More than four decades after a newborn was found dead behind Valley City State College, authorities say they have finally traced the case back to a former student now living in Arizona.
Nancy Jean Trottier, 65, of Sun Lakes, Arizona, has been arrested and charged with Class AA felony murder in connection with the death of a newborn discovered near the Valley City State College campus in April 1981. The baby, buried by police under the name "Rebecca," was found with the umbilical cord still attached. An autopsy at the time concluded the cause of death was acute asphyxia consistent with suffocation.
Trottier has already made an initial court appearance and is scheduled for arraignment and a preliminary hearing on May 21, 2026. Her arrest follows a lengthy cold-case review that included the 2019 exhumation of the infant's remains and new rounds of DNA testing that would eventually reopen a case many in Valley City thought might never be solved.
How genetic genealogy reopened the case
Investigators exhumed the infant's remains in July 2019 and sent material from the grave to third-party laboratories for familial and genealogical analysis. That work generated a series of genetic leads that slowly narrowed the pool of potential relatives.
By August 2020, a detailed genetic genealogy report identified possible family connections that steered detectives toward Trottier, who had attended Valley City State College from 1978 to 1982. According to Valley News Live, Trottier agreed to sit for an interview with investigators and later provided a DNA sample. Detectives also obtained a DNA sample from her husband under court authority, adding another key piece to the genetic puzzle.
Court filing details and the suspect's response
The Barnes County State's Attorney formally filed a Class AA murder charge, and Trottier was taken into custody. A judge set bail at a $2 million surety bond or $750,000 cash, according to KVRR, signaling just how seriously the court is treating the case.
In an October 2021 interview referenced in the criminal affidavit, Trottier grew emotional when confronted with questions about the baby. "It could be. Maybe it was me," she told investigators, according to WEAU.
County prosecutors, joined by the North Dakota Attorney General, announced the charge at a press conference and credited decades of detective work and persistence for the breakthrough, as reported by KFYR. For investigators who kept the case file open through retirements and changing technology, it was a rare moment of public vindication.
What the forensic evidence shows
According to charging documents, DNA from the exhumed remains underwent extensive analysis, culminating in a June 2023 report. That report concluded it was about 3.481 quadrillion times more likely that the infant was the biological child of Trottier and her husband than of an unrelated couple.
Investigators say DNA consistent with Trottier's profile also appeared on tissue paper collected at the scene back in 1981. Prosecutors have highlighted those genetic findings as the central forensic pillars of the case, according to reporting by WKRC via Fox San Antonio. For a cold case that predates modern DNA science, the state is now betting heavily on the power of those lab results.
Legal stakes and what's next
Trottier faces a Class AA felony, the most serious classification under North Dakota law, which can carry a maximum sentence of life imprisonment and lengthy periods of parole ineligibility, according to state sentencing statutes. Her arraignment and preliminary hearing are set for May 21, 2026, in Barnes County, where prosecutors will also determine whether to file any additional charges as the investigation continues, KVRR reports.
As the case moves toward trial, courts are expected to weigh challenges involving the age of the evidence, questions about collection and storage practices from the early 1980s, and other procedural issues tied to resurrecting a file this old, as outlined in state law.
Valley City residents seek closure
For many in Valley City, the arrest is not just a line in a court docket but the possible closure of a story that has lingered since the Reagan era. Longtime residents told reporters the news brought a measure of relief after years of wondering who the baby was and what had happened. Some made their way to the grave of the infant known only as Rebecca after the announcement, paying quiet respects to a child whose short life reshaped their town's history.
Neighbors and former local officials have publicly praised investigators for refusing to abandon the case and for leaning on modern forensic tools to chase down new leads, according to Valley News Live. At the same time, prosecutors are reminding the public that an arrest is only the beginning of the legal process and that any conviction will depend on how evidence collected more than 40 years ago stands up under cross-examination in a North Dakota courtroom.
