Create a free profile to get unlimited access to exclusive videos, breaking news, sweepstakes, and more!
"Big Twist" in Case of Man Who Allegedly Faked Own Death and Went on the Run to Avoid Rape Charges
An obituary claimed that Nicholas Rossi, born Nicholas Alahverdian, died in 2020, until evidence started to suggest he was alive and on the run.
Nicholas Rossi is known by many names.
The international fugitive, born Nicholas Alahverdian, has been accused of faking his own death, going on the run and triggering an international manhunt, all to avoid charges of rape and fraud.
Now, Rossi is back in the United States awaiting trial after a “big, big twist” in the shocking case, according to a preview of Dateline's “The Man of Many Faces” episode, airing Friday, December 13 at 9/8c p.m. on NBC.
“Dateline reports on the dramatic updates in the case of international fugitive Nicholas Rossi, who faked his death as law enforcement closed in on him after allegations of rape and fraud,” reads a synopsis of the episode. “After a world-wide manhunt, will the man with multiple identities finally face justice?”
The episode will take a fresh look at the shocking case and feature new interviews with prosecutor David Leavitt and one of Rossi’s victims, Mary Grebinski.
“Mary Grebinski offers something to the state of Utah that could come back to haunt Nicholas Rossi,” Dateline correspondent Andrea Canning told NBC Insider of the latest developments.
Nicholas Rossi fakes his own death
A 2020 obituary for Nicholas Alahverdian read that he died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma on February 29 of that year at age 32, according to the Associated Press.
But authorities soon began to suspect that Rossi had faked his own death.
“Shortly afterwards, I got a call from the state police, he said we believe he’s faked his own death, that he’s in Europe,” Father Bernard Healey, a Rhode Island pastor contacted by Rossi’s thought-to-be widow about holding a funeral mass at his church, told Dateline.
Canning described Rossi in the Dateline preview as "a convicted sex offender" in authorities' eyes, and a “con man with multiple identities."
Grebinski told Canning that she "knew I was not his first" victim.
Rossi’s disappearance after the obituary was published launched an international manhunt, but the sensational case became even more complicated after authorities believed they'd finally tracked him down in Europe.
The man in question claimed his name was Arthur Knight.
"He told us he's an innocent Irish orphan named Arthur Knight, wrongly accused of horrific crimes," Canning says in the Dateline preview.
The correspondent asks him in an interview, “So are you saying they’ve got the wrong guy?", as seen in the preview.
“I am not Nicholas Alahverdian,” an emotional man in glasses, wearing an oxygen mask, answered..
Canning says “a lot has happened since that interview.”
Grebinski told Dateline of the case’s constant twists and turns, “It feels like a circus, almost, at this point, 'cause it’s just weird drama turn after weird drama turn.”
It all finally led to what Canning described in the preview as a “big, big twist in this case.”
"Huge, yeah, it’s a game changer,” Leavitt told Dateline.
In addition to Grebinski and Leavitt, the episode also includes interviews with Michael Alahverdian and Rhode Island State Police Detective Conor O’Donnell.
To find out all the latest developments in the bizarre case, watch Dateline Friday at 9/8c p.m. on NBC or stream it on Peacock after it becomes available the next day.
And for even more Dateline, sign up for the show's official newsletter and check out its podcast.
