SERIALously - 254: The Cringy and UNHINGED Case of Nicholas Rossi: From Most Wanted to Most Embarrassing

Episode Date: March 24, 2025

He faked his own death, fled the country, and tried to reinvent himself—complete with an over-the-top British accent and a fake coma. But when authorities caught up with Nicholas Rossi, his elaborate lies unraveled in the most embarrassing way possible. How did a once-wanted fugitive become the star of one of the cringiest true crime sagas ever? Buckle up—this case is wilder than fiction Join our True Crime Club for access to BTS, Bonus Content, Our Private Group Chat, Giveaways and More! Shop Our True Crime Merch Follow the podcast on: IG, Facebook and TikTok For Business Inquiries: [e-mail] About Annie Today’s Sponsors: Beam: Go to shopbeam.com/ANNIEELISE and use code ANNIEELISE at checkout for up to 40% off. Quince: Go to Quince.com/ae for 365-day returns, plus free shipping on your order. Episode Sources: BBC CBS News CNN FOX 13 News NBC News NBC 10 WJAR The Scottish Sun STV News WPRI Wikipedia

Hey, true crime besties. Welcome back to an all new episode of Serialist Sleeve. In January of 2022, 34-year-old Arthur Knight woke up after being in a three-month-long coma. He was initially placed into this medically-induced coma in Glasgow, Scotland, three months earlier because he had a very severe case of COVID-19. Because he was having such a struggle with this, they wanted to make sure that he could recover, therefore placing him in this coma. So when he woke up, he was just so excited to be awake to see his wife Miranda to be healthy, hoping he's now on the road to recovery. But what he wasn't expecting was to be surrounded

by police officers around his hospital bed. Now Arthur had absolutely no idea why the police were there to see him. He hadn't done anything wrong. He was a normal guy. I mean, yes, he had a bit of a rough upbringing. He was from Dublin, Ireland, and he was orphaned at a very young age. But other than that, he didn't have much of a past. I mean, a speeding ticket here and there, but nothing that would warrant the police coming into his hospital room and surrounding his bed when he just woke up from this three month long coma. He looked at his wife Miranda,

who he initially started dating back in 2011, they got married in 2020, and he had a look of confusion on his face. What was going on? Why were they here? Did they have the wrong person? I mean, surely he had to have done something terrible to warrant the police officers coming bedside

at his hospital, but he hadn't have done something terrible to warrant the police officers coming bedside at his hospital, but he hadn't done anything. And you know what? Maybe Arthur Knight really hadn't done anything wrong, but the police insisted that this person lying there in that hospital bed, it wasn't Arthur at all. They said he was somebody else, someone who had been born in the United States

and was wanted for rape and sexual assault. Now, if what the police were saying was true, then how did this person, whoever they were, become Arthur Knight? And also, how did he get into the UK? And how did he escape the police and go unnoticed for nearly five years? Hey guys, welcome back to an all new episode of Serialously with me, Annie Elise. Now the reason I chose this case and wanted to talk to you about it is because it is truly the definition of a roller coaster. There are so many twists along the way. There's parts of these interviews, which if you've seen them you may know what I'm talking about. If you haven't seen them, don't worry, I will play them for you. But parts of these interviews

where I was literally hysterically laughing. I mean, I lose my mind at one point because it is just so funny, the audacity of some people, and the theatrics and lengths that they will go to to try to convince somebody of something other than the truth. So this case involves this man who everybody thought was truly a good guy. He was well-liked, he had a great strong community, he was married, he was educated at all the best places, and he was really trying to make a difference in the world. But as it turns out, the reality was much, much different. Because it turns out that he may have lied about everything.

And even more than that, may have been one of the worst predators that the police were hunting for years. But was that true? Or did the police have the wrong guy? So we are going to go through everything and I promise you even if you think you know this case, you don't know it because we did the deep dive so that you don't have to and we are going to go over all the details. But warning, buckle up. It's a wild one. I am not Andrea. I am not Nicholas Aliverdi and I do not know how to make this clearer. What do you say to people who say these are crocodile tears? He's putting on a show. This is all an act.

Oh no. That's a low blow. That's a right low blow. Nicholas Rossi was born on July 11th, 1987, and he lived right outside of Providence, Rhode Island. Now it's worth noting that although he went by Nicholas Rossi, he was originally born as Nicholas Oliverdian. Unfortunately, Nicholas's parents separated when he was pretty young, and his dad, from what I've researched, was allegedly very abusive. And the abuse got so bad that Nicholas' mom ended up getting a restraining order against him, and she went into hiding with Nicholas and with his two younger siblings.

His dad ended up spending most of Nicholas' childhood in jail for a variety of crimes, things like writing fraudulent checks, dealing drugs, even domestic assault. But eventually, Nicholas' mom ended up getting remarried, and then that's when Nicholas took the last name of his stepfather, Rossi. Although I think it is worth mentioning that throughout his life, he would go back and forth a little bit. Sometimes he would use the last name Rossi, but then sometimes he would also use Oliverian. Now even with this new marriage, and even though things looked promising, unfortunately

Nicholas' mom's marriage didn't last, and eventually the two of them divorced. So being single, his mom struggled and had a really hard time caring for Nicholas and for his two younger siblings. She was an alcoholic, she was abusive too, and obviously the situation just was not the best living situation for children. So eventually she just couldn't provide for herself and her children. And while it isn't entirely clear what happened to Nicholas's siblings, Nicholas ended up going into the foster care system. So he bounced around from home to home, foster parent to foster parent, and unfortunately

his experience with his foster parents was very similar to what he had experienced with his real parents. He faced abuse, mistreatment, neglect. It just almost seemed like this vicious cycle. And since nothing was working out with the foster parents, Nicholas ended up being placed in a series of group homes. Then in 2003, Nicholas was sent to a place in Nebraska called Boys Town. And he said that this experience was truly terrible because according to Nicholas, the other kids in Boys Town beat him up regularly. They taunted him and they just overall

made his life completely miserable. So because of that, once again, he moved. He packed up all his things and he moved to a different group home. This one was in Florida and it was called Manatee Palm Youth Services. Now this went on for years and years, just foster home to foster home to group home to group home.

And at 18, he was now in Ohio, living with yet another foster family. But despite all this constant moving around where you would think that it would really impact him and maybe even set him back a little bit, people described him as being a total genius. Even a computer was just so intelligent, so smart, and just very bright and somebody with a bright future.

So by his early 20s, Nicholas decided to go to Sinclair Community College in Dayton, Ohio. Here he studied literature, sociology, and political science. Now really quickly, I also do want to mention that back when Nicholas was just 14 years old and living in Rhode Island, he did make a lot of political connections, which I know sounds a little bit crazy because he was only 14 years old and living in Rhode Island, he did make a lot of political connections, which I know sounds a little bit crazy because he was only 14 years old, but he worked as a house page for the House of Representatives,

which basically that position is like a teenager who helps with some of the clerical work, who helps with like running little errands here and there and doing things like that. So in doing that work, he met a lot of different lawmakers, he was exposed to different people in the political world, and he just started making a lot of connections. So now here he was in his early 20s going to college, getting well educated.

He already was what some called a brainiac. And in 2011, he decided to do something with all of his connections. And more so he decided to do something to rectify all of his past childhood experience and his horrible experience with DCYF, with foster homes, with group homes, with all of those things. So he decided to use all of his connections, all of his exposure and experience, and he decided to sue DCYF. Now, a lot of these connections that he had in the political world were actually who pushed him to take this leap and to sue DCYF. These lawmakers knew what Nicholas went through when he was in foster care and so they felt like he would really be the great poster

child for reform with DCYF. So Nicholas took to the media and he told his story to anybody who would listen. He was claiming some pretty horrific things. He was saying that while he was in foster care he was abused and beaten daily not only by his foster parents but also the other foster kids. He alleged that in 2002 DCYF couldn't even find him a home so because of that they ended up putting him in a program where he spent days in just this like sterile DCYF building where he slept at nights in a homeless shelter. He wasn't allowed to go to school and reall picture of truly a terrib life was so terrible too steal his stuff, they wou

would assault him. And on this was true, it's really was trying to reform DCYF should ever have to live or go through any sort of every day you were beatin Every day in Florida, every day in Nebraska, every day in Rhode Island. Every day, Nicholas? I shoot every day.

The injuries, including bruises and sprains, are recorded in these medical documents. And Alivertian tells us lawmakers also noticed the wounds. I chose to fight for the rights of myself as a kid in DCY of care and fight for the rights of those DCY of care and fight for who were actually beating behind three bills that a lawmakers. One would over would stop Rhode Island f out of state measures he

money. But more importanl Children from what he and too many others survived. Most of the social workers that I know mean well, but they are not given the resources. They are not given the time. They don't have the abilities to do what they need to do to get their job done. And that's unacceptable. It's horrific. Now, Nicholas also claimed that he knew a ton of what he called inside information about DCYF. And he said that that's the real reason that they sent him out of the state so many times. He said that they were scared that he was going to reveal way too much to the public. So because of that, they retaliated and they prohibited him from

contacting any friends, family members, lawyers, or really anybody who could help him. Ten, we have a Target 12 investigators exclusive. A former orphan who was in DCYF custody receives a medical bill for hundreds of thousands of dollars. And tonight he's talking to be protected by DCYF. Hospital stays. Aiverdian was shocked when he received a six page medical bill and this letter asking for just under $207,000 for medical assistance. He tells us the bill covers an 11 year period, starting when he was placed

in DCYF custody in 2002. 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. So far the Office of Health and Human Services is not answering our questions or Aloe Verdean's about whether or not every child in state custody is billed for medical assistance. I file it. The letter comes while alivertian is suing this long list of former and current state officials and the DCYF for how he was treated while in state care. He alleges he was physically and second while he was moved in and out of some 20 group homes in three states. Take your worst nightmare, multiply it by 5,000.

