Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - US SERIAL RAPIST CLAIMING TO BE IRISH ORPHAN, FINALLY ADMITS IDENTITY, PLEA DEAL WITHDRAW

Episode Date: January 25, 2025

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.  Joining Nancy Grace Today:   See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A U.S. citizen, Nicholas Rossi, allegedly faked his own death to avoid jail, is now headed to trial after a plea deal has been withdrawn. Remember Nicholas Rossi, who flees to England and Ireland and fakes an Irish brogue to change his identity? Yeah, he's charged of raping a 21-year-old woman and a 26-year-old woman in Salt Lake the very same year. He denies all charges. The so-called American Walter Mitty fought extradition from the UK is going on trial. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. That's right. The so-called American Walter Mitty, who desperately fought

extradition from the UK home to the US is going on trial. Prosecutors withdraw a plea deal in Utah. I recall it like it was yesterday. And I guarantee you these are not the only two rapes that will be tied back to Nicholas Rossi. Who is this guy? Listen. Nicholas Aliverdian'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 child care system after suffering sexual abuse as a child. It also detailed how Aliverdian 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. According to his wife, his last words were, fear not and run toward the bliss of the sun.

Hold on. Fear not and run toward the bliss of the sun. Well, when that obit was published, immediately it was met with skepticism, including by one of his own foster moms. Contacted by Alvarian's biological mother, his own bio mother, called the foster mom and goes, hey, read this op-ed. It sounds like he wrote it himself. Follow the bliss of the sun. Again, let me just say, my rear end. Well, mother knows best once again, doesn't she?

So what more do we know? Take a listen to our friend Dave Mack at Crime Online. Nicholas Aliverdian'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. Nicholas Aliverdian was born the eldest of three children. His father, who had convictions for domestic assault and selling cocaine,

left the family three years later, according to the Providence Journal. Aliverdian's mother, Diana, married David Rossi, an Engelbert Humperdinck impersonator. David Rossi, the stepfather, says at an early age, Nicholas would hit his mother, grandmother, siblings, and wouldn't listen in school. Aliverdian was placed in psychiatric care where doctors diagnosed him

with narcissistic personality disorder and attention deficit disorder. After being discharged from the treatment program, Aliverdian was returned to his family briefly. He created such conflict within the family home he was placed into the care of DCYF. As far as Aliverdian's claims of being a Harvard scholar, he did study comparative literature

in an extension program class offered by Harvard University, but he did not graduate. He was administratively withdrawn from the course when the university learned of his sex offender status. After faking his death, Oliverdian headed overseas. Oh, that is so much information. I'm drinking from the fire hydrant. What?

Okay, I've written that. First of all, to Tim White, joining us out of Providence, Rhode Island, investigative reporter and managing editor, WPRI-TV, that's CBS affiliate, co-author of The Last Good Heist and professor of journalism, Roger Williams University. Tim White, first of all, critical. Who is the Engelbert Humperdinck impersonator. Well, that was his stepfather, whose name he adopted after his mother remarried at the time. I mean, as you could hear from his biography,

he had an unconventional childhood, I think, to put it mildly and lightly, including the profession of his stepfather and one in which he found himself in and out of the child welfare system here in Rhode Island, where he alleged physical and mental abuse while being under the state's custody. He's a liar. He is a narcissistic liar. So am I supposed to believe that? Did that really happen? Maybe, but maybe not. And I do know this. Isn't it true, Tim White, that he would hit his mother and his grandmother? Of course, his siblings, he misbehaved in school, but hitting your own mom and your grandma? Right. That is what the the stepfather alleged at the time that he was a tough kid who would fly off the handle. And look, there is there are arrests for domestic violence here in Rhode Island where he was. He pled no contest, no low contendere to charges that he was physical with a girlfriend in a suburb of Providence.

So there's definitely allegations. And there's also a conviction of being physically violent with people in his orbit. Tim White, can I just clarify when you say he was, quote, physical with a girlfriend, you mean he beat her? Yes, correct. Yeah. Okay. What about being a, quote, Harvard scholar? They kicked him out of the program, which I'd like to point out is an extension program, which means you're an extended distance away from the school.

