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Posted on 04/17/2026 7:00:06 PM PDT by TheDon
Arizona’s Family has learned new information about the life an Arizona woman had after she allegedly killed her baby 45 years ago in North Dakota.
Investigators said Nancy Trottier, 65, lived a life of serving the disabled following the alleged crime.
She had no criminal history when she was arrested in Arizona last week and is charged with murder.
For 41 years, Trottier was a teacher at the North Dakota School for the Deaf. She is a mother of four who has dedicated her life to teaching children with disabilities.
The baby, whom police named Rebecca, was discovered in the woods on the Valley City State University campus in April 1981. The body had plastic covering her face, and the umbilical cord was still attached.
Advancements in DNA cracked the cold case. During an interview with investigators, Trottier said, “Maybe it was me,” according to court documents.
“The defendant’s DNA was also confirmed to be present on items found at the location where the victim was located, including on a fingernail clipper and other items that contained human blood,” said Barnes County State’s Attorney Tonya Duffy during Trottier’s first court appearance.
According to court documents, Trottier was attending Valley City State University and dating her now-husband when she gave birth and shortly afterward suffocated her daughter.
“When the defendant was set to meet with law enforcement again to go over DNA findings, law enforcement learned that she had attempted suicide,” Duffy said during Trottier’s first court appearance.
The mystery of what happened to Baby Rebecca haunted the small North Dakota town.
“It’s been a long, trying ordeal,” said Lance Peterson, a Valley City resident.
Detectives believe that after the crime, Trottier finished school and went on to lead an exemplary life. She had four more children and taught children who were hard of hearing. After retiring in 2024, she moved to Sun Lakes in the East Valley with her husband.
“It’s a terrible decision that she made. It is a life that is lost, but it’s also been 45 years. And I think she’s been spending each of those years, at first intentionally and then later unintentionally, thinking that if she does more good, it will offset the bad thing that she did when she was in her early 20s,” said John Delatorre, a forensic psychologist.
He said he suspects Trottier’s actions were motivated by fear and self-preservation.
“It’s easy to sort of just say that it’s the person’s disposition that she must be a psychopath or a cold-hearted woman or something like that when the evidence tells us that that’s not true. She made a choice and she needs to pay the price for that choice. But we are much more complex than just one behavior that we engaged in 40 years ago,” said Delatorre.
Trottier is in custody awaiting a hearing in May.
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Did you think it was just skipping off into the sunset? As long as you did not brutally murder any more of your babies it was all ok?
Not quite the stupidest thing you have said on this thread but real close.
“Thats not the part I was talking about.”
You ducked my question ...
That’s not what I said Captain Strawman.
I think you’re being a complete asshole, making false accusations based on your own assumptions and don’t know the first thing about me.
I have been solidly pro-life all of my life, long before I became interested in politics in the early ‘90 and certainly solidly pro-life since then giving to pro-life organizations and heavily posting in its support in my first ten years here.
Your retarded definition of ‘repentance’ is of little concern to me.
So just where is your line?
It is obviously ok to kill a newborn as long as it was 41 years ago.
How about a six year old 20 years ago? Just forget about it?
As to your name calling, :yawn:
I am not making false accusations I am just pointing out reality.
People may say that they are pro-life. Up until it comes to punishing people that murder babies. At that point they become very wishy-washy. You can see it on this thread.
You see it in the "kids left in hot cars to bake to death".
Child murder is almost acceptable.
I don't think it is.
I think the deliberate murder of a baby should be punished the same way the deliberate murder of an adult would be.
There is no difference between this woman and the guy who stabs a random woman on a train.
Your retarded definition of ‘repentance’ is of little concern to me.
You want the kind of repentance that demands nothing. Repentance means that you accept both guilt and consequences. Or it means nothing. Repentance is not just saying "oh, my bad."
My perspective is I’d rather have her as a neighbor than the psycho who slit the throat of Iryna Zarutska, but Mrs. Trottier is going to be punished far more harshly than Decarlos Dejuan Brown, Jr.
We don’t have a just “justice” system.
Just ask the hundreds of J6 protesters who spent years in prison without bail or trial for walking around DC.
I have faith/fear that God fixes it all in the end.
Man’s laws are no substitute for God’s.
That is quite a load of assumptions in every line. More false accusations based on them too.
Apparently honesty and adult conversation are two things that are completely beyond your capabilities.
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