Latest / Least of These / 243. “Dead Man Talking” - The Case of Nicholas (Alahverdian) Rossi - [Part 1]

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243. “Dead Man Talking” - The Case of Nicholas (Alahverdian) Rossi - [Part 1] · Least of These

0:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Welcome to least of these, where I cover the cases that need it most because every life matters and everyone deserves justice.
0:08
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm your host, Leahy.
0:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Today I'll be bringing you part one of the case of Nicholas Rossi.
0:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Let's get right to it.
0:51
[SPEAKER_01]: In 2020, life changed almost overnight.
0:55
[SPEAKER_01]: The COVID-19 pandemic brought international travel to a halt overwhelmed hospitals and forced billions of people into lockdown.
1:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Healthcare workers found themselves on the front lines of a global crisis.
1:07
[SPEAKER_01]: There was fear and uncertainty, especially for anyone working in a medical field.
1:12
[SPEAKER_01]: It was chaos.
1:14
[SPEAKER_01]: As the healthcare workers at Queen Elizabeth's University Hospital in Glasgow, Scotland cared for the multitudes of critically ill-covid patients.
1:22
[SPEAKER_01]: They probably never could have imagined that they would unexpectedly find themselves in the center of an international manhunt.
1:30
[SPEAKER_01]: It all started in December of 2021 when a critical patient came through their doors.
1:35
[SPEAKER_01]: He was rushed to the intensive care unit where he was innovative and placed on a ventilator.
1:41
[SPEAKER_01]: They worked to save his life, innovating him until he was able to breathe on his own.
1:46
[SPEAKER_01]: They were told that the man lying in the hospital bed was a man named Arthur Knight, and that he had spent his life in the United Kingdom.
1:59
[SPEAKER_01]: The Guardian reported that one of them was a red cross above an angel wing.
2:03
[SPEAKER_01]: As it just so happened, that man and his tattoos matched an interple wanted notice for an American fugitive accused of a whole lot of crimes, the most serious rape in the state of Utah.
2:15
[SPEAKER_01]: That man was known as Nicholas Rossi or Nicholas Oliverdian, or any number of names
2:23
[SPEAKER_01]: He was American-born and raised in Rhode Island.
2:27
[SPEAKER_01]: When the man was awakened conscious, he insisted that he had no knowledge of this Nicolas Rossi character.
2:33
[SPEAKER_01]: He denied his feet had ever touched American soil.
2:36
[SPEAKER_01]: He spoke in a British accent as he declared that he was Arthur Knight, an Irishborn orphan who had spent his entire life in the United Kingdom.
2:45
[SPEAKER_01]: This was all some huge mistake.
2:48
[SPEAKER_01]: The staff at Queen Elizabeth had already contacted law enforcement, and when police arrived, they were sure that the man who had been on the run for nearly a decade had finally been located.
2:58
[SPEAKER_01]: When Scottish police asked who he was, again, he told them his name was Arthur Knight.
3:04
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he told an incredible story.
3:07
[SPEAKER_01]: The man insisted that he hadn't always had those tattoos that led to his identification.
3:12
[SPEAKER_01]: He claimed that he had been given those tattoos while he was
3:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Speaking in a less than convincing British accent and an interview with the BBC, the man further claimed that authorities took his fingerprints while he was in a coma so they could connect him to Rossi.
3:28
[SPEAKER_01]: He was being framed.
3:30
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, there was a real easy way of clearing it all up.
3:34
[SPEAKER_01]: All he had to do was produce a birth certificate, passport or some official document with the name Arthur Knight.
3:40
[SPEAKER_01]: But shockingly, he couldn't do that.
3:43
[SPEAKER_01]: Officials were convinced Arthur Knight didn't exist, and the man sitting before them was actually Nicholas Rossi.
3:50
[SPEAKER_01]: But who exactly was Nicholas Rossi?
3:53
[SPEAKER_01]: Nicholas Rossi was actually born Nicholas L. Everdean in 1987 in the state of Rhode Island.
4:00
[SPEAKER_01]: It appears at some point he began calling himself Nicholas Rossi.
4:04
[SPEAKER_01]: He'd go on to have a lot of aliases.
4:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Nick Allen, Edward Rossi, Arthur Knight, and the list goes on.