But they, Harvard, kicked him out when they found out he was a sex offender. Yeah, they did. I mean, look, it's clear from the evidence that he tried to exaggerate his resume when he was trying to, particularly when he was trying to push his agenda here in Rhode Island with state lawmakers, a lot of them who bought the story that he was selling. He was trying to reform the state child welfare agency, and he would hold up this resume that he had, that he was a Harvard scholar and all that. That was obviously a lie. He didn't graduate from Harvard. He definitely pushed the envelope on that one. And I think you bring up an important question earlier. You wondered if the allegations he made against the state child welfare agency were even legit. Now, that lawsuit was dismissed and it was dismissed because as of many, as you know, as many lawsuits are dismissed because they were settled.

And I believe he had told family members it was settled for about $70,000, not a big number. But the Child Welfare Agency denied any wrongdoing and said as part of the agreement in the settlement that they did not admit to any wrongdoing. So I think you're right to question whether or not the allegations he made against DCYF were actually legitimate, considering what we know now. So I'm trying to figure out how Nicholas Alverdian, a.k.a. Nick Rossi, ends up pretending to be an Irish orphan in Scotland when he's got a slew of rape allegations and violence allegations back in the U.S. all the way to Orem, Utah. But first of all, he had to register as a sex offender. Listen. Nicholas Aliverdian, using the name Rossi, was accused of assaulting a young woman he met at Sinclair Community College in Ohio. The two had lunch together.

Alliverdian offered to walk the co-ed to her next class, and she agreed. The co-ed claims Alliverdian pinned her against a wall in a basement, groped her, and masturbated. Alliverdian apologized and asked the girl not to tell anybody. She made a police report, and Alliverdian, a.k.a. Rossi, was convicted of public indecency and sexual imposition and was required to register as a sex offender. To Brett Brown joining us, executive director of SAS and Go Surviving Assault, standing strong to eradicate abuse, trafficking and violence against women. Brett Brown, thank you for being with us. That's why a lot of women never go forward with rape or sex assault allegations. They almost universally somehow feel like it's in some way their fault.

Like this young woman, just 21, was at Sinclair Community College and she allowed him to walk her to her next class. Yes. And I'm sure at some point felt, well, that's my fault because I let him walk me to class. It's not her fault. And I think he got off really lightly on that. I totally agree. We see women universally as survivors feeling obligated to be nice and to be kind. And when they do that and they are then abused or assaulted, they blame themselves because

they feel like they gave them permission to behave that way. And then if you are angry about it, then you're a quote, man hater and you're frigid and you're cold because you don't like to be assaulted. And it makes me wonder, Brent Brown, if that was his M.O. at the time, how many other women never came forward? Yes, because what he did was brazen. And while in a relatively private space in the building, in a public space during the day, he was very emboldened at this point. So I would think there are probably many women who have not

come forward. I mean, the reality is, isn't this true, Brett Brown? Everyone would be very surprised to find out who that they know has been molested or sex assaulted and have never breathed a word of it. Absolutely. We see it all the time across the country. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Death faker Nicholas Rossi was sent back to the U.S. after a very lengthy court battle where he claimed to be an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight, who had never set foot in the United States. Here in the U.S., he's accused of raping a 21-year-old woman and raping a 26-year-old woman in Salt Lake the very same year. He denies it all. The Irish orphan living in Scotland who faked his own death.

And then his bio mom reads his obit and goes, uh-uh, he's not dead. He wrote this. I dead. He wrote this. I guarantee you, he wrote this. You know who that reminds me of? Let me go out to Greg Algren joining us out of Laredo, international lawyer at DiazRuiz.com. Greg, do you remember, of course you do, the Unabomber? Sure.

Who wrote this huge manifesto, thousands and thousands of words, and insisted that it be published. I guess it was in the New York Times. And his brother read it and went, wait, that's Ted Kaczynski. That's my brother. I know who wrote that. And his own ridiculous manifesto gave away that he's a Unabomber and it's Ted Kaczynski. I see some parallels here for sure. This guy writes his obit and his bio mom goes, oh, no, he ain't dead. He's alive.

That's shocking. Why is it that so often criminals give themselves away in this manner? It's that narcissistic, attention-seeking personality they have. It's their fatal weakness. Hey, Greg Algren, are you a psychologist as well as a lawyer? Because I hear you throwing around psychological disorders. Are you? No, I'm not.

