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American fugitive Nicholas Alahverdian, who faked his own death and fled to the UK to avoid r*pe and other charges, maintains that he's a Brit called Arthur Knight. He claimed he is not the man suspected of r*pe and fraud and even insisted that he has never visited the States before. However, authorities have said that they can see right through his facade, especially after fingerprints revealed that both men are the same person.
Reports state that Alahverdian has been evading justice for over 13 years now. They added that multiple victims have stepped up, accusing him of r*pe and s*xual assault that he committed across several states in the US and one in the UK. He has used different aliases over the years, the most common being Nicholas Rossi. Under this name, he allegedly committed most of the assaults.
Nicholas Alahverdian is now in the custody of Scottish authorities after his December 2021 arrest from a hospital in the country and his unusual case will feature on the upcoming episode of NBC's Dateline titled Dead Man Talking this Friday, April 21, 2023, at 9 pm ET.
The synopsis reads:
"Investigators search for an American fugitive accused of faking his own death to evade law enforcement agencies. Andrea Canning confronts the man at the center of the international mystery."
Nicholas Alahverdian is s*x offender, who faked his own death and fled the country
1) Alahverdian became a r*psit at the age of 18 in 2006
The majority of Nicholas Alahverdian's alleged victims have concealed their real identities by using pseudonyms. His first victim, Samantha, disclosed that he r*ped her in 2006, just a few weeks before her 19th birthday, while she was a sophomore in college in Massachusetts. Alahverdian was 18 at the time.
The victim and Alahverdian, who at the time went by his alias Nicholas Rossi, was originally from Providence, Rhode Island. The first time the two met in person, they went out for dinner at a restaurant and then returned to Samantha's dorm room to watch a movie. The accused tried to pressurize her into having s*x with him and r*ped her when she refused. Samantha claimed she did not report the incident back then given the stigma around the subject.
2) Nicholas Alahverdian was once married before for only a few months
After allegedly assaulting a few other victims in Ohio and Utah, Alahverdian met Kathryn Heckendorn at a Mormon singles event in 2015 in Utah. The two married a few months into their relationship and moved to Ohio.
Heckendorn claimed he became violent not long after their move. She even found his stalking journals in their basement. The couple's marriage only lasted for five months and throughout, she claimed to have suffered physical and verbal abuse at the hands of Alahverdian. He also borrowed $52,000 from her. Their marriage ended in divorce in 2016.
3) He faked his own death in February 2020 after learning about the FBI's investigation
Prior to his alleged demise, Nicholas Alahverdian was an avid and well-known critic of Rhode Island's child welfare system and alleged that he was mistreated and neglected as part of the same during his childhood.
In January 2020, he announced that he had been diagnosed with late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The following month, news channels reported his death after hearing from his family and an obituary surfaced online.
Investigators later learned that Alahverdian faked his own death in February 2020 to avoid s*xual assault and fraud-related charges in many states. He and his wife Miranda Knight then relocated to Glasgow, Scotland, where he assumed the identity of Arthur Knight, a professor who taught at the University of Glasgow. He even had blonde hair, a mustache, and an accent.
4) Nicholas Alahverdian was arrested in a hospital in Scotland
Alahverdian moved to Scotland with his wife, Miranda Knight. In December 2021, he was taken into custody from the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital in Glasgow on s*xual assault and other charges stemming from previous crimes. At the time, he was on a ventilator, undergoing treatment for COVID-19.
According to reports, he changed his name to Arthur Knight, one of his many aliases. He claimed in court that he wasn't Nicholas Alahverdian or Nicholas Rossi (another one of his aliases under which he committed most of the crimes). He also insisted that he has never even visited the United States. Investigators linked Knight and Alahverdian using his distinctive tattoos and fingerprints.
5) He is now being held in a Scottish prison until his extradition hearing
According to reports, suspected in multiple r*pes and s*xual assaults committed in several US states, Nicholas Alahverdian is being held at HM Prison Edinburgh in Scotland. He was linked to the alleged cases using DNA evidence from his prior conviction in Mary Grebinski's 2008 case. He is currently awaiting possible extradition back to the US as a result of these ongoing investigations. A full hearing is scheduled for late June this year.
Tune into Dateline on NBC this Friday at 9 pm ET to learn more about the case.