4:10
[SPEAKER_01]: But for the sake of clarity, we're just going to refer to him as Nicholas Rossi.
4:15
[SPEAKER_01]: As a teenager, Rossie spent time in foster care.
4:19
[SPEAKER_01]: According to his biological father, who spoke on the documentary, Rossie by the BBC.
4:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyhow, according to his biological father, Rossie had been placed in those group homes because his behavior was out of control.
4:32
[SPEAKER_01]: He was violent and extremely manipulative.
4:35
[SPEAKER_01]: As a teen, Rossie became an outspoken critic of Rhode Island's Department of Children Youth and Families.
4:41
[SPEAKER_01]: He claimed that he had suffered unimaginable abuse and many of his placements.
4:46
[SPEAKER_01]: Rossi had testified before state lawmakers about the abuse, and he was making waves.
4:52
[SPEAKER_01]: Many of those lawmakers believe that as he got older, his advocacy would be the catalyst for major change in the system.
4:59
[SPEAKER_01]: He was believable and impactful and had a way of making an impression.
5:04
[SPEAKER_01]: At the time Rhode Island State Representative Brian Cougan was so impressed with Rossi after spending time working alongside him at the State House, he said that he believed Nicholas Rossi was destined for a life of public service.
5:17
[SPEAKER_01]: The tube became so close that the state representative wanted to formally adopt Rossi to get him out of the foster care system.
5:24
[SPEAKER_01]: He had noticed the bruises black eyes and chope marks that he nature frequently had, even as he was at the state house.
5:31
[SPEAKER_01]: One day representative Cougan got a call from Nicholas Rossi.
5:35
[SPEAKER_01]: He told him that he needed the adoption to happen that very day.
5:39
[SPEAKER_01]: Brian Cogan tried to make it happen, he really wanted to help this kid, but the chief judge called him into his chambers and told him not to bring the teen into his family.
5:49
[SPEAKER_01]: He showed him a file inches thick and told him that Rossi was violent and all those choke marks and bruises, all that abusive claimed, well it was self-inflicted.
5:59
[SPEAKER_01]: According to the judge, Nicholas Rossi
6:25
[SPEAKER_01]: In 2008, Mary Gribinski was scrolling around on my space when she came across a profile of a 21-year-old man named Nicholas Rossi.
6:34
[SPEAKER_01]: He told her he was a student from Utah, but was switching to Sinclair Community College, which was the college Mary was attending in Ohio.
6:42
[SPEAKER_01]: After an introduction online, Nicholas and Mary met in person at the Community College.
6:47
[SPEAKER_01]: Nicholas actually offered to walk her to class.
6:50
[SPEAKER_01]: But when the two were alone in an isolated hallway, Nicholas held her against a wall and sexually assaulted her.
6:57
[SPEAKER_01]: Mary didn't know what to do.
6:59
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, who wouldn't that situation?
7:01
[SPEAKER_01]: She had been violently sexually assaulted in the hallway of her very public school.
7:07
[SPEAKER_01]: So she went to class.
7:09
[SPEAKER_01]: After that class was over, Nicholas approached her and apologized, telling her, I'm sorry.
7:14
[SPEAKER_01]: I couldn't help myself.
7:15
[SPEAKER_01]: You were so beautiful.
7:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Please don't tell anyone.
7:19
[SPEAKER_01]: But Mary didn't buy his bullshit.
7:22
[SPEAKER_01]: She reported that assault to police.
7:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Rossi was charged and eventually convicted of public indiesency and sexual imposition.
7:30
[SPEAKER_01]: His jail sentence was suspended, pending he complete a sex offender treatment program, which he did.
7:36
[SPEAKER_01]: He was fined in order to register as a sex offender for 15 years.
7:41
[SPEAKER_01]: and most importantly of all, his DNA was obtained and filed away.
7:45
[SPEAKER_01]: That's going to become very important for the way we get into this story, but let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.
7:52
[SPEAKER_01]: After his conviction, unbelievably, Rossi sued the victim Mary Gribinski for defamation.
7:58
[SPEAKER_01]: He lost, of course, but his filing of that lawsuit forced Mary's name, which was once protected in court filing since she was the victim of a sexual assault, but now her name was out there wide open in the public.
