Trottier hearing reset to August, remains held in Jamestown jail

Nancy J. Trottier will wait until Aug. 13 for her next court appearance, and she remains held in the Stutsman County Correctional Center in Jamestown while the case moves through Barnes County.

The preliminary hearing, which had been set for May 21, was reset for 1 p.m. Aug. 13 at the Barnes County Courthouse. Judge Nicholas Thornton had already set Trottier’s bond on April 13 at $2 million surety or $750,000 cash, terms that still govern her detention as the case advances.

Trottier, 65, was arrested April 7 in Sun Lakes, Arizona, and is charged in North Dakota with Class AA felony murder. The case stems from the April 1981 death of a newborn girl found near Valley City State College in Valley City, a death that long has been tied to the “Baby Rebecca” cold case.

Court records and later reporting say investigators used DNA and forensic genealogy to identify Trottier and her husband as the infant’s biological parents. The baby’s remains were exhumed in July 2019 as part of the reopened investigation, and Trottier was interviewed by investigators in October 2021. In some reporting, she reportedly responded, “maybe it was me,” when asked whether she might have been involved.

The reset means the case will not reach its next visible stage for nearly three more months, leaving Trottier in local custody in Jamestown and extending the period before residents see any new courtroom action. That matters in a case being watched across Barnes County and Stutsman County because the hearing is one of the first public checkpoints since the arrest and charging in April.

For now, the procedural picture is straightforward: Trottier remains jailed in Jamestown, the case is being heard in Barnes County, and the next scheduled hearing is August 13 at 1 p.m. The delay does not change the charge, the bond, or the fact that the prosecution remains tied to a 45-year-old death investigation that has only recently moved into open court.