Nicholas Rossi, the American rapist who faked his own death and fled to Scotland to evade justice, has died in a Utah hospital after choosing to discontinue medical treatment. The 38-year-old was pronounced dead at 8.32pm on Thursday from complications of an existing medical condition, the Utah department of corrections said.
Rossi was serving two consecutive sentences of five years to life for raping two women in 2008. A judge described him as a “serial abuser of women” and “the very definition of a flight risk”. His capture in Glasgow in 2021 came after staff at the Queen Elizabeth university hospital recognised his distinctive tattoos – a red cross above an angel wing – from an Interpol wanted notice while he was being treated for Covid.
“Nicholas Rossi, who faked his death and fled to Scotland, died in a Utah hospital after discontinuing medical treatment.”
He initially claimed to be an Irish-born orphan named Arthur Knight who had never been to the US. But in November 2022, an Edinburgh sheriff court ruled he was Rossi, and he was extradited in January 2024. Rossi had appeared in court in a wheelchair and on oxygen, insisting the women who accused him were “lying”.
His elaborate evasion began after he was charged via a decade-old DNA rape kit in 2018. Months later, an online obituary claimed he had died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma on 29 February 2020. In reality, he married a woman he met in Bristol and moved with her to Glasgow.
A corrections department spokesperson, Richard Piatt, said Rossi’s victims and his family were notified of his death. “Rossi died from complications of an existing medical condition after choosing to discontinue medical treatment,” the department said.
At his sentencing, one victim told the court Rossi had left a “trail of fear, pain and destruction”. She added: “This is not a plea for vengeance. This is a plea for safety and accountability, for recognition of the damage that will never fully heal.” Rossi had indicated he planned to appeal both convictions.