I'm not either, but I know what narcissism means because I actually had to teach, well, I wanted to teach Greek and Roman mythology. I was waiting to find out if I was going to get into law school. And everyone knows about narcissists, but we just so happen to have a forensic psychologist with us, author of Dark Sides, Dr. Jeff Kieliszewski. Dr. Jeff, what is a narcissist? I mean, I know Greg Algren is correct, but explain that.

Narcissus saw his image in a pool of water, fell in love with himself, didn't notice anything else around him, anything or anyone, and finally was trying to get to himself and fell in love with himself, didn't notice anything else around him, anything or anyone, and finally was trying to get to himself and fell in the water and died. Wow. We only have an hour to talk about narcissism and crime? Hit me and hit me hard on Rossi. Oh boy. So again, how many times do we talk about some of these criminals, and particularly when we do programs on murderers, where narcissism ends up being the flaw that trips them up? Again, we could talk about this for days. I need to put a video on my YouTube channel on forensic psychology about narcissism and murders because narcissists think that they're more brilliant than anyone else. Narcissists believe that what they do is right and they have

typically absolutely no insight into what they're doing. Others may judge as inappropriate, wrong, or that they might get caught. They are the center of the universe, and what they do is right, and that the world does not appreciate that and actually sanctions them, arrests them, is just unfathomable. You know, in the early days when they began to write about narcissism in the psychiatric literature, they actually initially called it a psychosis because the people that were writing about this could not believe that people who were so narcissistic didn't even recognize that their ideas about themselves and the world were

flawed and they were really not consistent with the reality around them. So they started to talk about it initially as a psychosis. You know who I think was a narcissist, is a narcissist, Dr. Koleshevsky. And I almost hate to bring his name up, but he's the poster boy for so many things that are all wrong. Scott Peterson. Oh, yeah. Did you know I was going to say that? Because, I mean, granted, some people, not me, of course, think he's attractive.

I think he looks like the devil. But that said, he has this beautiful wife, Lacey. She's expecting their first baby around Christmas. So he naturally goes and has sex affairs, not just one, but many, and then lies about it, kills her, and tries to pretend that he was in Brussels. No, it was Paris, France on New Year's Eve. With Pierre. With his friend Pierre and Jacques.

Yeah, and the lying. And when he went on the run after dyeing his hair blonde, that's certainly not a felony. He had a bunch of, I think it was condoms in Viagra. He needed that to go on the run. I mean, everything was about him and what would suit him and his desires. And it cost the life of Lacey and her unborn child, Connor. Would that be indicative of narcissism, Dr. Jeff Kieliszewski. Right. Narcissism and lying. So narcissists, they in a sense believe their own lies and they can't even fathom the idea that other people would not believe their lies. How many times have we looked at these cases and these lies are just

so egregious and so odd that any rational person would know their lies. But to the narcissist, they can't even fathom the idea that you would think they're lying. How dare you? How dare you not believe I'm an Irish orphan, not a sex predator, even though my DNA matches up to a rape kit. But that said, let's plow forward. I mean, an Irish orphan, as I always like to say, being part Irish, if you're lucky enough to be Irish, you're lucky enough.

But this guy is neither an orphan nor Irish. And he ends up in Scotland under a different name, adamantly denying that he is Nicholas Albertian. Okay, let me get us back on track after leading you out in the weeds. Take a listen to this. Two years later, police are called to an apartment in Rhode Island by the friend of a woman involved in a relationship with Nicholas Alverdian. When police arrive, they hear arguing and screaming. When the woman comes to the door, she has marks on her face and neck and left eye, and her right eye is swelling. The woman tells police she and Oliverdian were arguing,

and when she tried to leave, he slapped her in the face. Police arrest Oliverdian, 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. Oliverdian pleads no contest to domestic simple assault. You know, anybody on this panel, please jump in. But let's see. Tim White, do you have children? I do.

Has one ever thrown a fit? You know, on TV, you see them lying on the floor and their tummy kicking and screaming. You ever seen that? Has any of your children ever had a fit? Yeah, they're teens now. But when they were toddlers, yeah, sure, that would happen. Okay. Well, whenever, they didn't do it very often, but the very few times, I think maybe only once each one of them had a quote fit, as we call it down south.

And I didn't spank them or yell at them. I just stood there and watched them. With Lucy, I actually started laughing because when she finished her fit in the floor, she poked her lips out. Like you would, I've never seen lips poke out that far. As my grandmother would say, you're poking your lips out so far. I could plant a row of turnips on them. Yeah. So, and that set me into laughter, which you're not supposed to do when a child throws a fit because that infuriates them further to be laughed at. But this is what he's doing.