8:11
[SPEAKER_01]: He also made videos that he posted online claiming that Mary had only accused him of this sexual assault, you know, the one he'd been convicted of.
8:19
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyhow, Rossi claimed Mary had only accused him to derail him in his fight for the rights of kids in foster care.
8:25
[SPEAKER_01]: He tried to make Mary out to be the bad guy, even comparing her to the terrorist Osama bin Laden.
8:32
[SPEAKER_01]: Mary was the victim and he was a convicted sex offender in the state of Ohio.
8:37
[SPEAKER_01]: He did try to get that conviction overturned, but that also failed.
8:41
[SPEAKER_01]: I also just want to note here before we move on, that Mary has come forward and publicly spoken about her assault, which is why she's actually named in this episode.
8:50
[SPEAKER_01]: After assaulting Mary, Rossi Fletto, Ohio, and ended up in Utah.
8:55
[SPEAKER_01]: The year was still 2008, and Rossi was still looking for women on my space.
9:01
[SPEAKER_01]: Court documents obtained by Court TV showed that Rossi met a 21-year-old woman on the site while he was living in Oram, Utah.
9:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Her identity remains protected so we're just going to call her Sandy, obviously that's not her real name.
9:14
[SPEAKER_01]: So Rossi met 21-year-old Sandy on my space, according to those court documents they began dating.
9:20
[SPEAKER_01]: But pretty quickly, there were some serious red flags.
9:24
[SPEAKER_01]: According to Sandy, Rossi frequently belittled her, was rough during sex and just wasn't a great guy.
9:30
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he used a credit card without her permission to buy a computer for himself.
9:35
[SPEAKER_01]: Sandy ended the relationship, but of course, he still owed her money for the computer.
9:40
[SPEAKER_01]: She tried to get it out of him and he promised to pay her back.
9:43
[SPEAKER_01]: He'd give her the money if she came by his apartment.
9:47
[SPEAKER_01]: So she did, only when she got there, Rossi locked her inside that apartment and sexually assaulted her.
9:54
[SPEAKER_01]: He locked her in the apartment and began to touch himself in front of her.
9:58
[SPEAKER_01]: She repeatedly told him to stop and that she wanted to leave, but Rossi blocked the door, pinned her down, and then sexually assaulted her.
10:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Sandi went to the hospital and a rape kit was done.
10:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Police were contacted and she told officers what had happened.
10:13
[SPEAKER_01]: She told the officer that she wanted to press charges and have the evidence collected because, quote, if he was to do this to other people, it would be important.
10:22
[SPEAKER_01]: Sandy could have never imagined at that moment just how important it would be.
10:27
[SPEAKER_01]: After the assault, Rossi tried to contact Sandy, asking her to drop the charges.
10:31
[SPEAKER_01]: He told her that if she did, he'd pay her the money
10:37
[SPEAKER_01]: And when she did, Rossi contacted police and made a report.
10:41
[SPEAKER_01]: He told the responding officer that he wanted to make a report that he had been raped by his girlfriend.
10:46
[SPEAKER_01]: He continued on about how she had recently reported that he had sexually assaulted her.
10:51
[SPEAKER_01]: So now, he wanted to report that she had actually assaulted him.
10:56
[SPEAKER_01]: He told this whole elaborate story about lingerie and how this girlfriend would stay over this house for days after he asked her to leave.
11:03
[SPEAKER_01]: He claimed that he had been raped six to eight times, and after one of those assaults, her friends called and threatened him while she laughed in the background.
11:12
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not too sure officers bought that story, but they filed the report anyway.
11:18
[SPEAKER_01]: The DNA evidence in Sandy's sexual assault case wasn't immediately tested.
11:22
[SPEAKER_01]: It sat on a shelf somewhere in Utah, other evidence for whatever reason taking priority.
11:28
[SPEAKER_01]: It's as story as old as DNA testing itself, the dreaded backlog, and it's a problem that has only gotten worse over time.
11:36
[SPEAKER_01]: According to the Office of Justice and Oversight.gov, back in 2008 when Sandy was assaulted, the total national backlog of all untested evidence was estimated to be about 90,000 cases, which was bad enough.
