A Nevada woman branded a ‘baby killer’ after a miscarriage served over two years in prison, and says getting her baby’s ashes back ‘meant everything’

A Nevada woman who miscarried in 2018 was branded a “baby killer” in Winnemucca, convicted of manslaughter and sent to prison for over two years, according to People. Humboldt County has now agreed to pay Patience Rousseau, 34, $1.6 million, and she says getting her baby’s ashes back “meant everything” to her. Rousseau delivered a stillborn son she named Abel in April 2018, and she buried his remains in her yard.

Authorities soon came to her Winnemucca home, which she shared with two young sons and a man. She was 26 then, and she had not seen a doctor during the pregnancy. Her lawyers sent the county a demand letter in March that alleged state-law violations, deliberate emotional harm and breaches of her constitutional rights. Those claims echo a separate case in which Renee Good’s family filed two federal lawsuits against the United States.

Attorney Paola Armeni noted that the payment is not an admission of fault by the county. Local reporting shows about $1.2 million is reserved for Rousseau. The remainder pays attorney fees and repays the $100,000 the state awarded her in February.

A 1911 law behind the case

Prosecutors charged Rousseau with manslaughter under NRS 200.220, a 1911 law titled “taking drugs to terminate pregnancy.” The law covers a woman who uses a drug or any other means beyond 24 weeks of pregnancy to end it, and the child dies as a result. It carves out terminations done on a physician’s advice. A conviction is a category B felony, which carries one to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $10,000.

Advocates have tried to repeal the statute, and no other law like it exists in the United States, according to that coverage. Laura FitzSimmons, the lawyer who helped Rousseau challenge her conviction, said no one else has faced charges under it. Rousseau could not tell how advanced the pregnancy was because her periods were irregular. Her car had broken down, which kept her from reaching an abortion provider.

Following online searches for ways to end the pregnancy, she lifted heavy items and ate cinnamon repeatedly, and investigators unsuccessfully tried to pin the loss on those steps. They then accused her of using marijuana, cigarettes and methamphetamines, arguing that this showed an intent to cause a miscarriage.

Reporting from 2024 shows that toxicology found traces of marijuana and methamphetamine, but the medical examiner and other experts found no evidence that either drug caused the miscarriage. She pleaded guilty in 2019 on her public defender’s urging. The judge sentenced her to 30 months to eight years in prison, and she spent a little over two years behind bars.

A court vacated the conviction in 2021 on the grounds that her public defender provided ineffective assistance. FitzSimmons then took over the case pro bono. She contended that Rousseau had used drugs for a long time rather than to bring on a miscarriage. She also said prosecutors could not show the drugs caused the loss. A 2025 dismissal with prejudice made the outcome final, so the charges cannot be filed again.

Rousseau has since moved to South Dakota, where she is sober and raising three sons aged four, seven and nine. She hopes to put what is left toward her housing costs and a shop of her own. “They fought so much to avoid paying me,” she said. “I went through so much and so did my children, who are still facing these issues. It’s not fair.”

A deputy involved in the arrest authorized Abel’s cremation as a deputy coroner after the remains went unclaimed, and reportedly carried the ashes along to Texas after leaving Nevada. Rousseau learned this only through a newspaper’s investigation, and the settlement returned the ashes to her.