Nicholas Rossi’s relatives have revealed the fugitive’s violent past, and his ex-wife confessed that the American ‘conman’ and alleged rapist hit her for the first time on their wedding day.
In 2020, due to a backlog of DNA testing kits at the Utah State Crime Laboratory, Rossi was named a suspect in the rape of a 28-year-old woman in 2008. He is also accused of another rape of a 21-year-old girl. . of that same year.
According to his former lawyer, Rossi had traveled to Ireland in 2019 and is known by ten different aliases, including Arthur Brown, the name he currently uses.
Following his high-profile battle against extradition to the US from Scotland, his ex-wife and uncle have revealed all about Rossi’s manipulative and volatile behavior, which is also detailed in episode 3 of Imposter: The Man Who Came Back From The Dead, which airs on Channel 4 tonight at 10pm.
Nicholas Rossi fled to Ireland and then the UK, under several different names, after faking his death in the US following two charges of rape.
His ex-wife Kathryn Heckendorn (pictured with Rossi) said she felt “pressured” to marry the registered sex offender after meeting just six months earlier.
Kathryn Heckendorn, who was married to Rossi in Ohio for seven months, said she knew marrying the fugitive was a mistake.
The couple had only known each other for six months before making their relationship legally official, which ultimately left Kathryn feeling rushed.
She confessed that she finally agreed to Rossi’s request to get married and the couple walked down the aisle without telling anyone else.
However, her wedding day would also be the beginning of a seven-month campaign of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of her ex-husband.
“It was the first day he hit me for the first time, right after we got married,” she told the newspaper. bbc.
Rossi told Kathryn what she could and couldn’t wear and also broke off relationships with family and friends.
Kathryn revealed she endured seven months of physical and psychological abuse at the hands of Rossi, who hit her for the first time on their wedding day.
Rossi is now married to Miranda Knight (pictured), who firmly believes her husband is Arthur Knight.
She alleged that being hit by Rossi was “an everyday occurrence” and that he regularly imploded over small problems.
‘(They would) verbally humiliate me (and tell me) how stupid and dumb I was. “If she didn’t act that way, she wouldn’t have to get hurt,” she said.
Kathryn recalled that Rossi would sometimes hold a knife to her throat or in some cases.
After finally escaping Rossi’s clutches, Kathryn was granted a divorce after a judge said her husband had committed “gross dereliction of duty and cruelty.”
She also didn’t know her ex-husband was a registered sex offender until they were married.
Seven years earlier, Rossi was convicted of sexual imposition and public indecency while a student at Sinclair College in Dayton, Ohio.
He assaulted a fellow student whom he had initially met on MySpace after the pair had been having lunch.
Rossi’s uncle Michael (pictured, was left deeply hurt after discovering that his nephew had faked his own death on the day of his brother’s funeral).
Michael remembered his nephew as a “cool” and “special kid” (pictured on his adoptive father, David Rossi’s, motorcycle in Providence, Florida)
Michael worked alongside Rossi to try to reform the childcare sector, but his nephew cut contact in 2017.
Rossi’s uncle’s story contrasts sharply with others who have been in contact with the fugitive.
Michael Alahverdian fondly remembered his nephew as a “great” and “special boy” in an interview with the BBC in 2023.
The couple separated when the rape suspect was around seven years old after his mother separated from Michael’s brother.
15 years later, the couple began connecting again over Facebook, where Rossi told his uncle that he had been physically and mentally abused while in care.
In 2011, the fugitive attempted to sue the Rhode Island state child welfare agency over the abuse he allegedly suffered. They finally reached an agreement, according to the BBC.
Michael worked alongside Rossi to try to reform the childcare sector, but his nephew cut contact in 2017.
“The next time I heard about him it was on the news that he had passed away,” Michael told the BBC.
In 2020, Rossi faked his death and declared to the media that he only had weeks to live due to late-stage non-Hodgkin lymphoma, and an obituary was later published declaring his death.
A year later, Rossi’s biological father and Michael’s brother Jack passed away.
Michael discovered his nephew was still alive the same day he buried his brother.
The fugitive has insisted for years that he is actually an Irish orphan and that authorities framed him and took his fingerprints while he lay in a coma.
Rossi has been awaiting trial in a Utah prison since December of last year, while continuing to maintain that he is Arthur Knight.
Comparing it to a “dream” and a “nightmare”, Michael said: “I come home and the news shows that Nick (Rossi) has been found alive.”
Hurt by his relative’s deception, the distraught uncle confessed that the entire family was ‘in shock’
In November Arthur Knight was ruled to be Rossi and subsequently lost his final appeal against extradition.
Rossi has been awaiting trial in a Utah jail since December of last year.
There has never been an official version of events from Rossi because he continues to insist that he is Arthur Knight and that the authorities have got the wrong man.
Imposter Episode 3: The Man Who Came Back from the Dead airs on Channel 4 tonight at 10pm