11:50
[SPEAKER_01]: But now, those estimates range between 90,000 to over 400,000 untested sexual assault kits alone, not to mention DNA and other criminal cases.
12:01
[SPEAKER_01]: There are hundreds of thousands of samples sitting on evidence shelves collecting dust around the country.
12:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Creminal is still out there on the street because the labs will they're backed up.
12:11
[SPEAKER_01]: It's a real, serious and infuriating problem, but one unfortunately we won't be able to solve here on this podcast today.
12:19
[SPEAKER_01]: So I'll climb down from this soapbox and continue on with this story.
12:24
[SPEAKER_01]: With the evidence sitting on the shelf untested, Nicholas Rossi wasn't initially charged or arrested in San Diego's assault.
12:31
[SPEAKER_01]: He went on with his life.
12:33
[SPEAKER_01]: At some point it appears he ended up back in his home state of Rhode Island.
12:37
[SPEAKER_01]: And despite the whispers that something wasn't quite right with this guy, he was back at his advocacy work, speaking out about the abuses in the state's child welfare system.
12:47
[SPEAKER_01]: He frequently appeared in the media and spoke in
12:52
[SPEAKER_01]: somewhere around 2011, Rossi filed a federal lawsuit against a long list of agencies associated with Rhode Island's child welfare system, claiming he had suffered sexual and physical abuse.
13:04
[SPEAKER_01]: According to the suit, Rossi claimed during a 15-month period beginning in March 2002, he was assigned to a series of night-to-night placements at shelters, group homes, and other residential treatment facilities.
13:18
[SPEAKER_01]: There he was assaulted, beaten, tortured, and raped by employees and clients.
13:23
[SPEAKER_01]: It was one of three suits in total, filed against the state.
13:27
[SPEAKER_01]: One for the abuse, one for DCYF allegedly breaching confidentiality, and a third against the state sheriff division.
13:34
[SPEAKER_01]: After the suits were filed, the Providence Journal reported that Rossi was billed for over $200,000 for medical debt he acquired while in the foster care system.
13:44
[SPEAKER_01]: State officials told the outlet that the lean was for Medicaid funds spent on behalf of Rossi, which by law the state was required to attempt to recoup if he obtained a settlement.
13:55
[SPEAKER_01]: So if I have this right, he was held liable for medical debt only after he fought a lawsuit alleging abuse.
14:01
[SPEAKER_01]: If you ask me, that's crazy and seems to hold a lot like an attempt to keep potential victim's silent and the state to keep their money, but maybe a missing something here.
14:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Here he is back then talking to WPRI-12 about the lawsuit.
14:18
[SPEAKER_01]: At that time, he was going by the last name of Elevarian.
14:22
[SPEAKER_01]: As you listen, make sure you listen close to his voice, accent, and the way he speaks.
14:28
[SPEAKER_01]: That's going to be real important later on.
14:32
[SPEAKER_02]: A former orphan who was in DCYF custody receives a medical bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
14:38
[SPEAKER_00]: And tonight he's talking to eyewitness news, target 12 investigator Walbuto is in the newsroom with the exclusive interview.
14:47
[SPEAKER_03]: Nicholas Aliverdian is a strong critic of D.C.Y.F.
14:50
[SPEAKER_03]: and he tells us this bill covers injuries sustained while he was supposed to be protected by D.C.Y.F.
14:56
[SPEAKER_04]: Hospital stays there.
14:58
[SPEAKER_03]: Aliverdian was shocked when he received a six-page medical bill and this letter asking for just under $207,000 for medical assistance.
15:07
[SPEAKER_03]: He tells us the bill covers an 11-year period, starting when he was placed in D.C.Y.F.
15:11
[SPEAKER_03]: custody in 2002.
15:13
[SPEAKER_04]: And it shows that even though I paid in blood, I still have some worth to the state of Rhode Island as a dollar sign apparently.
15:22
[SPEAKER_03]: So far, the Office of Health and Human Services is not answering our questions or algorithms about whether or not every child in state custody is billed for medical assistance.
15:32
[SPEAKER_03]: I filed a letter comes while Alivarian is suing this long list of former and current state officials and the DCYF for how he was treated while in state care.
