Fugitive who faked death found guilty in 2008 rape case after 17 years in US

United States: After 17-years, justice has finally caught up to Nicholas Alahverdian, who was charged with rape in 2008 but managed to escape the law by faking his own death and moving to the UK. 

The 17-year-old case has finally come to a conclusion in Rhode Island after the jury found Nicholas Alahverdian also known as ‘Rossi’ guilty of one of the two rape charges that took place in 2008. 

The case that drew mass attention concluded on Wednesday 13 August, after a three day trial with an 8 person jury in Salt Lake County claimed Alahverdian as guilty after the accuser and  her parents took a stand against the 38-year-old who was not only denying the charges but his identity as he refused to testify. 

Alahverdian was formally charged by the Utah court of a first-degree felony rape, which is punishable by 5-years of life in prison. 

History of the case and why did justice took so long?

Reportedly in 2008, Nicholas Alahverdian attacked and sexually assaulted his then girlfriend after she expressed that she wanted to end the relationship.  

The two had allegedly  been together after Alahverdian used his charm and deception to take advantage of the vulnerable young woman following her response to a personal AD that he had posted on craigslist. 

The two began dating and were engaged within two weeks. While together Alahverdian reportedly asked her to pay for dates, car repairs and even lend him $1,000 for him to pay for his apartment so he wouldn’t get evicted. 

He reportedly even asked her to take on debt to buy their engagement rings, but soon after they got engaged Alahverdian allegedly turned hostile and one night raped her in his bedroom after she had driven him home. 

The woman did not press charges right after, as she told her parents and they dismissed her claims. But later after seeing news reports that Alahverdian was facing other accusations of rape  from the same year he had raped her, she decided to come forward and press charges. 

The authorities formally launched an investigation of Alahverdian in 2018 after his DNA was found in a decade-old DNA rape kit.

Although surprisingly, months later an online obituary claimed that ‘Nicholas Alahverdia had died of cancer on February 29, 2020. Although the police officers, and his lawyers doubted that he was dead. 

Nicholas Alahverdian was arrested the following year in Scotland after a nurse administering the COVID 19 shots recognized some of his tattoos and contacted the authorities. Upon investigation and the capture of  Alahverdian who claimed he was an Irish orphan named Arthur Knight and was  being framed. 

Investigators reported that he had used at-least a dozen other aliases including ‘Nicholas Rossi’ ‘Arthur Knight’ and many more to avoid being captured over the years. 

Alahverdianis is also accused of another assault charge after attacking another woman at his apartment in Orem in September 2008 after she came over to collect money she said he stole from her to buy a computer.

Reportedly, while appearing in a separate court case, Alahverdian finally dropped the act  and admitted that he has been pretending to be someone else. 

Alahverdianis is set to be sentenced on October  20, 2025 after standing trial in September on another rape charge in Utah County.