There were beatings. Alivertian tells Target 12 he'll continue to push for changes in the law to force DCYF to keep Rhode Island children in Rhode Island group homes. But he has no plans to pay the $206,918.39 bill. And it's incredibly, incredibly despicable. Except as you can imagine, the Rhode Island DCYF denied all of it.

They said Nicholas was a liar. There wasn't any abuse at all. Yet despite that, Nicholas still had a lot of lawmakers backing him, encouraging him to push for change. And he also gained a lot of media attention and public support. But despite having all these people's support, even with the well-known government officials, Nicholas wasn't totally successful with his lawsuit. However, the two of them did end up reaching a settlement agreement, and the details about

the agreement are a little bit unclear. There's some reports that DCYF paid Nicholas $70,000 while others say that the lawsuit ended up being dismissed because DCYF waived a large amount of medical debt that Nicholas had, some amount like upwards of $200,000. So unclear but settled nonetheless. And still throughout the whole process DCYF denied all of Nicholas's allegations. And we've seen in many other cases that I've covered that child welfare agencies do drop the ball sometimes, I mean, in terrible ways that bring so much harm to children. But the more that people started looking into Nicholas and Nicholas's

claims, the more that they wondered how truthful he was with his allegations. And also in a lot of other things. Because as it turns out, Nicholas wasn't just this innocent whiz kid who had everything and everyone working against him and he was just this perpetual victim, but Nicholas was known to be a very difficult kid. When he was suing DCYF, he made it sound like he was the one who had to move around so much because the reason stemming and rooted in him having so much abuse, all these other people just hurting him, inflicting harm on him, stealing from him, just again, a perpetual victim. But as it turns out, the reason that Nicholas had to move around so much was because his behavior

caused a lot of problems. At an early age, Nicholas was diagnosed with behavior and mental health issues, and he was always hitting his mom, his siblings, his grandma, even kids at school. And whenever somebody tried to intervene and help and solve this problem, he would just yell at them. Sometimes he would even spit at them. So he was just a lot to handle. And his behavior escalated and got so bad that he ended up being placed in a psychiatric unit at a hospital. And while he was there, the doctors diagnosed him with attention deficit disorder and also narcissistic personality disorder. But then, like we were seeing with so many cycles before, his behavior just continued to escalate. It got worse. It got worse. It got so bad, he was threatening and physically attacking staff and other people at the hospital. So because of that, he ended up

being thrown out. So in that instance, he went right back home, but then he started causing issues all over again. And he ended up causing so much discord in his home that DCYF took him away from his home because he was the one creating an unsafe living environment for his siblings. And this was all before his mother surrendered him to the foster care system.

So clearly a very heavy pattern of this that stems back to a very young age. Now remember how I mentioned that people did refer to Nicholas as this computer whiz, this genius? Well apparently some of that was true to a certain degree because Nicholas knew how smart he was and he also knew how to use that to his advantage. He was a known liar, he was a known manipulator, and he would threaten people to do whatever it was that he wanted them to do. For example, when he was working as a page in the state house as a teenager, he ended up growing close with one of Rhode Island's representatives named Brian Coogan.

Brian slowly got to know Nicholas, and he was familiar with the fact that he had had a, you know, somewhat turbulent home life to say the least. So Brian felt really bad for Nicholas and he was impressed with all the work that Nicholas did as the house page. He was hardworking, he was, you know, attentive, he would get things done despite all that he was going through and Brian really admired that. So when Nicholas came to Brian and asked him if he would adopt him, Brian really wanted to say yes.

And in fact, he even started the adoption process. But then, he stopped almost as soon as he began. Because a judge warned Brian that adopting Nicholas just would not be a good idea. Brian was already married, he already had kids of his own, and the judge said that by bringing Nicholas into his home, it would completely turn things upside down. Yet, Brian was under the impression that Nicholas was the one getting beat up constantly while he was in the foster care system. However, it turned out that that wasn't true. And the judge, of course, couldn't give exact details of what Nicholas had done,

but he did say that he had evidence that Nicholas wasn't the one getting beaten up. Instead, he was the one doing the beating. And the judge further said that Nicholas would just really try to undermine Brian any chance that he got. That he would completely ruin his family and even worse, potentially put them in danger. So, wanting to keep his family safe, Brian stopped the adoption process. So at this point, Nicholas is feeling hopeless. Nobody's taking him in, things aren't going his way, he can't find someone to manipulate, to get on his side. And in 2008, when he was attending

that community college in Ohio, he started really grappling with this, feeling really lonely. He was new to the area, he didn't have a lot of friends, so he decided to go on MySpace to meet people, which MySpace is more of like the archaic version of Facebook for those of you who are younger and never used it. But while on MySpace, meet people, which MySpace is more of like the archaic version of Facebook for those of you who are younger and never used it. But while on MySpace, he met a woman named Mary Grabinski.

They started talking online and they became fast friends. Now with this new friendship, Mary had a boyfriend and Nicholas really wasn't interested in a relationship, so they really were truly just friends. Then one day in the winter of 2008, they went out for lunch together, and it was their first time meeting in person. And Mary was so surprised at how charming, how charismatic Nicholas was. They just hit it off. They had a really great time. Nicholas even offered to walk Mary to class that she had later that afternoon. So they leave this lunch spot and start walking to class, which her class was in a basement building on campus.

And everything seemed great. They had had such a wonderful afternoon, such a wonderful lunch. But once they got into that basement, things took a turn, a very dark turn, because Nicholas started getting very aggressive with Mary, which totally shocked her. I mean, she was thought he was so charming, so nice, so charismatic. He seemed so normal. But while they were in the stairwell, Nicholas pushed her up against a wall and he forced his hands up her shirt. She told him to stop and to get off of her multiple times, but he didn't stop and she couldn't push him off. She wasn't strong enough. Now at one point a few students started coming down the stairs, but once they saw what was going on they just turned around and left. They didn't want to get involved. I mean

maybe they thought that they accidentally came across this couple and that these college kids who were just like going at it and it was consensual, I don't really know. But for whatever reason, they turned around. So because of that, Nicholas just continued assaulting Mary. He pulled her pants down, he started touching himself, and eventually while he was, you know, jerking himself off, he ended up finishing on her. After that, he pulled up his pants, turned around, and he just left. Almost like nothing even happened.

Just like casual, calm, just pulled his pants up, and then just walked away. Like nothing, like literally, like nothing ever happened. Mary, on the other hand, she just stood there, frozen in the stairwell in complete shock. She felt numb. She didn't know how to respond. She didn't know what to do.

So she just kind of went into autopilot and went to class. She was just going through the motions. And then when she finally left class, when class was over, guess who was standing there waiting for her? Nicholas. When he saw Mary, he told her he was sorry, as though some simple apology would suffice for what he had just done.

And he begged her not to go to the police. But Mary wasn't having it. She was pissed. She felt violated. So after he left, she did the exact opposite of what he asked. And she went to the police. All right, you guys, when I first started this podcast

and spent hours deep diving into these cases, I didn't think it would mess with my sleep. But oh my god, I was so wrong. After a while, I realized that these cases were keeping me up at night because, as you know, some of them are like downright terrifying. And because of that, my brain, it just wouldn't shut off. I'd be lying there at 2am replaying every every single detail that was about the case, every second guessing if I missed anything, and if I did finally fall asleep, I would wake up just

feeling exhausted, almost like I hadn't slept at all. And that's why I'm so excited to share something that has made a real difference in my life. That's Beam's Dream Powder. Dream is a healthy nighttime blend packed with science-backed ingredients that is shown to improve sleep so that you can wake up refreshed and ready to take on the day, whether that's going to work or solving a cold case. And let me just tell you, this stuff works. Unlike the other sleep aids, there's no next day grogginess, no weird side effects, just great restful sleep. Plus, it actually tastes amazing. Dream is made with a powerful blend of all natural ingredients, reishi, magnesium, alphenin, apigenin, and melatonin.

And Beam has already improved over 17.5 million nights of sleep, helping people all across the country wake up and feel their best. And I can tell you from personal experience, it has been a lifesaver and a game changer for me. Now here's the deal. Beam is giving my listeners their best offer yet,

up to 40% off. Try their best selling Dream Powder and get up to 40% off for a limited time. Go to shopbeam.com slash Annie E Lise and use code Annie E Lise at checkout. That's shop B E A M dot com slash Annie E Lise. And remember use code Annie E Lise for up to 40% off. Solve the case of your bad sleep by trying Beam today. ["Sleeping with a Bad Sleep"] Now, initially, the police told Mary that there wasn't enough evidence to pursue the case.

