Nicholas Rossi, Sex Offender Who Faked His Own Death, Revealed In Scotland, Almost Died Of COVID

A convicted sex offender from Rhode Island who faked his death in 2020 to evade charges was discovered alive last month at a hospital in Scotland – where he is on a ventilator after signing contract with COVID-19.

Rhode Island State Police Major General Robert Creamer Talk to Providence Magazine that Nicholas Rossi, who is wanted on charges of fraud and sexual assault, was identified “about a month ago” – several years after a woman claiming to be his wife said he had died of cancer. Obituaries from February 2020 alleged that he died with his wife and two children by his side, and told them “don’t be afraid and run towards the happy sun,” shortly before he passed away.

But the Utah District Attorney’s Office said in a statement Fourth that Rossi, who also uses the Alahverdian surname, had actually “fleeed the country to avoid prosecution in Ohio and tried to convince investigators and state legislators in other states that he was dead. .”

The Scotist Sun described Rossi as an “American fugitive”, wanted by Interpol after “tricking him to death from coronavirus”.

In 2008, Rossi was convicted of two sex-related charges stemming from an assault at an Ohio community college, where he was a student at the time, according to reports. Magazine. Ten years later, after evidence from that case was uploaded to a federal database, he was suspected in another sexual assault case in Utah and other incidents “across the United States,” the prosecutors said. said the Utah investigator.

In 2018, the DNA profile of the Utah sexual assault case reverted to being the same as that of an Ohio sexual assault case. “Investigators also know that Nicholas Rossi fled the country to avoid prosecution in Ohio and tried to convince investigators and state legislators in other states that he was dead.”

The announcement of the February 2020 death comes just two months after Rossi, a prominent critic of Rhode Island’s child welfare program, announced to reporters he was facing with her final days amid a clear diagnosis of terminal non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

“The children and families in the care of the Rhode Island Department of Youth and Families (DCYF), where he inspired and led through turbulent government violations have lost a warrior who fought on the front lines for two decades,” his obituary reads.

Rossi has alleged that he was sexually abused as a child at the hands of state agencies.

The timing of his apparent illness and sudden “death” sparked rumors that Rossi was trying to evade an FBI investigation stemming from a fraud complaint in Ohio.

Jeffrey Pine, former Rhode Island Attorney General previously told Magazine that Rossi was living in Ireland at the end of 2019 and that he suspects that his former client orchestrated his death after Rossi was contacted by an FBI agent about the lawsuit.

“The next thing I knew he had very, very bad cancer and died within a few weeks. I think there’s a chance he’s still alive? Of course I have,” Pine told the magazine in a January 2021 interview.

His former adoptive mother, Sharon Lane, who filed a fraud lawsuit, previously told Magazine that Rossi has “the ability to pull wool through the eyes of many people.”

She said he left her with a mountain of debt after he fraudulently used her husband’s name to obtain nearly two dozen credit cards and loans amounting to nearly $200,000. Rossi’s ex-wife, Kathryn Heckendorn, said he also owes her more than $60,000.

David Leavitt, the attorney for the District of Utah, said that finding Rossi was not easy.

Leavitt said in a statement that the initiative to look into old sexual assault cases where the kits were untested played a “significant role” in helping to identify Rossi.

He credits testing “backlog kits”, including from the Utah sexual assault case, with allowing authorities to use DNA to locate Rossi at the Glasgow hospital even when he got away with the crime using various aliases.

It is not clear when Rossi will be returned to the United States, but Leavitt’s office said it is working with federal and international agencies on extradition efforts.