DNA leads to arrest in 1981 Valley City baby murder case

Barnes County State’s Attorney Tonya Duffy charged Nancy Jean Trottier, 65, of Sun Lakes, Arizona, with class AA felony murder in the death of the baby known for decades as Rebecca or Baby Rebecca. Trottier is being held in the Stutsman County Correctional Center in Jamestown, where a judge set bail at $2 million surety bond or $750,000 cash.

The infant’s body was found in April 1981 in a wooded area near the Valley City State College campus. Court documents say the newborn had a plastic covering over her face and the umbilical cord was still attached. An autopsy on April 17, 1981, determined the child had been alive at birth and died from asphyxia, or suffocation, shortly after birth. Investigators estimated the body had been dead for about 24 to 72 hours.

The case was reopened in 2019, when the remains were exhumed from Hillside Cemetery and sent for DNA extraction and familial analysis. A genetic genealogy report received in August 2020 pointed investigators toward possible relatives. Trottier, who attended Valley City State College from 1978 to 1982, was interviewed in October 2021. After being told genetic genealogy suggested she or one of her siblings could be the infant’s parent, she became emotional and said, “maybe it was me” and “it could be, maybe it was me.”

Trottier’s husband’s DNA was later obtained under a search warrant in December 2021. North Dakota State Crime Lab results reported in June 2023 said it was 3.481 quadrillion times more likely that Rebecca was the biological child of Trottier and her husband than an unrelated person. Investigators also said DNA consistent with Trottier’s profile was found on tissue paper recovered from the 1981 scene.

Attorney General Drew Wrigley said the arrest reflected years of work by multiple investigators over more than four decades. Valley City police Lt. Dana Rustebakke credited former officers who worked the case for years and said many in the community believed it would never be solved. Trottier’s preliminary hearing and arraignment are scheduled for May 21, 2026. If Baby Rebecca had lived, she would have turned 45 on April 15, 2026.