As manslaughter sentencing got underway for the woman initially accused of first-degree murder in the death of a child under her care, the little girl’s identity can finally be shared.
Nina Napope went missing from west Edmonton in April 2023 before being found dead a few days later in central Alberta.
For years, the name of the child in the high-profile manslaughter case was withheld and her face disguised due to a publication ban but now, it has been lifted.
Justice Jody Fraser lifted the publication ban on the girl’s identity at the request of her family, who said Nina was kind and loving and that her siblings wonder where she is.
On Wednesday in court, the family of the eight-year-old girl found in Maskwacis cried while reading victim impact statements during a sentencing hearing for Ashley Rattlesnake, the woman charged in the killing.
“When you go outside and feel the warmth of the sun on your skin, that was Nina,” Napope’s father wrote in a statement read in an Edmonton courtroom by the girl’s grandmother, Starr Dumais.
“My baby Nina was so full of life. She loved to dance and sing.”
Dumais said in her own statement that Nina was her first grandchild.
“I watched her go through her first step, first word, first expression,” Dumais told the hearing.
“My heart is shattered.”
Rattlesnake was looking after Nina at the request of the child’s father, who was behind bars. Court heard she suffered from chronic abuse and neglect while in the care of Rattlesnake.
Nina lived with her from September 2022 until her death from blunt force head trauma in April 2023.
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On April 24, 2023, police stopped by a home near 87 Avenue and 165 Street in west Edmonton to check in on the well-being of the child.
Rattlesnake was drinking alcohol and using methamphetamine the night of the killing. Nina was found lying on the floor bleeding next to a hole in the wall, but it’s not known how she sustained her fatal head injury.
When she was nowhere to be found, officers began investigating. There were “suspicious circumstances,” and EPS said the homicide section took over the case.
Her body was discovered in a hockey bag a few days later on Samson Cree Nation in Maskwacis, which is located about a one-hour drive south of Edmonton.
An autopsy found the girl died of blunt impact trauma, and the death was confirmed to be a homicide.
The autopsy also showed the girl was chronically abused. She had previous, multiple broken bones and injuries. She also had sepsis because of an untreated infected broken tooth, which reduced her chances of surviving the head injury.
Court heard Rattlesnake didn’t call 911 and instead asked acquaintances for help. Four others were charged in the case.
Rattlesnake also cried as the victim impact statements were read in court.
Crown prosecutor Terry Hofmann asked for a nine-year prison sentence. The defence recommended eight years behind bars.
Global News spoke with a woman who called 911 after hearing a rumour that a child may have been seriously injured or was dead.
She said her nephew told her he showed up at the apartment where the child was allegedly injured and saw an unconscious girl with a head wound in a bedroom and a dent on the wall.
Even before the girl was found, police believed she may have been killed.
The then-27-year-old woman was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and indignity to a dead body.
Rattlesnake was initially charged with first-degree murder and indignity to a dead body but pleaded guilty in September 2025 to the lesser charge of manslaughter.
The plea came a day after Edmonton’s interim police chief made public a letter from his force to Alberta’s justice ministry saying it was aware of the impending deal and urging the Crown to call it off.
The letter challenged the traditional firewall that separates police, who investigate a case, from prosecutors, who determine how best to proceed with the case in court.
— More to come…
— With files from Fakiha Baig, The Canadian Press
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