Dateline on NBC: Who is Nicholas Nick Alahverdian and what did he do?

The latest episode of NBC's Dateline, “The Man of Many Faces,” released on Friday, December 13 at 9/8c p.m., investigates an international fugitive called Nicholas Nick Alahverdian.

Born Nicholas Alahverdian, he assumed multiple aliases to escape police and charges of r*pe and fraud. In addition to committing physical and s*xual abuse, he also faked his death in 2020.

He was once identified in Scotland, but reportedly disguised himself as Arthur Knight, pretending to be an Irish orphan, and misled the police. He escaped for a few more months before he was again identified in 2021.

Dateline's latest episode will investigate this fugitive, originally from Rhode Island, who targeted multiple victims.

Exploring the Alahverdian case

The subject of NBC's Dateline Season 33 Episode 10 is Nicholas Nick Alahverdian, who also changed his name to Nicholas Rossi and Arthur Knight over the years.

After suffering neglect and abuse at his own home, he was placed in foster care. As a child, he was reportedly diagnosed with many behavioral problems, including narcissistic personality disorder and attention deficit disorder.

Foster care did not help, and he allegedly experienced extreme physical, emotional, and s*xual abuse during his time there, which made him a troubled adult.

While the authorities could not trace any links to this abuse towards Nick, he fought against Rhode Island's social services system until they waived his medical debt of around $2,00,000.

What were the charges against him?

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Incidents relating to abuse started emerging around 2008 when it was reported that Alahverdian groped a college student. After this incident, he was accused of assault and kidnappings between 2008 and 2019 in four different cities.

Mary Grebinski, one of his victims, appears on the latest episode of Dateline. She knew that she was not the first victim who had experienced such horrible abuse from him. Reportedly, he s*xually abused many women in Salt County and Utah.

How did Alahverdian fake his death?

After escaping the police in 2020 as Arthur Knight, he alleged that he was suffering from non-Hodgkin lymphoma and faked his own death. According to his obituary, he died on February 29, 2020.

He was finally identified in 2021 at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where he was getting treatment for COVID-19. The staff identified him because of the distinct scars and tattoos they had seen in the news.

He was sent to the Utah County jail and remains imprisoned, awaiting his trial on April 22, 2025.