Valley News Live reported<\/a>.<\/p>\nWhen police discovered the newborn, she was stuffed inside a plastic bag with her umbilical cord still attached.<\/p>\nNancy Jean Trottier was arrested on April 7 for allegedly murdering her newborn decades after the baby was found dead on a North Dakota college campus. Stutsman County Correctional Center<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nTrottier, 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.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s body in July 2019, according to an affidavit obtained by Valley News Live.<\/p>\n\n<\/aside>\nDNA extracted from the newborn\u2019s remains produced a genetic genealogy report by August 2020, pointing to possible relatives and leading investigators to identify Trottier as a suspect.<\/p>\n
When Trottier was interviewed by police in October 2021, she allegedly told investigators, \u201cMaybe it was me,\u201d and \u201cIt could be, maybe it was me,\u201d and agreed to provide a DNA sample, the outlet reported.<\/p>\n
Investigators also collected DNA from her husband in December 2021.<\/p>\n
The results, returned in June 2023, were staggering \u2014 it was 3.481 quadrillion times more likely that the baby was the biological child of Trottier and her husband than any outside party.<\/p>\nThe baby, named \u201cRebecca\u201d by police, was found on the Valley City State College campus about 100 miles outside of Bismarck, North Dakota, in 1981. SNEHIT PHOTO \u2013 stock.adobe.com<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\nInvestigators also found DNA consistent with Trottier\u2019s profile on tissue paper recovered from the scene in 1981.<\/p>\n
Trottier, who had been living in Sun Lakes, Ariz., made her initial appearance in Barnes County court in North Dakota on Monday.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
After Barnes County State\u2019s Attorney Tonya Duffy announced the murder charge Monday, Valley City residents visited Baby Rebecca\u2019s gravesite, Valley News Live reported.<\/p>\n
Locals told the outlet the unsolved case had cast a shadow over their town for decades.<\/p>\n
\u201cI 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,\u201d resident Lance Peterson said, adding that he\u2019s happy the case is finally getting closure after all these years.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a long, trying ordeal. She\u2019s here now, we\u2019re at the cemetery. Yeah, it\u2019s good closure for Valley City.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trottier\u2019s preliminary hearing and arraignment are scheduled for May 21, 2026, at 1 p.m.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
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