAKER_01]: Instead of paying her back, prosecutors said Rossi block the door refused to let her leave, pinned her down and raped her.
22:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Sandy reported the assault immediately.
22:36
[SPEAKER_01]: She underwent a sexual assault examination provided a statement to police and preserved evidence that later proved crucial.
22:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Of course, after the accusation was made, Rossi claimed he was the one who had been assaulted by Sandy.
22:50
[SPEAKER_01]: The case
22:52
[SPEAKER_01]: The DNA collected in Sandy's assault sat on a shelf for nearly a decade, and 2017 it was analyzed and linked Rossi to the assault he had been convicted of back in Ohio.
23:04
[SPEAKER_01]: The second jury also found him guilty.
23:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Rossi was sentenced to another term of five to life to run consecutively to the sentence he had already received.
23:14
[SPEAKER_01]: For the first time in years, Nicholas Rossi had nowhere left to run.
23:19
[SPEAKER_01]: But those two convictions only told part of the story.
23:23
[SPEAKER_01]: They represented the women whose cases made it into a courtroom.
23:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Nicholas Rossi had left far more destruction and his wake.
23:31
[SPEAKER_01]: As the case unfolded, more people came forward.
23:34
[SPEAKER_01]: People from different states and different countries who all describe remarkably similar experiences with the man they knew by one of his many aliases.
23:43
[SPEAKER_01]: In 2020, a woman in Montreal hired a man named Nicholas Brown, a man who claimed he was a Harvard-educated lawyer with extensive experience in marketing and television.
23:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyhow, she eventually hired him to build a website and help market a new TV show.
23:59
[SPEAKER_01]: She paid him $1,000.
24:02
[SPEAKER_01]: but for months there was always an excuse.
24:05
[SPEAKER_01]: He was sick, his wife was sick, hell even his dog was sick.
24:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Deadlines came and went but no work ever materialized.
24:14
[SPEAKER_01]: When she finally demanded to see the work she'd been paying for, the messages turned threatening.
24:20
[SPEAKER_01]: According to this woman,
24:21
[SPEAKER_01]: He attempted to extort money from her and created a whole website attacking her reputation.
24:27
[SPEAKER_01]: She hired a private investigator, and that's when she learned Nicholas Brown didn't exist.
24:33
[SPEAKER_01]: He was Nicholas Rossi.
24:35
[SPEAKER_01]: That woman in England, the one he was being investigated for, she said she met Rossi online and invited him to her home for a visit.
24:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Instead of staying a few days like they planned, he remained in her home for more than five weeks.
24:49
[SPEAKER_01]: When she finally told him the relationship was over and asked him to leave, she said he blocked her in her bedroom and raped her before he returned to London.
24:58
[SPEAKER_01]: She reported the assault to police, but by then Rossi had already left.
25:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Officers advised her to change her locks, pack up his belongings, and end all contact.
25:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Months later, she stumbled across his obituary.
25:10
[SPEAKER_01]: She believed he was dead, and she was relieved, but discovered years later that he was very much alive.
25:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Rossi's victims weren't limited to the people he defrauded or sexually assaulted.
25:23
[SPEAKER_01]: His campaign of deception also devastated the lives of people who simply tried to hold him accountable.
25:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Former Utah County Attorney David Levitt, who had ordered the examination of the rape kit in Sandy's case that ultimately triggered the global manhunt, while he later told the times that Rossi had made false allegations against him in his wife.
25:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Allegations that the prosecutor was engaged in ritualized sexual abuse in murder, he claimed Levitt's wife was involved in cannibalism and the murder of small children.
25:55
[SPEAKER_01]: Rossi used his website Zeus News to spread these baseless accusations that ultimately damaged Levitt's reputation and contributed to him losing his re-election campaign.
26:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Leave it stated,
26:07
[SPEAKER_01]: I was one of Nicholas Rossi's victims and so was my wife.
26:11
[SPEAKER_01]: He didn't violate us physically, but he certainly did emotionally and professionally.
26:16
[SPEAKER_01]: He effectively ended my legal career and ruined my reputation.
26:21
[SPEAKER_01]: I continue to be victimized by trolls on the internet because of it.
26:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Leave it went on to say that he had actually hoped to visit Rossi in prison to try and understand what had driven him to spend so much of his life manipulating and hurting others.
26:36
[SPEAKER_01]: But, and leave it never got that opportunity.
26:39
[SPEAKER_01]: On June 25th, 2026, Nicholas L. Verdeen Rossi died at a Utah hospital at the age of 38.
26:47
[SPEAKER_01]: He died for real this time.
26:49
[SPEAKER_01]: According to the Utah Department of Corrections, he was transported to the hospital where he died from complications of an existing medical condition after choosing to discontinue the medical treatment that had been provided to him.
27:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Salt Lake County District Attorney Sam Gill later reflected on Rossi's death, stating, Mr. Rossi was a sexual predator who tried to escape accountability.
27:13
[SPEAKER_01]: He was caught and died with the public knowledge of his Gill and the
27:20
[SPEAKER_01]: As authorities dug deeper investigators in Massachusetts, Canada, England, Scotland, Utah, Ohio, Rhode Island and elsewhere, all found themselves tracing different pieces of the same story, a man who reinvented himself over and over again, leaving behind allegations of fraud, manipulation, sexual violence, and emotional devastation in his weight.