He gets in the back. First of all, he has an argument with a friend of the woman that he's dating because she's not agreeing with everything he says. And he beats her. He beats her. And then when police show up and put him in the squad car, he throws a fit and starts banging his head. I think I would have just let him bang his head for Pete's sake, but they stopped him with pepper spray. Uh, and he pleads, this is what I hate, Tim White, no contest. As you said earlier, no low contender to that. Uh, in other words, I didn't, I'm not saying I did it and I'm not saying I didn't do it. I'm just

not contesting it and I'll take my punishment. And so remember what's critical to me right here, Tim White, is this is two years after he pushes this woman against the wall in a basement, gropes her private parts, and then masturbates class all the way. Keep it classy, Rossi. Now he's beating up a woman who is known to him just two years later. I don't know what he's done in the meantime, but now there's that. Yeah, look, he had a pattern of, we know, violent behavior, particularly against women. And at the time that that arrest happened, we now know there were other allegations against him. I'm sure you'll get to it in Utah.

And just to bring up something you said earlier. He made the rape. Correct. Well, two rapes in Utah. And then there was, you know, of course, the sexual assault you already talked about in Ohio, but court documents that were unsealed in Utah now giving us a lens into other allegations that had happened in four other states. We already talked about Ohio, Utah, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, of, you know, people accusing him of a pattern of sexual assault and in the court documents that even talked about kidnapping. So those haven't been adjudicated. There are two charges out of Utah. There's a conviction out of Ohio. You talked about the conviction in Pawtucket. But clearly, investigators are looking at other allegations that are happening.

And there's even one in we didn't even talk about the one in the UK. They were investigating an allegation of sexual assault. OK, hold on. I now realize I've got to make a list. OK, Tim, why I'm going to have to make a list. OK, Tim, why? I'm going to have to make a list. OK, we've got a rape allegation in UK. We've got Utah, Orem, Utah. We have Pawtucket. OK, what else? So you have the conviction in Ohio that you you've talked about quite a bit. And there are two charges out of Utah, one out of Utah County

and one out of Salt Lake City County. And we're learning that a woman has just come forward claiming that two years earlier she was assaulted by Albertian, a.k.a. Nick Rossi, the Irish orphan, when she was just 18. But hold on, let's plow forward because I can't wait to get to him claiming he's an Irish orphan in Scotland and pretending he's not Oliverdian. So he's got the masturbating on the woman. Now he's got the beating of the girlfriend's friend and showing out in the cop car. But somehow he managed to get a wife.

Okay, listen. Nicholas Oliverdian married in November of 2010. His wife filed for divorce six months later and filed a police report saying she had a restraining order against him, but Oliverdian wouldn't leave her alone and repeatedly called her. Police initiate an arrest warrant for violation of a protection order. Oliverdian's second marriage lasted one month longer than his first, with his second wife filing for divorce

after seven months. A temporary restraining order against Oliverdian is put in place, but a court rules he violated it when he took all the household items and furnishings out of the marital residence. The Providence Journal reported Oliverdian owed his ex-wife $52,000. What a horse's rear end. There's a lot of other Latin phrases for that, like jackass. But not only does he be the woman, it's his second wife to file a TRO against him. But then he takes all the furniture and household items when he leaves. He's like, take that.

He takes all the stuff after he scares the woman out of her skin. I mean, it never ends with this guy. Hey, Dr. Jeff Kaliszewski, so many crimes result from a tumultuous relationship. And the parties always blame each other. When you have so many people pointing the finger at you, as I love to argue to juries, all these women are lying. And Albertian is the only one telling the truth. He's got two wives. One files for divorce after six months. One after seven months staying power. You've got women claiming rape, assault, masturbating on them. What, they're all lying except for him, Dr. Jeff Koleshevsky? Right.

Again, we're talking about this whole narcissistic aspect of this person. We're talking about likely a personality disorder. And they actually, again, they sort of believe their own lies. And the mass conspiracy of all these women from all over. Oh, no. Okay, look, I know you're educated in this, and I'm totally ignorant. But let me just go ahead and argue with you anyway. I think he knows he's lying. I don't think he believes this for one minute. I think his effrontery is that he's angry. Other people won't believe his lies because he's got all his bases covered. Like O.J. Simpson.