15:42
[SPEAKER_03]: He alleges he was physically and sexually assaulted while he was moved in and out of some 20 group homes in three stages.
15:49
[SPEAKER_04]: Take your worst nightmare, multiply it by 5,000.
15:53
[SPEAKER_04]: There were rapes, there were, there were beatings.
15:56
[SPEAKER_03]: Allivarian tells target 12.
15:58
[SPEAKER_03]: He'll continue to push for changes in the law to force DCYF to keep Rhode Island children in Rhode Island group homes.
16:05
[SPEAKER_03]: But he has no plans to pay that 206,918 dollar and 39 cents a bill.
16:13
[SPEAKER_04]: And it's incredibly, incredibly despicable.
16:17
[SPEAKER_01]: That lawsuit was filed in either 2010 or 2011, and by 2012, the settlement was reached.
16:25
[SPEAKER_01]: The Providence Journal reported that Rossi voluntarily dropped the suit and the state wave the $206,000 lien against him for medical care.
16:35
[SPEAKER_01]: at the time deputy director of the D.C.Y.F.
16:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Kevin Aquain released a statement.
16:40
[SPEAKER_01]: He said in part, the state has expressly denied any liability or culpability regarding the allegations throughout all states of the litigation process.
16:50
[SPEAKER_01]: As part of the terms of the settlement agreement as accepted by the plaintiff, the state did not acknowledge any liability with respect to these claims.
16:58
[SPEAKER_01]: So, the state admitted no wrongdoing and the lean against Rossi was waved.
17:02
[SPEAKER_01]: Basically, it was a wash. Rossi continued speaking out against the Rhode Island Department of Children in youth.
17:09
[SPEAKER_01]: Fast forward a few years to 2017 when the state of Utah began to push to test backlog sexual assault kits.
17:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Nicholas Rossi would soon be in the news for a whole other reason.
17:22
[SPEAKER_01]: In 2017, the sexual assault kit collected after Sandy's assault in Oram, Utah, was submitted to the Utah State Crime Lab for testing.
17:31
[SPEAKER_01]: It was part of that broader plan to clear the state's backlog.
17:35
[SPEAKER_01]: And wouldn't you know it?
17:36
[SPEAKER_01]: The DNA collected in Sandy's case came back as a match to the DNA of a convicted sex offender in Ohio.
17:43
[SPEAKER_01]: The same offender who had assaulted 19-year-old Mary Grabenzky, Nicholas Alverdian, Nicholas Rossi, or whatever he was going by at the time.
17:53
[SPEAKER_01]: The details of the cases were, of course, eerily similar, they met on my space, Rossi came off as a nice guy, and then he violently assaulted both young women.
18:03
[SPEAKER_01]: And soon, a third young woman would come forward.
18:30
[SPEAKER_01]: In 2017, a woman were going to call Jane, that's not her real name, but just like Sandy, her identity remains protected.
18:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Anyway, Jane was watching TV when an all-too familiar face flashed across a screen.
18:43
[SPEAKER_01]: It was her ex-boyfriend, and the man who had sexually assaulted her all the way back in 2008,
18:50
[SPEAKER_01]: and he was on the news because he was being accused of another sexual assault.
18:55
[SPEAKER_01]: All those years ago Jane had kept the details of her assault to herself, only confiding in her family, but now she knew she wasn't alone, and she knew she needed to report what had happened to her to police.
19:08
[SPEAKER_01]: Jane went to authorities and told them her story.
19:12
[SPEAKER_01]: According to later court testimony, in late 2008, Jane's life had been forever changed after an accident on a motor scooter.
19:21
[SPEAKER_01]: Prior to the accident, she had a job at a bank in love to dance, but that accident put her an intensive care.
19:28
[SPEAKER_01]: Once discharged from the hospital, she was recovering at her parent's home.
19:33
[SPEAKER_01]: With not much else to do, she hopped online, and that's where she met Rossi.
19:38
[SPEAKER_01]: Jane responded to a personal ad Rossi posted on Craigslist, and the two hit it off.
19:44
[SPEAKER_01]: They met a week later and quickly began dating.
19:47
[SPEAKER_01]: To Jane, Rossi seemed smart, nice, and educated.
19:51
[SPEAKER_01]: Things moved fast, really fast.
