The Utah County Attorney’s Office has been working with several other law and policing agencies in the U.S. and globally in the apprehension of Nicholas Rossi, wanted on suspicion of a reported 2008 sexual assault.

The attorney’s office received news Thursday morning that a warrant was granted at the Edinburgh Sheriff Court in Scotland for the arrest of Rossi, who also goes by the name Nicholas Alahverdian and other aliases.

Rossi was apprehended at a Scotland address and is due to appear in court Friday.

“We again express our gratitude to the law enforcement agencies for their diligent efforts in this matter to bring this individual to justice. We do not comment on extradition proceedings or on the details of the work done in the course of this ongoing investigation,” Utah County Attorney David Leavitt said.

During the investigation, which began with a sexual assault in 2008 in Utah County, investigators learned that Rossi had allegedly fled the country to avoid prosecution in Ohio and attempted to lead investigators and state legislators in other states to believe that he was deceased. An obituary was even printed detailing the many years of service he had given to children, and that he was to be cremated and ashes spread in the ocean.

Through the efforts of agents from Utah’s State Bureau of Investigation and various investigators in other states and agencies, and in cooperation with the Utah County Attorney’s Office, Rossi was discovered to be living under an assumed name in Scotland. He also had an address in Ireland.

This past week, he was taken into custody and the Utah County Attorney’s Office is working with federal and international agencies to extradite Rossi back to Utah.

“Our office is grateful for the significant interagency collaboration of law enforcement to bring this suspect to justice. We credit Utah’s Sexual Assault Kit Initiative grant funded through the Department of Justice and the Bureau of Justice Assistance as playing a significant role in testing backlogged kits and ultimately identifying the suspect,” Leavitt said.

Throughout this investigation, SBI agents discovered that Rossi was a suspect in a number of similar offenses in Utah, Rhode Island and Ohio. Those cases include assault and fraud.

It is unknown when Rossi will be extradited to the U.S., but the Scottish court has refused a release on bail.

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