What? Oh, yeah, I think you're onto something. He might know he's lying. And again, like you said, be angry that other people can't accept what he says is believed, even if he knows it's a lie himself. So here he goes. Oh, he's also a deadbeat. Not paying the wife that he owes all that money to for stealing the furniture. He just skips town.

He leaves Ohio and moves to your jurisdiction, Tim White. Rhode Island. But the beat goes on. Take a listen to Sidney Sumner, Crime Online. In 2017, the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the BGA, awarded the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice over $2 million for Utah to process the backlog of untested sexual assault kits in the state. In 2018, one of the Utah kits that was originally filed in 2008 was tested and matched Nicholas Aliverdian's DNA from the 2008 Ohio sexual assault case. A sealed arrest warrant was issued in

September 2020 for Nicholas Rossi Aliverdian, but that's not all the police were looking at him for. The FBI was investigating him for fraud. One of Aliverdian's foster parents, Sharon Lane, notified authorities that Aliverdian opened up 22 different credit cards in her husband's name and rang up nearly $200,000 in debt. What is it with this guy? What about it, Tim White? That's a lot of money, $200,000 in debt after he opens up credit cards in somebody else's name. Yeah, it's a lot of money. I mean, look, he is and that's not the only one you've already touched on another, which he allegedly owed an ex-wife $52,000. There's been other allegations of

financial fraud by Rossi or Aliverde and whatever name you want to choose that he goes by at the time. And look, I think it all feeds into what Dr. Jeff was talking about earlier in the program. Sort of this narcissism that it's him against the world. He's the victim in all these cases. That's the type of image that he has always portrayed when he, again, thrust himself into the spotlight here in Rhode Island to accuse the, you know, the Child Welfare Agency of wrongdoing over all that time. And we saw it firsthand as reporters when he allegedly died. The news agencies weren't running the obit because there's an old saying in journalism,

Nancy, if your mother says she loves you, check it out. And this was something that you have to do when you're looking into the allegation that this semi high profile figure in this market had died. And we started getting very angry emails from someone claiming to be his wife, saying that we're dishonoring his memory by not blah, blah, blah. And it's clear to us now that that was more likely than not. Aliberty and emailing us directly pretending to be the wife. I mean, this guy, I'm telling you. And very shortly, I'm going to bring on a special guest. Irv Brandt, who travels the world, is basically a bounty hunter. He doesn't like that term, but he's with the U.S. Marshal Service,

senior inspector, and he can tell you anything you want to know about bringing people just like Nick Rossi, a.k.a. Al Averdeen Home. Now, okay, we dropped off with, I mean, there's so many places to drop off. He just charged nearly a quarter of a million dollars on one of his foster mom's husband's credit card. Thanks, Mom. But that's not really the worst of it. Listen to Nicole Parton at Crime Stories. In the meantime, Aliverdian continued his sex assault ways. He met a 26-year-old woman online identified only as the initials MS. They dated for two months. She loaned him money, but he didn't pay it back. MS says he locked her in the bedroom, forced himself on top of her, and raped her.

Utah authorities now say Aliverdian also raped his 21-year-old former girlfriend in Orem, Utah, in the same year with the same method. He promised to repay money, lured the woman, who has not been named by authorities, back to his apartment and raped her. Similar, actually not similar, fingerprint crimes, same MO, modus operandi, method of operation. And I find it really interesting, and I'm sure that Greg Algren, high-profile lawyer joining us out of Laredo, will want to weigh in on this. Earlier, we heard from investigative reporter Sidney Sumner that the Justice Bureau awarded $2 million to process old rape kits that were just sitting on the shelf and there wasn't enough time or money to process them all to catch the perps with DNA. It reminds me of Eliza Fletcher,

the Memphis mom who went out jogging early in the morning. She was raped and murdered by a rapist, Cleotha Abston. And in that case, there was a rape kit just sitting on the shelf. It had not been analyzed. Everybody blames the crime lab, but the crime lab can only work X number of hours. They need more people and more money to keep up with all the rape kits and the crimes. But instead, we're spending taxpayers money doing so many other things. That's a whole nother can of worms. But if Cleoth Aston had been behind bars, as he should have been on a rape, then Eliza

Fletcher would be alive with her children right now. But no, the good news out of this is because of that $2 million grant, this guy, Nick Rossi, aka Aliverdian's DNA pops up. He is the rapist according to deoxyribonucleic acid. In the meantime, we've got two more sex assault victims, rape victims, same M.O. But then what happens? Take a listen to Dave Mack. The death of Nicholas Oliverdian was met with skepticism by those in law enforcement. And in July of 2020, the Rhode Island State Police opened an investigation. As the investigation began, Oliverdian's foster mother, Sharon Lane, said she was contacted by Oliverdian's biological mother, who asked her to check out the obituary.

