University of Rochester kidnapping victim rebuilds life in Chicago

CHICAGO — A 23-year-old man is rebuilding his life in Chicago after his future was upended during a violent encounter while he attended college in Rochester.

Northbrook native Nicholas Kollias was a senior at the University of Rochester when he decided to tag along with a friend who was invited to a gathering by a young woman on Dec. 4, 2015, the Chicago Tribune reported.

Over the following 40 hours, Kollias was held against his will, became the subject of a large-scale manhunt and was beaten, shot, sexually assaulted and tortured. The men were eventually rescued by a SWAT team.

Within weeks, authorities had arrested nine Rochester-area residents in their late teens and 20s. Five of the defendant pleaded guilty to kidnapping, and the other four were convicted in trial last year.

The sentences ranged from seven years in prison for each of two women who helped the perpetrators of the torture to 155 years in prison for the man authorities identified as the leader of the incident.

Kollias graduated a semester early, now works at a financial services firm and finds solace in playing piano. He continues physical therapy with a titanium rod in his left leg and a bullet still in his right calf.

“It was kind of like playing football,” Kollias said of his recovery, “being an athlete all my life, always being a really self-driven, ambitious person, just not taking no as an answer (and) always willing to better myself and grow from every situation. … It’s only going to get better from here.”