27:42
[SPEAKER_01]: The victims didn't know each other.
27:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Many lived in different countries, but their stories echoed
27:50
[SPEAKER_01]: Nicholas Rossi spent years condensing the world he was someone else, he lied to police, he lied to the courts, he lied to journalists, he lied to his friends, he lied to a priest, he lied to strangers, he even convinced much of the world that he was dead, and for a while those lies were, but eventually evidence catches up, victims find one another, investigators
28:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Courtrooms replace headlines, and the truth has a way of coming to the surface, even if it takes nearly two decades of fake death and international manhunt and courtrooms on two continents to get there.
28:33
[SPEAKER_01]: Sometimes the truth takes a long way around, but eventually it really does catch up.
28:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And that my friends is all I've got for this week.
28:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Be sure to join me right back here next week, same time, same place for an all new episode.
28:49
[SPEAKER_01]: In the meantime you can find me on Instagram at least under score of these or my Facebook at least of these podcasts.
28:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And if you're sick of that interruptions, I've got good news for you.
28:59
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29:04
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29:11
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29:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for listening.
29:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for caring.
29:19
[SPEAKER_01]: If you know something, say something.
29:21
[SPEAKER_01]: And until next time, be good to each other.
30:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, that was a ride, wasn't it?
30:08
[SPEAKER_01]: If you're interested in learning more about this case, I highly recommend you watch the documentary, Rossi, a fugitive-faking death.
30:16
[SPEAKER_01]: It's produced by the BBC and available on Peacock.
30:19
[SPEAKER_01]: It might be available in other places, but that's where I watched it.
30:23
[SPEAKER_01]: It's crazy.
30:24
[SPEAKER_01]: The whole case was crazy.
30:26
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, politicians and really prominent people actually gave full-blown ulogies online after Rossi's fake death, wild, I tell you.
30:36
[SPEAKER_01]: And his wife Miranda, where does thing is that she seems like such a normal person?
30:41
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't know how she got wrapped up in all this, but she stuck by him.
30:44
[SPEAKER_01]: I don't think she ever believed he wasn't Arthur Knight.
30:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Or if she did, she sure didn't say nothing publicly that I found.
30:52
[SPEAKER_01]: The lies of manipulation and the number of people who at least for a time believed him is actually kind of crazy.
30:59
[SPEAKER_01]: Like I said last week, so much potential that he could have used for good but chose to put all that energy into evil and lies of manipulation.
31:08
[SPEAKER_01]: What an absolute waste of a life.
31:10
[SPEAKER_01]: On a real serious note, this crap wouldn't have gone on as long as it did, and there would be far less victims if the DNA collected in Sandy's case would have been tested instead of sitting there collecting dust.
31:22
[SPEAKER_01]: And I never really got why that case wasn't pursued.
31:24
[SPEAKER_01]: I did try to find the answer, and best I can come up with is that Rossi making accusations.
31:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Police just missed it as he said she said.
31:33
[SPEAKER_01]: And they just didn't make the case a priority.
31:36
[SPEAKER_01]: and it doesn't seem like with the name changes and his failure to register as a sex offender that anybody knew he was already a registered sex offender.
31:44
[SPEAKER_01]: Which is wild because the crime occurred in 2008 the internet was definitely a thing.
31:49
[SPEAKER_01]: It would have only taken a quick search.
31:52
[SPEAKER_01]: If the crimes against Sandy would have been taken more seriously, a lot of crimes could have been prevented.
31:58
[SPEAKER_01]: I have no doubts that there are other victims out there who just haven't come forward and with Rossi dead, maybe they never will.
32:04
[SPEAKER_01]: But this guy was twisted in a way that is almost beyond comprehension.
32:09
[SPEAKER_01]: He was a predator who should have been behind bars like a really long time ago.
32:14
[SPEAKER_01]: And him refusing his medical treatment and dying at the age of 38, I think that was just another form of manipulation.
32:21
[SPEAKER_01]: The writing was on the wall.
32:23
[SPEAKER_01]: He wasn't getting out, so he just refused treatment.
32:27
[SPEAKER_01]: And I'd like to know what the medical condition was.
32:29
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, we won't because that's a violation of his rights.
32:32
[SPEAKER_01]: But it's just interesting to me that he died at such a young age after the courts found he'd been faking illnesses.
32:38
[SPEAKER_01]: So he faked illnesses, but he actually had one.
32:41
[SPEAKER_01]: Weird.
32:42
[SPEAKER_01]: It's just weird, kind of like everything else in this case.
32:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's what happens when you allow the damn time.
32:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Nobody believes you when you're telling the truth.
32:50
[SPEAKER_01]: The boy who cried wolf, you know.
32:53
[SPEAKER_01]: While I wish he had just been more time in prison, the sober lining is that Nicholas Elevary and Rossi, the Arthur Knight Brown, can't hurt anyone else, because he is for real dead this time.
33:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's about all I got to say about that.
33:06
[SPEAKER_01]: You all know I love you more in my luggage, and I can't wait to talk it's your next week.
33:09
[SPEAKER_01]: But until then, bye-bye-bye-bye!