That was until they got Nicholas' side of the story. Because when they talked to Nicholas, Nicholas told a completely different version of what happened. He said that Mary was the aggressor, that she was the one who attacked him. However, the police didn't believe his story. His story was a huge red flag to them because just weeks before, Nicholas had actually made the exact same claim about a different woman.

It turns out that 15 days before Mary put in her report with the police, another woman had filed a police report. This woman stated that Nicholas also assaulted her. Now her report was not only very similar to Mary's, but when the police went to go talk with Nicholas about it, he again claimed that this woman had been the aggressor. So now, with two very similar stories from two completely different women, the police were looking more closely at Mary's case, taking it more seriously. So Nicholas was charged with sexual imposition and public indecency. He was found guilty, but he didn't have to serve any jail time.

All he had to do was pay a fine and then register on the sex registry for the next 15 years, which to me feels like a very big slap on the wrist. You're not doing any time, you're just paying a fine and getting your name on the registry. Like, what is that about? Especially when you have a track record of this, right? Now, even though there wasn't a lot of justice, in my opinion, at least there was some sort of resolution. But Nicholas wasn't having it. Nicholas ended up filing a motion for a retrial based on something that he found on Mary's MySpace page. Because on her MySpace page, she had posted about how she lied about everything that she said, everything she alleged that Nicholas did to her.

But Mary said no, she didn't say that, that post wasn't hers. Now the only proof that Nicholas had was a screenshot of this alleged post. The actual post couldn't be found on Mary's MySpace page. And eventually, at a hearing in February of 2011, a computer forensic expert testified that he was 90% sure that this post was fake. She never made this post. It was doctored. It was fabricated. So that testimony ended up getting Nicholas's motion for a retrial completely dismissed. But Nicholas was still angry. He still wasn't done with Mary. So after he was found guilty, he started an internet tirade against her. He started becoming really big in these

online men's groups and all of these incel groups, which I gotta say is like a huge red flag in and of itself. He was posting frequently, especially on this website called A Voice for Men, which tried to tell me something worse than that. Sorry for any guys listening, but like a collection of like angry men who hate women who are posting on all these websites and like fueling each other on this like it's so pathetic that I want to laugh if it weren't so truly dangerous because of what comes out of these groups. I mean we saw it with Elliot Rogers, we are seeing it possibly now, we've seen it with a bunch of incels. I mean it's it can get very scary because they're all just like rage baiting and encouraging each other to do this horrible stuff. So anyway, I know I digressed for a minute. I apologize. But he was constantly writing posts just completely

smearing Mary's name. He would post pictures of her. He would post her address. Like really just trying to get this whole hate train against Mary. Now, some of the articles that he would write were titled, When Criminal Justice is Criminal, The Nicholas Alevendarian Story, Mary Grabesky's Big Lie, Proof of Mary's Big Lie, even one that was titled, Evidence of the Sex-Crazed Psychotic Mary

as Seen on Facebook, just like not letting it go and really trying to drag this poor girl through the mud. And get this, by this point, it was a couple of years after Nicholas had assaulted Mary. She had gotten married, she had moved on, she was trying to live her life, but Nicholas was just tormenting her. And obviously her husband was not down with what was going on. So he ended up posting something online where he just called Nicholas crazy, saying, this guy is a freaking lunatic. He is a loser. He is an incel, probably like,

get out of here. Don't believe a thing this guy is saying. But this post upset Nicholas so much that he ended up trying to sue Mary for libel. Luckily though, that case was thrown out and Nicholas was the one who ended up paying all of Mary's legal fees, which you can imagine only infuriated him even more. Now throughout this whole process, he ended up being kicked out of his college due to his status as an offender on the registry, which big surprise because we know that he's litigious, we know that he loves litigation, so he even tried to sue the college over this, yet that case was dismissed too. So then after that Nicholas wrote yet another article. This one was called My Personal 9-11 and in this article he recounted everything that had happened and he said whole ordeal it ruined his life, it ruined his goals, his aspirations, and he really compared

Mary's actions to the actions of the people who were responsible for 9-11. 9-11 as in the terrorist attack. And he is comparing Mary, his victim, to those people. I mean, make it make sense, right? To me it just seems like, again, a pattern of him thinking that he can sue everybody, that everybody's, it's everybody else's fault, he's the victim in everything. To me it seems like it's glaringly obvious that there is like an increased level of narcissism here. It's just, when people are this unhinged and unwell, it becomes very scary because you don't know what they are truly capable of. And while all of this was going on, Nicholas ended up moving back to Rhode Island. And just to give

you a little bit of the sense of timeline because I know I've jumped around a little bit, this was when he first started his whole pursuit against DCYF, when he moved back to Rhode Island after this whole marry thing. He also got married in late 2010, which I gotta say, that marriage was his first marriage and then as I mentioned at the top of this episode, he got married again in 2020. And there are very few details about Nicholas's first marriage, who he married, where, how they met, what her name was. I mean, she really may not have known about Nicholas's past at all, so no shade to her. But what we do know is that this marriage did not have a great start. Just days after he got married, on November 11th, 2010, the Rhode Island police received calls about very loud

domestic disturbances, yelling, raised voices coming from the apartment that Nicholas shared with his wife. When the police arrived, they heard the voices of a man and a woman who were arguing inside the apartment. They knocked and a woman answered the door. And when the police saw Nicholas's wife, they were immediately concerned because her appearance raised a lot of red flags. She had bruises on her neck, her arms, her right eye was completely swollen, and it looked like she had been beaten pretty severely. But when Nicholas saw the police, he started apologizing to his wife.

He asked her to come back inside, trying to like backpedal on everything. But his wife ignored him, and she told the police that they had gotten into an argument. Then Nicholas grabbed her, threw her to the ground, and then when she tried to get out from under him, he hit her in the face. So Nicholas was arrested,

and he was very uncooperative with the police. He was put into the back of the police car, and as they started driving to the station, Nicholas just kept hitting his head against the bars, you know, the bars that separate the front from the back in a police car. He just kind of like kept rocking back and forth, hitting his head against them,

like throwing this like complete crazy tantrum, and it got so bad that the police officers ended up having to pepper spray him to get him to stop. I mean, a lunatic. In the end, Nicholas was charged with domestic assault, and he pled no contest. He didn't have to serve any jail time, and his wife ended up filing a restraining order against him and also started the divorce process. However, before the divorce could be finalized, Nicholas kept calling his wife and kept threatening her, which was obviously, hello, a huge violation of that restraining order that was put in place. And he only ever stopped when the police told him that they were going to have to arrest him if he didn't stop contacting her.

Which, I mean, this guy is clearly like a walking red flag, right? I don't understand why they didn't already arrest him. I don't know why he wasn't held before. It just doesn't make any sense. But nevertheless, he now, I guess, was spooked by the police because he did not want to serve jail time. So he did stop harassing her. And the divorce was finalized in May of 2011. Now, I kind of mentioned already that he jumped around a lot. He went from state to state not only when he was in foster care and group homes but kind of throughout his life because now four years after this divorce, Nicholas was back living in Ohio again. He eventually became involved in the Mormon church and there he met a woman named Katherine Heckendorn. Katherine really liked Nicholas. He seemed sweet. They got along well. Again, he seemed to have like a lot of charisma to him.

And before meeting Nicholas, Catherine had been in a very abusive relationship. She was still healing from that relationship. And Nicholas, he seemed kind of like her knight in shining armor. He seemed very understanding of all of that. He acted very supportive of Catherine. They would get coffee together, dinner together, I mean pretty frequently too, and they eventually started dating. Nicholas had told her about his past work with the House of Representatives, his advocacy work, his time in

college. He also talked about how he graduated from Harvard, and he just came across as this really smart and charming guy. And Catherine felt like there was a lot of mystery around Nicholas too, but like in a good way, good mystery, in a way where she felt like she wanted to know more. She wanted to know more about him. Now obviously, Catherine was completely unaware of Nicholas's past, and she also had no idea that he was on the registry. I mean, it wasn't something that he ever was gonna bring up.

She was also totally unaware why his last marriage had ended. She knew that he had been married, yes, because Nicholas had told her that himself, but he had said that the divorce was because he and his ex just simply grew apart. That's where he left it. He didn't say anything else. Now, even though Catherine liked Nicholas, initially she wasn't too sure about getting more serious with him. Nicholas had started bringing up marriage though very early into their relationship and Catherine just was not on board. Yet Nicholas just kept badgering her about it.

And one day while they were watching TV, he even just randomly proposed as if he was like, just like not reading the room, my guy. And Catherine still wasn't very sure about it. Yet she also always wanted to be a wife. So she was really struggling with what to do. So basically after all of the months of him badgering her, she broke down, she gave into Nicholas and she said that she would marry him.

And Nicholas did not want to wait. He wanted to get married right away. Probably because he didn't want her to change her mind. So literally the very next day, just six months after they met, they went to a courthouse and they got married. This was October of 2015. But then on the night of their wedding, Nicholas beat Catherine for the very first time. It was almost like a switch had just flipped, or like the second that Nicholas got Catherine legally attached to him as his wife, she was like his property, and he was able to show who he truly was.