19:54
[SPEAKER_01]: Within a couple of weeks, Rossi was pressuring Jane to marry him.
19:58
[SPEAKER_01]: One day they were at the mall together when Rossi took Jane into a jewelry store.
20:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, Jane didn't have the money at the time, so she felt at an application for a credit card to purchase the reins.
20:14
[SPEAKER_01]: Once they were engaged, everything changed.
20:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Rossi became controlling, he made all the decisions and frequently criticized her for everything, from her clothing to anything she said or did.
20:26
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he started taking money from her.
20:29
[SPEAKER_01]: Rossi pressured Jane into loaning him $1,000, of course promising he'd pay her back.
20:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Jane, well she saw the red flags away, even, a couple of weeks after that half-ass engagement, Jane had enough.
20:43
[SPEAKER_01]: The couple were at the mall again when Jane told him it was over.
20:47
[SPEAKER_01]: She took off her engagement ring and put it in her purse.
20:51
[SPEAKER_01]: She then started walking to her car.
20:53
[SPEAKER_01]: She was ready to get the hell out of there.
20:56
[SPEAKER_01]: But Rossi followed behind her.
20:58
[SPEAKER_01]: He was angry.
21:00
[SPEAKER_01]: He stood in front of her car, preventing her from pulling out of her parking spot.
21:04
[SPEAKER_01]: He yelled as he hit her car with his hand.
21:07
[SPEAKER_01]: Jane was afraid.
21:09
[SPEAKER_01]: She thought if she just let him in the car, she could talk him down, take him home, and then that'd be it.
21:15
[SPEAKER_01]: So she let him in the car and drove him to his house.
21:18
[SPEAKER_01]: Once they got there, Rossi refused to get out of her car.
21:22
[SPEAKER_01]: For about an hour, he sat there in the passenger seat, yelling at Jane.
21:27
[SPEAKER_01]: Finally, he seemed to calm down and he asked her to go inside to talk.
21:31
[SPEAKER_01]: Jane wanted to leave, but she thought if she could just keep him calm, she'd eventually be able to slip out the door.
21:37
[SPEAKER_01]: Once they got inside, they began discussing their relationship.
21:45
[SPEAKER_01]: At that point, Rossi became enraged all over again.
21:50
[SPEAKER_01]: He pushed her down on the bed and raped her.
21:53
[SPEAKER_01]: After the assault, Jane was able to escape.
21:55
[SPEAKER_01]: She went home and told her parents what had happened, but they didn't do anything about it and she felt as if she was just dismissed.
22:02
[SPEAKER_01]: So Jane gave up.
22:04
[SPEAKER_01]: She didn't talk about the assault.
22:06
[SPEAKER_01]: She changed her phone number and filed a small claim suit to get her money back from Rossi.
22:10
[SPEAKER_01]: But eventually, she gave up on that too and just moved on with her life.
22:15
[SPEAKER_01]: She may have moved on, but Jane never forgot what happened in that apartment that night.
22:20
[SPEAKER_01]: And a decade later, she learned she wasn't alone.
22:24
[SPEAKER_01]: As investigators in Utah put together the now two rape cases against Nicholas Rossi, he was accused of more crimes in the state of Ohio.
22:33
[SPEAKER_01]: The Providence Journal reported that the FBI was looking into a fraud complaint filed against Rossi and Ohio.
22:40
[SPEAKER_01]: His former foster mother told the outlet that Rossi had fraudulently obtained 22 credit cards and loans under her husband's name, and real debts totaling almost $200,000.
22:53
[SPEAKER_01]: There were charges coming out of the state of Rhode Island for Rossi failing to register as a sex offender when he returned back to the state.
23:00
[SPEAKER_01]: There would be accusations and other states too, as well as Canada and abroad.
23:06
[SPEAKER_01]: Needless to say, the walls were closing in on Nicholas Rossi.
23:10
[SPEAKER_01]: But when authorities tried to track them down for an interview, they couldn't find them.
23:15
[SPEAKER_01]: But reporters did.
23:16
[SPEAKER_01]: Rossi himself spoke to reporters and said that he and his family had led the U.S. because of threats they had received due to his work to improve the department of children's youth and families.