The minute Sharon Lane read the obituary, with all of the adulatory comments, she believed it was written by Oliverdian himself and that he faked his death. Utah authorities continued investigating the first rape allegation against Nicholas Oliverdian and issued a warrant for his arrest seven months after he supposedly died. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. Nicholas Rossi appeared via prison video link, now set for trial in the Salt Lake County case in April, the Orem case in September. Rossi, whose legal name is actually Nicholas Aliverdian, has used multiple aliases. Of course, the one claiming he's an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight. Dear gravy, it never ends with this guy. Rossi actually grew up in foster homes in Rhode Island, and he returned to Rhode Island before faking his death and fleeing the U.S.

An obituary was published online claiming he died of late-stage non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. At the time, his former foster family doubted he really died. Then he was arrested in Scotland after he was recognized at the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow. He was there getting treated for COVID-19. What more do we know about the alleged rapes? Irv Brandt, Senior Inspector, U.S. Marshal Service, International Investigations, Chief Inspector, DOJ, Office of International Affairs, author of Solo Shot, Curse of the Blue Stone, and Flying Solo, Top of the World. It's about, his books are about this character, this swashbuckling character, Jack Solo, who has a striking similarity to Irv Brandt. So, Irv Brandt, it's not good when seven months after you, quote, die, that an arrest warrant is issued for you.

No, Nancy, it's not good. It's a very good investigation by multiple jurisdictions that led to finding Oliverdian in Scotland. And it's really amazing the way that they find him. I want you to take a listen to Sidney Sumner, Crime Online. As investigators were looking for Nicholas Oliverdian and Nicholas Rossi in the United States, a man named Arthur Knight was being treated for COVID-19 at Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow. He had been living a happy new life, married a woman named Miranda, and he 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, where he lay critically ill with COVID. Authorities say Knight was just one of Aliverdian's 16 known aliases, which include Nicholas Rossi, Nicholas Brown, Arthur Brown, and Arthur Knight Brown. He was identified through fingerprints and DNA, as well as an analysis of his distinctive tattoos. Okay, to you, Tim White, joining us from WPRI-TV. What is the distinctive tattoo? Well, actually, I was looking at some of those pictures before just getting ready for this interview, and has some tattoos uh on his arm that you know uh i'm going to call up some of the pictures here so i'm going to describe them but he had

tattoos on his arms that you know they're they're very distinct oh my goodness i'm looking at them it looks like some kind of a bizarre coat of arms with the sun coming up over the coat of arms and giant wings. I mean, they go, it's almost a full sleeve. And on the other arm, it looks something like a Navy anchor. He's covered. The anchor is a symbol of Rhode Island. It's on our state flag here. I suspect that's probably why he has it on there.

Uh-oh. Okay. Now, of course with all of these distinctive tattoos, that's one way to put it, and 16 known aliases, of course Greg Algren,

high profile lawyer out of Laredo, I love nothing more when the prosecutor reads the indictment to the jury and reads off the witnesses to make sure none of them are related or know the witnesses. I love it when the whole front page of the indictment is a listing of the defendant's aliases, a.k.a. Albertian, a.k.a. Nicholas Brown, a.k.a. Author Brown, a.k.a. Author Knight. I meank.a. Arthur Brown, a.k.a. Arthur Knight.

I mean, because nobody on the jury is going to have an alias, just the defendant. Yes, that's very prejudicial. Obviously, this guy is a serial con man, an experienced criminal. It gives the jury a horrible impression, but it's true. And you have to read off all the aliases to the jury in case they know him under some fake name. So it's a necessity of the law. But ladies, when you meet a guy that A wants money and B has an alias, and I'll just throw this in there, has a second cell cell phone run for the hills as if you

had seen a monster so to you Irv Brandt how did they track this guy down and of course he wouldn't waive extradition he insisted he was an Irish orphan and challenged authorities to prove he wasn't so how do you tackle something like that Irvv Brandt? Well, Nancy, it's in the UK, it's very complicated. They have an extensive appeals system. Just a second. Anywhere the lawyers have to wear, including women, a white wig on their head, I would say it's complicated. But go ahead. Okay, you're right. It is. And he maintained the whole time that authorities had the wrong individual, even though he was confronted with DNA evidence, fingerprints, the distinctive tattoos. His defense was always, that's not me.