And like I said, Catherine wasn't even too sure about marrying Nicholas in the first place. Maybe she knew deep down that something about him was off, but now it was all coming to the surface. And married life just continued to get worse for Catherine. Nicholas started controlling every single aspect of her life. Who she was friends with, where she went, what she wore. I mean literally everything. He wouldn't even let her talk to her own family. Just classic narcissistic controlling behavior that we have seen time and time again, right? Catherine tried to call the police a few times, but Nicholas usually took her phone away before

she could even get through. However, one time she was able to call the police, and this was just a couple of months after they had gotten married. Nicholas had hit her again. Now this time when the police came to their home they informed Catherine that Nicholas was on the registry. They warned her that he was this very dangerous man and they were expressing genuine concern for her safety. They also arrested Nicholas and they made it clear that they were very frightened of what Nicholas might do next or how his behavior may escalate. So they urged Catherine to consider leaving him, to be cautious. They even suggested that she think about

getting a restraining order so that she could protect herself. But Catherine stayed. She even ended up bailing Nicholas out. And some of you might find that detail confusing, but people don't always act their normal selves if they're in an abusive relationship or in an abusive environment.

Catherine was just hoping that things would get better, that he would change, that it would maybe be some sort of wake-up call now that he was finally arrested. Would that be the case? Things didn't get better, they actually got worse. Catherine was forced to stay at home nearly 24-7. She couldn't leave the house, she couldn't have a job, she couldn't spend time with friends.

I mean, she couldn't see her family, nothing. And as I said, Nicholas at this point was controlling not only all aspects of her social life, but also what she wore. And in a lot of these cases that we've talked about, generally when men are controlling what their partner is wearing, it's because they want them to look more conservative, more covered up. They don't want them to show too many things. But Nicholas was kind of the opposite. He started forcing her to wear these really short skirts and them to look more conservative, more covered up, they don't want them to show too many things. But Nicholas was kind of the opposite. He started forcing her to wear these really short skirts and these tights and this almost uniform type looking outfit.

He even started wearing three piece suits around the house because he thought that it made him look more sophisticated. So to Catherine, Nicholas really seemed more hyper-focused about appearances than anything else. I mean, everything just seemed more hyper-focused about appearances than anything else. I mean, everything just seemed to be a show for him. Around this same time, Nicholas also started a nonprofit called Community Progress Institute. The goal of this nonprofit was to revitalize the downtown area in Dayton, Ohio. This is where they of course lived.

But despite how smart Nicholas thought that he was, he just was not a good businessman. Now typically, nonprofits rely on a network of very generous people in different organizations that believe in their cause, right? I mean, these supporters donate money, they help fund everything from day-to-day operations to their big-picture goals. But Nicholas didn't have a large donor base. And it's unclear just how many people actually even contributed to his cause. But whatever the number, it clearly was not enough to keep things afloat.

So with fundraising falling short, Nicholas had to get creative. He had to find another solution to bring in money. And that solution was Catherine. Nicholas just happened to discover that Catherine had a personal savings account with quite a bit of money in it. And I think we can all probably see where this is going, right? We know the direction of where this is going to lead, but Nicholas ended up forcing Catherine to give him $10,000, threatening her, saying if she didn't allow him to take this money,

he was going to hurt her. And this became a reoccurring mess. The non-profit just kept running out of money, and Nicholas would then pressure Catherine into bailing him out. And this kept happening over and over and over again until finally Catherine ended up draining her bank account over $60,000. So at some point, too, in all of this, I mean, Catherine couldn't help but wonder, is Nicholas really as smart as I thought? Is he really the guy that I thought he was? Remember, they got married after only six months. Like, it was almost like reality was setting in for her. And then

at that point too, she finally uncovered the truth. It turns out that Nicholas didn't graduate from Harvard like he had claimed. Not at all. All he did was take a few classes at the online Harvard Extension School. But that didn't even last because the program ended up booting him out once they found out that he was on the registry. And on top of that, Nicholas wasn't even using the money that Catherine gave him for this nonprofit. He was using all of it to buy expensive suits, fancy food, and all these other super unnecessary but very expensive things. So I mean, no wonder this nonprofit wasn't working out. He was using all of the money to fund his lifestyle or his portrayal of

whatever lifestyle he wanted. And their marriage was just getting worse by the day. Nicholas would get upset with Catherine over the smallest things. And whenever he was upset, he would take his anger out on her. He would hit her, push her, restrain her, tell her how dumb she was daily. He even held a knife to her throat. Sometimes he would even turn the knife on himself, saying if she didn't listen to him that he would slit his own throat. I mean, talk about massive manipulation, right? And he was also very, very aggressive when it came to sex. Catherine, understandably so, didn't want to have sex with him. Don't blame her at all. She would tell him no. But Nicholas would not take no for an answer. He would rape her multiple times, over and over again. And sometimes

he would also get so upset whenever she told him no that he would lock her inside their bathroom and would not let her to come out. And the longest that he ever locked her inside that bathroom was two whole days. So finally, this was the final straw for Catherine. Things were not going to get better, and she knew that she could not live like this anymore. But she also knew that it was going to be very difficult to get a divorce from Nicholas because she knew that he would put up a fight and he would make her life miserable. So anytime that Nicholas would go off on one of his little tirades and tangents just yelling at her, berating her. She started secretly recording him. And then when he would cross over into the inevitable line of physical abuse,

she caught that on camera too. So now, finally armed with a mountain of evidence, Catherine finally broke free and she successfully divorced Nicholas. This was just seven months after their nightmare marriage began. And the judge in this divorce case was absolutely stunned by what Catherine brought to court. I mean, Nicholas, of course, pulled every stunt after their nightmare marriage began. And the judge in this divorce case was absolutely stunned by what Catherine brought to court. I mean, Nicholas, of course, pulled every stunt that he possibly could to try and delay this process, including just not showing up to the court dates

that were scheduled and set. But the judge wasn't playing into him. He wasn't having any of it, not buying into the excuses, the delays, none of it. And he slammed Nicholas for gross neglect of duty and extreme cruelty. He also ordered him to pay back all of the money that he had borrowed from Catherine and, in addition to that, cover all of her legal fees, which, you know, just pissed him off. I mean, you would hope that that would have been the end of it, right? But we know Nicholas,

and he very predictably did not follow the rules. Even with that restraining order against him, he broke into Catherine's house and he stole a ton of stuff from her. The court ordered him to pay her even more after that, but surprise surprise, he never paid her a dime. But then, just like that, Nicholas vanished. He packed up, he left Ohio, and he moved back to Rhode Island for a little bit. But then shortly after that, he just disappeared. Which Catherine wasn't going to chase him for the money.

She was too scared to deal with him anymore, which honestly, she didn't even care about the money. Nicholas was finally out of her life for good. And for Catherine, that was worth way more than any amount of money. But then in 2020, things took a very dramatic turn for Nicholas. Okay, vacation season is right, right, right, right, right around the corner. And I don't know about you guys, but I have got like the travel itch bad. We've been planning our next trip and this time I'm making sure that I actually enjoy the process.

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quince.com slash AE to get free shipping and 365 day returns. quince.com slash ae. For much of his life, Nicholas had sort of become this public figure. I mean, beginning back in 2010 when he even started his legal battles against DCYF and then continuing all the way through 2016 and 2017 when he was focused on launching his nonprofit back over in Ohio. He just had this kind of like larger-than-life persona. He liked being out in the public. But by 2020, he had largely faded from the spotlight. The attention that once had followed him just completely evaporated, disappeared.

But that all then changed in January of 2020 when Nicholas dropped a truly shocking life update on his personal website. He claimed that he had been diagnosed with late stage non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, and he said he only had weeks left to live. However, posting it online, it was not enough for Nicholas. He went all out. He was bombarding reporters. He was sending news updates to articles. He was insisting that every single media outlet that he could find cover his illness. It was like he wanted to be back in the spotlight. He wanted to talk about this.

Now, as I said, at one point Nicholas was sort of a public figure, so maybe it was like he wanted to be back in the spotlight. He wanted to talk about this. Now, as I said, at one point, Nicholas was sort of a public figure. So maybe it was important to some of these news organizations to report on his illness. But overall, he was also just known to be kind of persistent and very annoying until people did whatever he wanted them to do. So either way, Nicholas would not give up

emailing reporters until they covered his story, until they covered his terminal illness. So to get him off their backs, they decided to let the world know that Nicholas was sick. Now as you can imagine, and I'm sure if you saw this on come across your television or your phone or whatever news feed you get your stuff from, a lot of people were confused as to why Nicholas's illness was being reported. I mean, after all, people get sick every single day. But it seemed like he was really going out of his way to make sure that everybody knew about it. And in hindsight, it almost felt like he was planting seeds for something bigger.

Like he was setting the stage for the grand finale, the big show, what was about to happen. And surely just one month later, on February 29th, news broke that Nicholas had died. After those nonprofit efforts in Ohio, he seemed to have just kind of vanished from the public eye. Most people assumed that after being in the spotlight for so long, he probably just now wanted to live a quieter,

more peaceful life, you know, away from the attention. But it turns out that before the reports of his death, Nicholas didn't disappear from the public eye by choice. He had left the country entirely. He had moved to the United Kingdom. He had built a new life. He even got married again, this time to a woman named Louise. And Louise was the one who ended up delivering the news of Nicholas's death to the reporters.