23:26
[SPEAKER_01]: He certainly had led the country to avoid charges for rape and fraud.
23:31
[SPEAKER_01]: He was a family man now, and apparently had a whole wife.
23:36
[SPEAKER_01]: In January of 2020, Nicholas Rossi spoke to the media again and revealed that he had late-stage non-Hodschkins lymphoma and only weeks to live.
23:46
[SPEAKER_01]: And then he was dead.
23:48
[SPEAKER_01]: Two months after he told reporters about his grim diagnosis and obituary began circulating online.
23:54
[SPEAKER_01]: The obituary said Nicholas Albertian was born on July 11, 1987 and died on February 29, 2020.
24:03
[SPEAKER_01]: A woman claiming to be his wife, well, now I guess widow, she also came forward to announce his tragic death.
24:11
[SPEAKER_01]: She told the world that she was his wife and that Nicholas L. Verdeen Rossi had been cremated, his ashes buried at sea.
24:19
[SPEAKER_01]: But authorities didn't buy it, and an Interpol wanted notice was issued.
24:24
[SPEAKER_01]: Was Nicholas Rossie really dead?
24:27
[SPEAKER_01]: We'll know, but that's a story for next week, because unfortunately, we are running out of time and there is so much more to this story.
24:36
[SPEAKER_01]: Be sure to join me next Thursday for what I think will be the conclusion of this case.
24:40
[SPEAKER_01]: Believe me, you don't want to miss it until then you can find me on Instagram at least underscore of these or my Facebook at least of these podcasts.
24:49
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24:53
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25:05
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25:10
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for listening.
25:11
[SPEAKER_01]: Thank you for caring.
25:12
[SPEAKER_01]: If you know something, say something.
25:14
[SPEAKER_01]: And until next time, be good to each other.
26:03
[SPEAKER_01]: Well, today I'm going to have to be careful again since this is a two-part episode.
26:07
[SPEAKER_01]: But I think we've got plenty to talk about.
26:11
[SPEAKER_01]: First, I want to address Rossi's claims of abuse while in foster care.
26:15
[SPEAKER_01]: With all the placements he was put in, I do believe there may be some validity to his claims.
26:20
[SPEAKER_01]: Now, was it as horrific as he made it sound?
26:23
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm not so sure.
26:24
[SPEAKER_01]: He tells so many lies it's hard to believe him, even when or if he's telling the truth.
26:30
[SPEAKER_01]: My doubts come in with the chief judge saying his injuries were self-inflicted and that file he had on him.
26:36
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, I just don't think a chief judge is saying all that for no reason.
26:40
[SPEAKER_01]: And that is so unfortunate because it makes people doubt other stories.
26:45
[SPEAKER_01]: If he's lying, he's a scumbag.
26:47
[SPEAKER_01]: But I mean, I guess we already know he's a scumbag?
26:51
[SPEAKER_01]: I guess he's just more of a scumbag if that's even possible.
26:56
[SPEAKER_01]: And it didn't have to be that way.
26:58
[SPEAKER_01]: Everyone around Rossi said he was smart, educated, well-spoken, all of the things.
27:04
[SPEAKER_01]: Can you imagine the impact he could have had if he had used those things for good instead of using it to try to deceive everyone?
27:10
[SPEAKER_01]: that's a whole lot of wasted potential.
27:13
[SPEAKER_01]: And for what?
27:14
[SPEAKER_01]: You'll see things don't end well for Rossi.
27:17
[SPEAKER_01]: Not to mention all the people he heard along the way.
27:20
[SPEAKER_01]: I'm sure there are people we don't even know about and we probably never will.
27:25
[SPEAKER_01]: Other teens in the foster care system, foster parents, women he bet.
27:29
[SPEAKER_01]: more women he met online or anywhere else.
27:33
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, he was a master manipulator.
27:35
[SPEAKER_01]: I wouldn't be shocked if there are a whole lot of people out there who were victims of Nicholas, Alavarian, Rossi, Arthur, Knight, whatever the hell is name is.
27:45
[SPEAKER_01]: And that's about all I got to say about that.
27:48
[SPEAKER_01]: You know, I love you more in my luggage and I can't wait to talk at you next week.
27:51
[SPEAKER_01]: But until then,