So he contested the identity part of the extradition all the way through the appeal process until finally the Crown decided that it is indeed the same person wanted in the United States. And the Crown issued a surrender warrant to the Office of International Affairs and the U.S. Marshals Service conducted the extradition. How are they typically brought back from overseas? Well, typically they would be brought back on a commercial flight. You mean with paying customers like myself and my children? I don't want this guy sitting behind me. Well, the marshals would take up a whole row and they would take the last row. Have you ever seen snakes on a plane, man?

Think about it. Right. The marshals would either normally go, be the first ones to board, and they would take them to the very last row. And there would be marshals on both sides of them, and he wouldn't be allowed to get up during the flight. But in a case like this,

this lunatic is not going to get on a commercial flight. He's going to fake a medical emergency. The flight crew would not let him on the flight. So what the Marshal Service did, and this is typical of cases of this nature, is they would charter a flight, and in the charter, in the bid for the charter, the flight crew would have medical personnel and also the marshal service have deputies trained EMTs that they would put on that extradition to bring him back. And they would fly him from the UK to the East Coast to the United States,

normally someplace like Bangor, Maine, to go through CBP, where they would file the parole letter to get him back into the country. What's CBT? Custom Border Protection. It's going through immigration is what I'm saying. I'm sorry. Oh, I see. Why Bangor?

Well, the jets that they would, were going to have to refuel after a transatlantic flight. Bangor is one of the closest. You go further up the East Coast, instead of New York or someplace, or Atlanta, one of those international airports. You go as far north as you can because it's the shortest route to the United Kingdom. So wait a minute. He faked an ailment and tried not to get on the plane? Well, he faked ailments in the past and court appearances.

He faked illnesses and the Marshal Service knows this. So they know trying to put him on a commercial flight would be a waste of time because when they brought him to the gateway he's going to fake an illness and the flight crew won't let him on the flight so to get around that they would charter the flight fly to the east. I can't believe my taxpayer's money is going to fly this guy home on a charter flight. But I'd rather do that than have him on a plane with children and innocent civilians. This guy shot to fame. I'll just call him Nick Rossi, although that's certainly not his name.

After he wildly gestured when he insisted he was innocent so much so that he fogged up his own glasses. So Greg Algren, international lawyer joining us out of Texas, how do you fight extradition when DNA, not just fingerprint, but DNA also proves it's you. You're not an Irish orphan living in Scotland. You're a rapist in multiple U.S. jurisdictions. Yeah, that's difficult. So it seems like there's no question he was the individual they're looking for.

I mean, there are obviously, you know, there are technicalities that have to be followed, procedural formalities. And so if you were a defense counsel in an extradition matter, you would argue that the different due process protocolspancy in the criminal law systems between the two different jurisdictions that made the crimes incompatible. I'm looking right now at Nicholas Rossi, Nicholas Rossi with air quotas, insisting that he cannot breathe properly or walk. He has now put an oxygen mask on his face and he is actually fogging up his glasses as he vehemently denies being Albertian. And his wife on video overpowers him and forces him to sit back down because he is so ill. All bets are off. The latest blow for an alleged rapist who faked his own death and fled the country. U.S. fugitive Nicholas Rossi set to go on trial for allegedly faking his own death and fleeing the country to avoid rape charges. The plea deal is withdrawn. Currently facing two rape charges in the U.S.

Extradited from Scotland following a very lengthy process where he claimed to be an Irish orphan. Remember, he's facing those sex assault charges in Rhode Island, Ohio, and Massachusetts. I can tell you this, fingerprints don't lie. His fingerprints matched Nicholas Rossi, sought by police for multiple crimes but reported dead. U.S. fugitive Nicholas Rossi set for trial after allegedly faking his own death, fleeing the country to avoid rape charges, and having his plea negotiation withdrawn.

Gee, I wonder why. We wait as justice unfolds. Goodbye.