According to her, Nicholas had left the U.S. around 2018, a year or two after divorcing Catherine and after leaving Ohio. He claimed that the reason that he left the United States was because he was facing all of those threats about what he knew about DCYF, you know, the inside information. And he said he had to move because of that

for his personal safety. Luis also explained that his health had been in decline for quite some time, alleging that he had been dealing with heart issues. These heart issues led to multiple heart attacks. This was well before the cancer diagnosis, so then that layered on top of it just of course made things even worse. So it wasn't really a case of this healthy man just suddenly getting sick and passing away. It was something that he had been dealing with for quite some time. And he of course was, you know, trying to protect his own safety because of what he

knew and the inside information he had against DCYF. So the reporters who were in contact with Luis had plenty of questions, and they were not holding back with these questions. They were asking, you know, where had Nicolas fled to? What exactly had happened to his body? Could she provide a death certificate? Luis, however, seemed to dodge more questions than answer them. Some reporters were told that Nicholas had been living in Britain, while others heard Germany, Switzerland, Ireland, Canada.

I mean, the details, they just kept changing. And whether there was a reason for the shifting story, or simply because he couldn't keep his story straight, it remains a mystery. Now Louise could not provide a death certificate, but she did say Nicholas died in her arms. She watched him take his last breath. He was then cremated and his remains were going to be scattered at sea because he loved the ocean so much. That's where he really wanted his final send-off to be. She also sent pages upon pages of just emails to reporters, to everybody who would listen, singing Nicholas's praises, painting him as this tragic, misunderstood hero.

This guy who was so smart, so intellectual, just wanted to help to do the nonprofits, and he really was just so misunderstood, and in the end had a terminal illness and died. And according to Louise, everyone in Nicholas's life had failed him. The police, the judges, the to Louise, everyone in Nicholas' life had failed him. The police, the judges, the foster parents, everyone. And according to her, he had been the real victim

in all of this, enduring assault and betrayal at every single turn in his life. And to Louise, Nicholas was practically a saint. In one particularly dramatic email of hers, she wrote, He lived a warrior's life, a fighter in spirit, but a peacemaker in practice. Which I gotta say, given the very serious allegations against him, this whole statement was very rich, to say the least. And the amount of emails that she was sending to reporters was truly crazy. Full blown unhinged. It was basically her full-time job. And she emailed Rhode Island

legislators so many times insisting that they pass a law protecting children in foster care and that they name the law after Nicholas, just like relentlessly battering them with this. But the lawmakers were like, hey, we understand that Nicholas was involved in politics years ago, but it's also been a really long time. So I mean, they weren't really into the idea of passing this law and naming it after Nicholas. I mean, what did he have to do with anything? But Louise countered that, and she insisted that after moving to the UK, Nicholas continued working in politics to help save children, to help foster children particularly. But of course, wouldn't you know it, she couldn't really provide any proof to back up that claim. So then she was kind of like, okay, okay, okay, well if you won't name a law after him, can you at least put together a condolence resolution for

him? Which you might be wondering, which I was too when I heard that, what the heck is a condolence resolution? Well basically, it's a way for government officials to show that they care when a prominent person passes away. It's a symbolic gesture more than anything where they express their sorrow while also giving a nod to the person's contributions to society. So think of it kind of as like a very formal version of a we're sorry for your loss, yet it has a little bit extra recognition that's thrown in there for good measure. And the Rhode Island House of Representatives actually considered doing it. However, something just felt off because none of the information that Louise was providing seemed credible. Luis also said that she

and Nicolas were married with children, but she wouldn't provide any information about their wedding. She couldn't even say what the names of their children were. And the thing that makes this even weirder, if you can believe it, is that Luis couldn't even provide proof of who she was. Nobody who knew Nicolas was aware that he ever had gotten married again. They had never heard of Louise, ever, and Louise didn't provide her full name, her photo, nothing to really show that she was who she said she was and that she was actually married to Nicholas. And on top of that, people started suspecting and thinking that Louise sounded

an awful lot like Nicholas. The writing styles were suspiciously similar. But is that a red flag or did they just talk the same way because they were married and she was trying to really, continue his legacy, who knows? But after her efforts with the Rhode Island House of Representatives completely failed, Luis decided to start contacting multiple churches. She was asking them to hold a large memorial mass

for Nicholas, just like a big show, a big mass production. No pun intended. Now, many of them said no, though it's unclear if they had refused because something felt off or because Nicholas was on the registry and had been a convicted offender and they didn't wanna glorify that in the church. But for whatever reason, finally,

months after Nicholas's death, one priest in Rhode Island agreed to this. So, Louise was completely thrilled. She called the priest. She was gushing about how wonderful Nicholas was. She was rattling off this long list of demands for the memorial, too. But the call was just odd. Louise's voice, it was high-pitched with this, like, bizarre, almost fake-sounding British accent, almost like somebody was using a voice changer. And the priest could not shake the feeling that something was off here, and it didn't take long for his suspicions to be confirmed.

Shortly after his phone call with Luis, the priest received another phone call, but this time it was from the Rhode Island Police Department. And they told him, stop, cancel the memorial. Because according to them, Nicholas was not dead. And the priest was absolutely stunned hearing this information. I mean, who wouldn't be? But he of course did what the police requested, and he canceled the memorial service. However, when he called Louise to break the news to her, he didn't have the heart to give her the real reason, so he decided to kind of like whip up some fake little excuse. And not surprisingly, Louise did not take that very well. She fired off a ton of angry emails to the priest, and each one was angrier than the last.

And then Louise started calling all these other churches, trying to arrange for a new memorial. But the police were already one step ahead. They had already contacted all of the local churches, warning them, Nicholas isn't really dead. The message was clear. If Louise calls, do not fall for her sob story. Don't even think about it. Now when Louise caught wind that the police doubted Nicholas's death, she ended up turning her anger toward them. She bombarded them with phone calls, ranting about how disrespectful it was to tarnish Nicholas's memory that these are all outrageous rumors, that they're

totally like killing his legacy. And she got so dramatic and she even insisted again that she witnessed this death for herself. She saw it. She saw him take his last breath. Why weren't they believing her? But the Rhode Island police were not buying it. They actually knew that Nicholas had moved out of the United States a few years before his, you know, quote, death, and they had had some pretty suspicious interactions with him right before his death. See around 2018, Rhode Island police discovered that Nicholas hadn't updated his address in the registry.

And this was of course against the law. So for that they issued an arrest warrant for him. But they couldn't find him. Nicholas somehow had caught wind that they were looking for him, so he ended up calling them himself. He told them he moved out of the United States. He was now living in the UK. Therefore, he didn't have to tell them his new address. He insisted that he only had to update his address in the registry if he was living in the United States. And Nicholas wasn't wrong. He even got a lawyer involved and there was a lot of back and forth. The Rhode Island police even called the US Marshals

who confirmed that in 2018, Nicholas purchased a one-way ticket to Ireland and he never returned. So in the end, it was determined that Nicholas was right. Because he lived out of the country, he did not have to update his address in the registry. And it was shortly after this entire incident that Nicholas died. But the whole thing was just super fishy, right? And when the Rhode Island officials caught wind of his death and also heard that his widow was making this whole

spectacle out of it, they decided to dig a little bit deeper. They even ended up reaching out to Interpol to see if they could find some evidence of him passing away. But surprise, surprise, they could not find a single shred of evidence. So that's when they started calling the churches, warning them, Nicholas wasn't actually dead.

You guys need to hold off on any memorial services. This is all a scam. And here's the thing, the police weren't the only people who were skeptical about this. A lot of people had their doubts. In fact, a lot of people suspected the whole thing was just this huge elaborate stunt and that Nicholas was alive and well behind the entire thing. And this was mainly because he wasn't exactly known for his honesty or humility. Over the years, he had built this reputation as a master manipulator,

somebody who wasn't afraid to twist the truth. So when his death was announced and his obituary started kind of making the rounds, circling around, people didn't just grieve, they started raising their eyebrows. I mean, this whole obituary, it was just so excessively flattering and it sounded just like Nicholas. So much so that people suspected he may have even written it himself. So that paired with the vague details surrounding his death, it just made the situation very odd. And this is where things do get a little bit twisted and a little bit hard to follow.

But the Rhode Island police weren't the only people who were looking into the validity of Nicholas' death. It turns out that multiple people, all independent of one another, all had reached the same conclusion that Nicholas was likely still alive. And get this, shortly after that situation with not updating his address and all of that stuff, the thing that he had with the Rhode Island police before his quote, death, Nicholas had had one last request for his lawyer. He wanted to see if there were any warrants out there for his arrest, which this was a

pretty strange request, especially coming from somebody who was always talking about how innocent they were. But nevertheless, his lawyer looked into it and sure enough, he found that yes, there was another warrant out for Nicholas's arrest. And this time it was from the FBI. The FBI had been investigating Nicholas for credit card fraud. Allegedly, Nicholas had opened about 22 credit cards in the name of his former foster parent, John Lang. And he had racked up almost 200 grand in charges on those cards.

