Man Who Faked Death to Escape Rape Charges Dies for Real in Utah Prison

Screengrab via STV News

A convicted sex offender who faked his own death to escape rape charges and sparked a yearslong international manhunt died in a Utah prison Thursday after serving time for rape convictions.

Nicholas Rossi was serving a sentence of at least 10 years after being convicted in 2025 in two sexual assault cases.

According to the Utah Department of Corrections, the inmate was taken to hospital where he died from “complications of an existing medical condition after choosing to discontinue medical treatment.”

The Utah inmate was serving a sentence of at least 10 years after being convicted in 2025 in two sexual assault cases.

Richard Piatt, a spokesperson for the Utah Department of Corrections, told the Associated Press that Rossi’s victims and family had been notified of his death but declined to provide further details about Rossi’s medical condition, though Rossi had appeared in court in a wheelchair and using oxygen during proceedings.

Rossi’s case drew international attention after authorities alleged he staged his own death in 2020 to avoid prosecution. An online obituary falsely claimed he had died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma on Feb. 29, 2020, but investigators in Rhode Island, along with his former lawyer and a former foster family, questioned whether he had actually died.

He was eventually located in Scotland in 2021 while receiving treatment for Covid-19 after hospital staff recognized his distinctive tattoos, including a Brown University crest tattoo, despite Rossi never attending the school.

After his arrest, Rossi insisted he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight and claimed he was the victim of a conspiracy. Investigators alleged he had used at least a dozen aliases over the years in an effort to avoid detection before he was extradited to Utah in 2024.

Authorities first identified Rossi in 2018 through a decade-old DNA rape kit and later prosecutors heard testimony from two victims who claimed he had stolen money and assaulted them.

At his sentencing hearing last October, Rossi was sentenced in October, but maintained his innocence.

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