Police say a man faked his own death from cancer in order to escape an arrest on sexual assault charges and made his way to Scotland.

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An obituary for Nicholas Alahverdian appeared in 2020, saying he died on Feb. 29 from cancer.

Alahverdian, who is also known as Nicholas Rossi, was found in Scotland about a month ago. Rossi checked himself into a hospital in Glasgow with COVID-19, and was placed on a ventilator, The Providence Journal reported.

Rossi is wanted in connection with an alleged sexual assault from 2008 in Utah, and another attack in Ohio in 2018. In a news release, investigators in Utah said they “discovered that Nicholas Rossi was a suspect in a number of similar offenses in Utah and throughout the United States after the 2008 incident.”

A year after Rossi’s death, the state police said they did not believe he was dead and began searching for him, saying he was on the run from the FBI, which had questioned him about a fraud complaint against him in Ohio, The Washington Post reported.

Investigators told NBC News that had Rossi not caught COVID-19 and needed medical care, he still likely would not have been caught.

Rossi is currently in custody in a Glasgow hospital, and the Utah County Attorney’s Office said they are working with federal and international agencies to bring him back to the U.S.

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