So the FBI was trying to pin down Nicholas's exact location. They knew that he was somewhere in the UK, but they couldn't track down exactly where he was. And they believed that Nicholas was intentionally trying to hide his location by purposefully hiding his IP address. I mean, remember, he was good with computers after all. And then coincidentally, shortly after Nicholas learned that the FBI had a warrant out for him, he just up and mysteriously died. Was vanished, wiped off the planet. But like so many other people, the FBI did not believe that his death was real, and in fact, they found that his bank accounts were still active after his death. His IP address was also the one that was associated with

all those emails that Luis was sending, all those huge long-winded emails to reporters. It was an IP address that they knew that Nicholas had used. And then, as if things could not get even more complicated or confusing, a few months after Nicholas' death, the FBI received a call from the authorities in Utah. And it turns out that they had also been investigating Nicholas. They too had issued a warrant for his arrest in the fall of 2020.

And while they were looking for him, that that's when they stumbled across that obituary saying that he died. But they also saw a bunch of the rumors that were swirling around online saying that he actually wasn't dead. So the Utah authorities decided to call the FBI to see what was going on.

And what they found out was truly horrifying. Music So now we're going to Utah, where they had their own independent investigation into Nicholas on their own. And we're going to go back a couple of years to 2018 because police in Utah started testing old kids. And since Nicholas was a convicted sex offender, his DNA was of course in the system. And there was a kit from 2008 that came back as a match to him.

Now as I mentioned earlier, when he was younger, Nicholas bounced around from place to place. And in 2008, he would have been roughly 20 years old and he also lived in Utah for a short while. And in September of that year, a woman went to a local hospital and said that she was assaulted by her ex-boyfriend Nicholas.

Nicholas and this woman had met on MySpace and eventually they started a relationship in the summer of 2008. However, this relationship was short-lived, thanks to Nicholas's temper, his abusive behavior, and the fact that he even stole money from her. So she broke it off. But in September, Nicholas apparently lured her to his apartment. He claimed he wanted to repay her for all of the money that he had stolen from her. She, of course, didn't really want to see Nicholas, but she did want her money back. So she went, reluctantly. And instead of giving her back the money as he promised to do, Nicholas attacked her and raped her.

And then he blocked her from leaving. However, I've got to say, she was terrified, but extremely brave because in a quick moment when he got distracted by a text message, she seized that opportunity and she escaped. She got out of his apartment and she ran directly to the hospital. Once she arrived, she was given a sane exam and the police were called. However, when the police questioned Nicholas about this attack, he, like so many times in his past, just completely flipped the script, and he made her be the aggressor in his version of the story.

It almost sounded identical to what happened with Mary and to that other unknown woman before Mary. Which, remember, he also met Mary off MySpace, which is where he met this woman. Now, they didn't have all of those pieces together at the time. They didn't know all of this. So because of the conflicting stories, the case was stalled and Nicholas' DNA was never taken. So because of that, this woman's w-kit just sat there, untouched, for years, until 10

years later in 2018. And while the Utah police were now like hot on Nicholas' trail, they also came across a ton of different dirt on him. Because it turns out that Nicholas's past was littered with allegations of assault, abuse. I mean, this stretched across multiple states. The police uncovered numerous old reports going all the way back from 2007 to 2019. And these are all in addition to the cases

that we've already talked about. And just to give you a little bit of insight into a few of these cases and some of the examples of what he was doing, in July of 2010 in Rhode Island, one woman had reported that she and Nicholas had just been casually dating. But then things took a very dark turn when he brought her to his house. He took her phone, he essentially trapped her inside the house, and he started insisting in a really creepy way that she come like sit on his lap, kiss him, and he even took it further threatening to kill himself if she didn't comply. Now she managed to escape after screaming at him, but police

later questioned Nicholas after she filed the report, and his excuse to the police was that he had just started treatment for depression, which according to him, it made his emotions go all over the place. And apparently, for the police, that was good enough. That was believable because any investigation into him was halted, which is truly appalling and like unacceptable. Then in December of 2010, so just a few months later, another woman filed a police report against Nicholas. She said that Nicholas had invited her over to his apartment so that they could have dinner. They had dinner together, but then Nicholas tried to have sex with her afterwards.

She didn't want to. She rejected his advances, and that of course upset him. So he then locked her in his apartment and prevented her from leaving, and then he forced himself on her. Now, as if this wasn't bad enough, he also made her give him $200, and then he forced himself on her. Now as if this wasn't bad enough, he also made her give him $200 and then he forced her to take like a video recording, a video of herself saying she wasn't gonna pursue any legal action against him.

The money that she gave him was because he would need therapy due to her violent actions and that she suffered from having a sex addiction. Like what a complete lunatic this guy was. And in Rhode Island alone, there were six different allegations of assault against him. However, many of the women who filed these complaints ended up dropping the charges or dropping the complaints because they were just too scared of Nicholas. I mean, look at what he did to Mary. He basically tried to like do this whole internet smear campaign against her, ruining her life. One of his old roommates also had a restraining order against him because

Nicholas had physically assaulted him when they lived together. I mean, he stole a lot of his things too. It was just like he was this repetitive, habitual predator in more ways than one. It wasn't exclusive to women. It wasn't exclusive to sexual assault. It was physical abuse. It was theft. It was just a variety of things. Just a true sense of like narcissistic entitlement. So now that all of these dirty secrets are being exposed and people are cross-sharing information, a lot of people, totally independent of one another, were all coming to the same conclusion. Nicholas was still alive. And get this, it got so extreme that even the people at Wikipedia stepped in because Nicholas had a Wikipedia page for himself because of the

non-profit work, his work in politics, all those things. So people who worked at like a sub page of Wikipedia, I think it's called like Wikipedia O'Crossy or like something like that, I don't know how to pronounce it, but they started noticing that Nicholas's Wikipedia page was being updated after he supposedly died, and it was being updated by an account that was owned by Nicholas. And it didn't just stop there. Whoever was updating this account also was trying to replace the real picture of Nicholas, and trying to replace it with like some photo of some random guy. And as all these rumors continued spreading that he faked his own death,

somebody just kept deleting any mention of Nicholas alleging that he faked his own death, just wiping this account clean, just scrubbing it and changing the photo and like starting to really manipulate what this page was all about. So now we're back in early 2022 and the FBI is on the case, and they were 99% sure

that Nicholas had faked his own death and then he had fled the United States. So they notified international agencies all about Nicholas. They even gave an old mugshot and they gave pictures of his identifiable tattoos. Then Interpol circulated those pictures around hospitals all throughout the UK, because remember, that's where Nicholas' last known location was. And now with COVID being a huge issue, because it was at this time, they knew that he might seek care at a hospital, which is exactly what he did.

Or remember what Arthur Knight did. Hospitals had been receiving notice about Nicholas, this Nicholas guy that they were trying to look for, all while Arthur was in that coma. So after receiving the pictures of Nicholas, this Nicholas guy that they were trying to look for, all while Arthur was in that coma. So after receiving the pictures of Nicholas, hospital staff in Glasgow, Scotland, thought that this man in these photos looked suspiciously like one of their patients named Arthur. Then they saw the pictures of the tattoos, and that is what sealed the deal. Because Arthur Knight had the exact same tattoos in the exact same locations,

the same ones that Nicholas Rossi had. So the hospital called the police and the police confirmed that Arthur was Nicholas. And that is right when Arthur woke up from his coma, had police surrounding him, and then was arrested. Which at this point you're probably thinking, wow, that was a freaking wild ride, but I'm glad that his cover is blown. I'm glad he was finally arrested. Now there's no way out. Like the jig is up. But of course, in true Nicholas Rossi style,

he was not gonna go down without a fight. So he doubled down on the lie. And he insisted he was not Nicholas Rossi. He was Arthur Knight. He was an Irish orphan who supposedly had lived in the UK his entire life. There's no way that he was Nicholas Rossi. And get this, it gets even better because Arthur, and I'm saying that with air quotes if you can see me,

but Arthur went so far as to claim that the hospital staff is the one who tattooed him while he was in that coma. Because naturally, right, that's what hospitals do. They tattoo their patients to frame them for crimes that they didn't commit. I mean, get a grip. Like, you are such a loser. I can't. But according to him, it once again was all part of this huge nefarious plot that was masterminded by none other than David Levet, the Utah District County attorney who had

a hand in that testing of that old kit that was connected to Nicholas. Now Arthur was alleging he just wants to frame me, he just wants to get his guy, so he had the hospital tattoo me so I look like Nicholas. I'm not him. According to Arthur, David was desperately trying to win his re-election and he knew that by solving some old cases, that would really do the trick. So naturally, again, he just decided to frame some random guy from the UK. Arthur even claimed that David was a known human trafficker, that he was a child sex abuser, a cannibal, even a murderer. I mean, he literally threw in every possible allegation that he could, trying to like smear this guy. And talk about the most wild conspiracy theory ever. I mean, it just does not make any sense.

And this is where things really in this case get so comical for me. And you're gonna hear some of these interviews because if you're like me, especially if you're watching the video version, you're gonna be like, what in the actual is happening? Like, what is happening? It's like, it just takes this case

from like a lifetime movie roller coaster crazy to like sharknado crazy, okay? Where it's like, it's just not even believable, but it's real life. That is what makes this so insane. So nevertheless, Arthur, Arthur air quotes, was arrested, but he was released on bail. And while he was battling the legal system to avoid extradition back to the United States, Arthur went on a huge media campaign with his wife Miranda. And I mean huge.

