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A 65-year-old Arizona woman has been charged with murdering her newborn decades after the baby was found dead on a North Dakota college campus — with DNA testing finally exposing her as the mother.
Nancy Jean Trottier was arrested on April 7 for the murder of the baby, named “Rebecca” by police, who was found on the Valley City State College campus about 100 miles outside of Bismarck, North Dakota, in 1981, Valley News Live reported.
When police discovered the newborn, she was stuffed inside a plastic bag with her umbilical cord still attached.
Trottier, a student at the college from 1978 to 1982, is accused of suffocating the newborn after an autopsy revealed the baby was alive at birth and that the trauma was consistent with acute asphyxia.
The case sat cold and unsolved for nearly 45 years, until advances in DNA technology gave investigators a new lead, prompting them to reopen the case and exhume the baby’s body in July 2019, according to an affidavit obtained by Valley News Live.
DNA extracted from the newborn’s remains produced a genetic genealogy report by August 2020, pointing to possible relatives and leading investigators to identify Trottier as a suspect.
When Trottier was interviewed by police in October 2021, she allegedly told investigators, “Maybe it was me,” and “It could be, maybe it was me,” and agreed to provide a DNA sample, the outlet reported.
Investigators also collected DNA from her husband in December 2021.
The results, returned in June 2023, were staggering — it was 3.481 quadrillion times more likely that the baby was the biological child of Trottier and her husband than any outside party.
Investigators also found DNA consistent with Trottier’s profile on tissue paper recovered from the scene in 1981.
Trottier, who had been living in Sun Lakes, Ariz., made her initial appearance in Barnes County court in North Dakota on Monday.
She faces a Class AA felony murder charge, the most serious felony classification in North Dakota, in connection with the death of the newborn. Trottier faces life in prison without parole if found guilty.
After Barnes County State’s Attorney Tonya Duffy announced the murder charge Monday, Valley City residents visited Baby Rebecca’s gravesite, Valley News Live reported.
Locals told the outlet the unsolved case had cast a shadow over their town for decades.
“I was a senior in high school when this happened at the college. Our family was involved in this; we had a funeral home in Valley City,” resident Lance Peterson said, adding that he’s happy the case is finally getting closure after all these years.
“It’s been a long, trying ordeal. She’s here now, we’re at the cemetery. Yeah, it’s good closure for Valley City.”
Trottier’s preliminary hearing and arraignment are scheduled for May 21, 2026, at 1 p.m.
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