Nicholas Rossi, the American rapist who faked his own death and fled to Scotland in a bid to evade justice before being tracked down by hospital staff who recognised his tattoos, has died in prison at the age of 38.
The Utah Department of Corrections confirmed that Rossi died in a local hospital from complications of an existing medical condition after choosing to discontinue medical treatment. “This notification follows communication with Rossi’s family and his victims,” the department said in a statement. He had been serving a sentence of ten years to life for two counts of first-degree felony rape.
Rossi, originally from Rhode Island, was convicted by a jury in August last year for the rape of two women in Utah in 2008, following one of the most extraordinary cat-and-mouse cases in recent American criminal history. He was first identified in 2018 when a decade-old DNA rape kit was re-examined. But in February 2020, months after charges were filed, an online obituary appeared claiming he had died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.
In fact, Rossi had fled to Scotland. He was arrested there in 2021 while being treated for Covid-19, after hospital staff recognised his distinctive tattoos — including the crest of a university he had never attended. Throughout subsequent extradition proceedings, Rossi insisted he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight who was being framed, a claim that prolonged his legal fight for years. A protracted court battle meant he was not extradited to the United States until January 2024. Investigators identified at least a dozen aliases he had used over the years to evade capture.
At his sentencing hearing, the victim in the case told the court that Rossi had left “a trail of fear, pain and destruction” behind him. “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,” she said.