Which remember, we talked about Miranda a little bit, who he claimed to have married back in 2011 and said that they had dated for so long. However, it was later uncovered that they actually got married in 2020, just one week after the announcement of Nicholas's death, which, what a coincidence, right? The two of them lived in an apartment near Glasgow University, where Arthur told the neighbors he was a theology professor. And surprise surprise, he wasn't. But as Arthur and Miranda went on their media campaign tour, he kept insisting he wasn't Nicholas, that this was all a smear job, and that he had never even stepped foot on US soil ever. I mean, it was wild. Yet all the while,

he couldn't provide any proof that he was this alleged Irish orphan who was born in the UK. He couldn't present a birth certificate. He couldn't provide any proof. And he said, that's just because I moved around so much. I lost it all years ago. That's why I'm a victim in all of this. Now I gotta say, Arthur had quite a noticeable appearance. I mean, he looked a little different from Nicholas to be fair. I will give him that. For one, he was in a wheelchair and he also wore an oxygen mask all the time, which he claimed was a necessity due to the complications from COVID. He also sported this short, slicked back hair, these big glasses, and he always wore these very elaborate suits and this large gold jewelry. However, midway through his media tour, he decided to grow a long beard, claiming it was all part of his conversion to Judaism now. But honestly, everything about his appearance just

kind of screamed like, I'm hiding something, I'm trying to change my identity. And get this, he also started saying that he was born with the name Nicholas, but that he then later changed it due to bad memories that were associated with that name. All the while, while still insisting he was an Irish orphan. Which if you're trying to pretend you're Arthur and that you're this kid who was born in the UK, you're an Irish orphan, you have all of these health issues, all these things. Why are you now coming to the table and saying, well, my real legal name was Nicholas, coincidentally? You are just so freaking stupid.

So as you can imagine, many people also debated whether or not this Arthur Nicholas guy really needed that oxygen mask that he wore. Because he wore this mask so often and it wasn't even connected to an oxygen tank. And even if there was an oxygen tank on some occasions, it wasn't even turned on most of the time. People also suspected that he of course didn't need this wheelchair either, that this was all just part of his elaborate like new identity. Some people even claimed that they saw him walk perfectly fine without the chair. Now here's where we get to the interviews because during these

interviews some journalists would even confront him with all of these accusations saying you know what do you say to the allegations that you can't even stand up and he would try to stand up showing that he did need the wheelchair just to like fall back in his wheelchair, which he did stand up like he would hoist himself up out of the wheelchair being like, I can't even stand. I can't even stand. Look at this. And then he would like fall down.

But I'm like, bro, you were standing. You were standing just now. Like what do you mean? It's honestly laughable. It was really like he was putting on a show, just not a convincing one. And his accent also on top of it was honestly just as bad as mine just was. It sounded so forced, so unnatural, that it was almost painful to listen to. And if you ask me, it sounded completely fake. And I'm not the only one that thought so. Plenty of

people picked up on this phony accent. But here's where we get to the good stuff, guys, because don't just take my word for it. Listen for yourself and let me know what you think. Out on bail, awaiting his next extradition hearing. Who are you? I am Arthur Knight and this is my wife, Miranda Knight. And unfortunately there are those who are playing differently. Are you Nicholas Rossi? No.

Are you Nicholas Aliverdian? Absolutely not. Are you Nicholas Rossi? No. Are you Nicholas Aliverdian? Absolutely not. Are you Nicholas Brown? Yes. When asked why he changed his name from Nicholas to Arthur, he replied because it was associated with bad childhood experiences in Northern Ireland. Miranda, who claims she married her husband in Bristol two years ago,

says she was there when Police Scotland arrested her husband in hospital as he recovered from Covid. Arrivals to court for bail hearings were in a wheelchair. An oxygen mask remained on throughout this interview at their Glasgow home. I nearly died. I nearly died. And we are terrified. How can I be a flight risk if I can't even stand? The electric wheelchair is not a prop. There's no faking of this illness. This is a case of mistaken identity.

You say you've never been to the United States? Never in my life. They claimed in court you were identified from tattoos? That is not true. There is no evidence whatsoever that there are tattoos and I've shown that to major voters. In this interview with the US network he did agree to roll up one sleeve. In this interview with a US network, he did agree to roll up one sleeve. It was up further, right? Have you had any tattoos removed? The man wanted in America to face a rape charge is known to have multiple tattoos.

He's done quite a masterful job of hiding himself from the law. Prosecutors in Utah say Nicholas Rossi, also known as Alaberdian, is believed to have used at least 16 different aliases. 16 aliases? No, typos. These are very serious charges that this man faces. They claim this man faked his own death to evade those charges. Did you fake your own death? I'm... Hi. Sharon, we're sitting having a conversation. I've never been dead to anyone. After so many years I know him inside out. I know my husband does not have tendencies as a... He is going to be needing a very large team on the pitch to try to say that I am... because not only are we

terrified because this is a vicious lie but we are also incredibly disgusted by the fact that we now have to live our lives in in a secretive way because my wife can't even walk down the pavement to get a pint of milk and it consumes you talking. Some people would say you're saying it a secretive way but you're now speaking to various media outlets including us. Absolutely. Why what is the purpose then of this interview? The truth needs to be known. So underneath the beard, the glasses, the oxygen mask, there was a man who looked suspiciously a lot like Nicholas Rossi. And remember, since the hospital had identified him because of his tattoos,

many journalists were asking him to see the tattoos. Now, most of the time, he absolutely just refused to lift up his sleeves. He didn't wanna show his arms. But in one interview, he did lift up his sleeve slightly, just a little bit where it showed his forearms. And what was crazy is the spot where Nicholas Rossi had a tattoo? Arthur's arm was

completely blank. There was no tattoo. He even rubbed his arm to show that there was no makeup covering it. So, I mean, it sounded pretty convincing, right? Which normally, yes, it would, but Nicholas's ex-wife Catherine came forward and she said that Nicholas had been in the process of removing his forearm tattoos for years, even while they were still married. And then a closer look at Arthur's forearms, and it showed that he had the scars that are typically associated with tattoo removal. Now at one point during this whole media circus and him trying to prove that he's Arthur, he's not Nicholas, he even agreed to get on a video interview call with Brian Coogan. And Brian is that same guy, that adult, who had debated adopting 14-year-old Nicholas Rossi years and years ago. So during this interview, Brian mentioned

a scar that Nicholas had above one of his eyebrows. And sure enough, Arthur confirmed, oh yeah, I have the same scar, but it's all just a coincidence. And then when the conversation about Nicholas's tattoos came up, Arthur became very, very quiet, just wouldn't show his arms, wouldn't say anything. And then he abruptly ended the call. Nicholas Aloe Verdean, I will bet $50,000 cash on it, and I'll put the cash up. That is Nicholas Aloe Verdean. And the more that he says it's not him and the more that he tries to play a game, the more I want to come to Scotland. I have five boys. He's almost like my sixth child.

You know, when your child's lying to you. I mean, his own father, stepfather came out and said that's him. You're sure that's him? Well, that's my son. There he is right there. I know my son. I just know my son. That's definitely Nicky. He's older but it's him. It's a game of chess that Nick's playing and at the end he's going to be checkmate of guarantee. The media campaign was so public, so insane, and Arthur was so dramatic during

these interviews that again it was to the point of just being laughable. He would fall over. And I gotta say, as I'm playing this, I'm trying to clear up the audio as best as I can, but they are a little bit difficult to hear because he's wearing an oxygen mask during these interviews. But I've seen a comparison online for those of you who are listening to audio only and can't watch the videos and people describe him as looking a lot like Cartman from South Park. The little short big round head big round body guy that kind of like can't really walk. It's so accurate and I'm sorry it is. I mean this guy deserves to be shamed. I encourage you to watch these videos though after listening to the audio because

they are insane. This is one where he like falls over being like, look, I can't stand up, I can't stand up. Yet he's standing up and then his wife, whoever this person is, like pushes him back down in the wheelchair to be like, bro, quit it. You're like, the jig is up. You got to stand up. Like it's unbelievable. But listen to this. We were once a normal family, but thanks to the media, our lives have been interrupted. And we'd like privacy, and I would like to go back to being a normal husband. But I can't because I can't breathe. I can't walk.

People say that's an act. Let me try to stand up. Let me try to stand up. Exactly. Exactly. What do you say to someone who believes that you are Nicholas Alivertian? I am not, Andrea. I am not Nicholas Alivertian.

I do not know how to make this clearer. What do you say to people who say these are crocodile tears? He's putting on a show, this is all an act. Oh, Eka. That's a low blow, that's a right low blow. It was such a media frenzy, guys, and it caught so many people's attention that even more and more people started coming out

of the woodwork to talk about their experiences with Nicholas, or better yet, with Arthur. And it turns out that even Arthur, this new concocted personality, also had multiple sexual allegations against him in the UK. Just more evidence of the similarities between Nicholas and Arthur. Then a Canadian woman came forward with another story about Arthur. Apparently, in the spring of 2020, she was looking for somebody to help her promote her vegan lifestyle brand. And she found Arthur on a freelance website, and she was really impressed by his resume. He claimed he was a Harvard grad, which, remember, side note, this contradicts his claim that he never stepped foot on US soil.

He claimed that he had a lot of experience in PR and in marketing, and that he was also, get this, an international lawyer. Which I gotta say, that is a very impressive resume, if it were real. So she hired Arthur, who ended up of course doing literally nothing. Like zero zilch nothing. She paid him, but he always had excuses as to why he wasn't producing results. Either he was in the hospital, his wife was in the hospital, his dog was in the hospital, his other dog was in the hospital, all until he ran out of people to be in the hospital. Now at one point she actually thought that Arthur was trying to steal her business because he was asking her for a lot of personal information. Her banking information,

her passport information, and eventually she just cut off all communication with him and with any business access that he had because she didn't trust him. She ended up paying him in total $40,000 over the course of their working relationship, and he produced nothing for her. But after she cut him off, Arthur did the exact same thing that Nicholas had done to Mary. He went right on his personal website and he started smearing her name. He started saying her company was a fraud, she was a terrible boss, her products weren't

even vegan, just trying to destroy her credibility. In January 2020 is when we started and by the end of the month I was not very happy. He seemed passionate, he seemed like he was determined, but then one day I just had enough and I text him because I didn't want to tell him verbally on the phone because he was very aggressive sometimes. And then that's when he started to show me his smear campaign that he prepared. I lost a lot of money, not just the 40 grand, but you know, hundreds of thousands because I had to do damage control.

I don't think I'm going to ever see that money. Like I spoke to criminal lawyers over here and they're like, don't even bother. You know, he conned somebody and uses that money. Like I spoke here and they're like, do You know, he conned someb that money to calm the ne I just be, I'd be very ha seem stay, remain behind women came forward saying

had assaulted them. It di United States or the UK. were just pouring in. And while all of this was going on, Scottish law enforcement was working to extradite Arthur to the United States. Arthur wasn't making it easy, though. He would miss court hearings, he would constantly fire lawyers, he would claim he couldn't make the hearings because he was too sick, and in the summer of 2022, he ended up being admitted to the hospital before one of his hearings. However, he was arrested at that hospital after he threatened and attacked the hospital staff. He was fined 400 euros and multiple doctors testified that Arthur was faking all of his illnesses. Also, that he didn't have any sort of problem that would cause him to use oxygen or need a wheelchair.

So following this incident, he was placed in jail. And in the summer of 2022, a judge required him to submit his DNA and fingerprints so that he could prove his identity. In November of 2022, in a surprise to absolutely no one, it was released that Arthur's fingerprints and Arthur's DNA matched that of Nicholas Rossi. Arthur Knight was in fact Nicholas. I mean, this guy, I mean, I gotta give him credit, right? Like, he's got a lot of balls on him to like pull this off or try to even pull this off. I never would have the strength or willpower to do that. But still, another year

passed until Nicholas was finally extradited back to the United States. This was in December of 2023. He was being tried for two cases in Utah, and he was booked into a Utah County jail in January of 2024. And even though his literal DNA was a match for Nicholas, this guy still tried to say that he wasn't Nicholas. He was Arthur. He's the victim. He's framed.

It's not him. My name is Arthur like brain my date of birth is 22nd of the 11th 1986 Okay, I don't I think we're having a problem with understanding who this person is I Don't this is not number 36.

Your honor, we've got him as Nicholas Rossi, but he's saying his name is Arthur Knight Brown. No, that's one of the AKAs it looks like. What's your birthday? We're having a really, really. It's. Is it July 11th, 1987? We're having a really, really. Is it July 11 1987. Now, it's 22nd of November, 1996.

22nd of November 1986. Yes ma'am. Your honor, Tamara Bosquez for this date, this individual has been extradited and he has not admitted his name or birth date accurately. And so I don't think we're going to be successful on that today either. It's also known as... Objection, my lady. That's his complete essay. And when he went to court, he even insisted that the judge call him Arthur, even throwing temper tantrums over it.

But the judge was obviously like, no, I'm not gonna do that. I'm not gonna call you Arthur. You're literally Nicholas. So that's what I'm gonna call you. And for a while Nicholas said that he was going to defend himself in court, which I honestly would have loved to see it

because just like when Sarah Boone represented herself, sometimes I love when these people try to represent themselves because it ends when Sarah Boone represented herself, sometimes I love when these people try to represent themselves because it ends up being such a circus in the end that like it sucks for the family that they even have to go through any of that and for the victims but like I love watching these people think that they're capable of doing that. Like you're not an international lawyer in real life, Nicholas. Like what do you think you're going to do? But ultimately he ended up hiring a lawyer and And shortly after he did that, he ended up giving up the big old charade that he was Arthur. And in October of 2024, he finally admitted he was Nicholas. The fugitive Rhode Islander who faked

his death and claimed that he was someone else finally drops the act. Yeah, we're talking about Nicholas Alivertian again, admitting in court today he is indeed the man at the center of a years-long international saga. The IT's Brian Crandall has the surprising new developments that played out in court today, Brian. Yeah, Dan and Patrice Nicholas Alivertian was arrested nearly three years ago in Scotland, wanted on a rape charge in Utah.

Now he claims since then it wasn't him, but that changed in a Utah courtroom today. Alivertian claims he wasn't trying to hide from the law, instead that he moved and changed his name because he faced threats in Rhode Island from state or elected officials, though he testified the threats were the year after he moved. They threatened to ruin my life, destroy my life, frequent threats to kill me. He also claims he was warned of threats by friends from his state house days, Representative Ray Hull and current East Providence Mayor Bob De Silva. De Silva had no comment about it today. Hull told me he remembers no

such thing and that Alivertian was not in danger. He claimed that he had been lying about his identity and moved to the UK all because of the supposed death threats that were made against him because of his work with DCYF, which the judge was like, okay if that's true tell us the names of who's threatening you. But Nicholas refused to give any names, and instead he said it would be quote, like giving a mouse cheese. Whatever the hell that means, I don't know. But the prosecution brought up a great point.

If he was so worried about these people finding out where he lived, then why did he go on such a huge media campaign in the UK? It doesn't really seem like he was trying to hide where he was. And I also can't help but wonder, if this Louise person, who was most likely Nicholas, right? If she hadn't sent all of those emails trying to get these big recognition mass productions

and the news outlets to talk about his death, I feel like he could have successfully faked his own death and he would be living free right now. I really truly believe that. But she just kept pushing, kept pushing. They kept wanting this, he kept wanting this media spectacle. And I think that again just kind of folds into the whole like narcissistic personality. Even when he was trying to fake his own death to not have to pay the consequences for his past actions,

he still wanted notoriety. He didn't want people to forget about him. He wanted to be praised as this hero. And it's so sick and twisted, but ultimately, it's his narcissism that got him caught in all of this. I truly believe he could have flown way under the radar and still could be living in the UK as this fake Arthur person. Truly, I do believe that. Now, Nicholas is still married to Miranda, and she claims that she had absolutely no idea about any of this. And she still sends him money and fully supports him, which many people think that she knew way more of what was going on. And a lot of people also think that she was the one who was Luis, that maybe he helped her with a lot of the emails, but that like she also was a part of that. Although that doesn't really make sense as to like the fake voice that

sounded like a voice recorder, that sounds like it probably was more like Nicolas, but either way, people think that she did know a lot more than what she's letting on. So Nicolas has entered a plea of not guilty on both of the charges against him. He was also offered a plea deal at one point, but he refused to accept it. So he's expected to go to trial later this year. And you better believe it, that if I'm not sitting front row, I will at the very least be covering this trial, because this is going to be insane.

I can only imagine the theatrics that he's like cooking up right now and preparing for. It's gonna be a wild one. I'm glad he's caught. If you again are listening to the audio version, you've got to go and look at these videos and watch the YouTube version because it is so unhinged and crazy. I need a new word for unhinged. What's a new one?

Let's go to my thesaurus. You know, you know, I like to do this. Okay, Siri, what's another word for unhinged? Synonyms for unhinged include deranged, demented, unbalanced, out of one's mind, and crazed. I like that. I like demented and oh shoot what was that other one? Demented and let me ask again. Siri, what's another word for unhinged? Synonyms for oh unbalanced include. I like that. Demented and unbalanced. Maybe that'll be the title of this episode. Demented and unbalanced. The Nicholas Rossi story. I can't. This was a long one. I know it was. It was long for me too, guys, but this guy, this

guy, I just like, I don't even know what to say about this guy. I really don't. It's like, you are such a twerpy, dweeby loser. And the fact that you assaulted so many women makes you like the scum of the earth. But then the fact that you like put on this whole performance like, ugh, cringe. If his wife does not have the ick, I don't know how that's even possible. I have the ick like a thousand times over. Alright guys, thank you so much for tuning in to another episode of Serialist Lee with me.

If you are not following the podcast yet, make sure you do so. Whatever podcast app you're listening on right now, it's totally free. Just go to the corner, hit follow show so that you won't miss any future episodes. I also will be back with you on the mic first thing Thursday morning where we are going to break down everything happening this week in the true crime world. Alright guys, until the next one. Be nice, don't kill people, don't fake your own death, don't assume a different identity, and just be a good human.

Alright? Sounds easy enough, right? It should be easy enough. Alright guys, I will talk with you soon. Bye.