[UPDATE 9 a.m.: EPD Adds Key Details] ‘Nobody Knew That Baby Was Gone’: Murder Charges Reveal Tragic Timeline in Death of Humboldt Toddler

Arrest of Nichole Ann Thorpe [Image from the Redkey Police Department]

In May 2020, months before CarmenEve Faith Robison was born, Nichole Ann Thorpe posted photographs of a handwritten Mother’s Day letter to Facebook.

“I believe that you are going to be the mother that CarmenEve deserves,” the letter read in part. It was signed, “Maxx Robison.”

Thorpe, then pregnant, captioned the post: “yes I’m expecting and it’s a girl.”

More than five years later, Thorpe, now 32, sits jailed in Indiana awaiting extradition to Humboldt County, where prosecutors accuse her of murdering the child she once hoped for–her second daughter. The first daughter and a daughter born after CarmenEve were both adopted by relatives soon after birth.

According to Humboldt County Superior Court records reviewed by Redheaded Blackbelt, Thorpe has been charged with murder, felony child abuse, and welfare fraud connected to the death of CarmenEve, born July 26, 2020.

The felony complaint, filed April 7, 2026, alleges that on or about March 9, 2022, Thorpe “did willfully, unlawfully, and with malice aforethought murder CarmenEve Faith Robison.”

Prosecutors further allege Thorpe “personally inflicted great bodily injury” on the toddler, who was under the age of five.

The case surfaced publicly only after Thorpe was arrested this April 29 in Redkey, Indiana, where local authorities said the U.S. Marshals Service alerted them that a California fugitive was believed to be living in town.

A press release issued by the Redkey Police Department stated Thorpe was wanted by California authorities on allegations including involuntary manslaughter, child abuse, conspiracy, concealing a death, and failure to report a child’s death.

But the public Humboldt County complaint currently contains three counts: murder, felony child abuse/endangerment, and welfare fraud.

Court records identify the originating investigative agency as the Eureka Police Department under case number 23-004972 — a numbering sequence that commonly indicates the investigation formally began in 2023, a year after prosecutors now allege CarmenEve died.

By then, according to family members, concern had already been building.

Debbie Rosebrook, connected through family to the father of one of Thorpe’s other children, told RHBB, “Nobody, I mean, nobody noticed for over a year and a half. Nobody knew that baby was gone.”

Rosebrook described a cycle of addiction stretching back years before CarmenEve’s death became the subject of a homicide case.

The oldest daughter, Rosebrook said, was adopted shortly after birth by relatives. CarmenEve, the second daughter, remained with Thorpe for a period of time until prosecutors allege she was killed. And a third daughter born after CarmenEve’s death was also ultimately adopted by family members after authorities intervened.

By early 2022, according to Rosebrook, family members were becoming alarmed.

Then, on March 6, 2022 — just three days before prosecutors now allege CarmenEve was murdered — another tragedy unfolded around the people connected to the child.

Social media posts reviewed by RHBB indicate Bradley Remington, identified in Humboldt County child support records as CarmenEve’s father, died unexpectedly.

A child support judgment filed weeks later still named Remington as responsible for monthly support payments for CarmenEve.

Thorpe, meanwhile, continued posting photographs of the toddler online after prosecutors now allege the child was already dead.

On April 4, 2022, she updated her Facebook cover photo with an image of CarmenEve and the caption: “Mommy Loves You Baby So Much!”

Screenshot of Nichole Ann Thorpe’s Facebook page showing Carmen. The image was posted as her cover photo almost a month after prosecutors allege Thorpe murdered the toddler.

Rosebrook said despite the photo, she still felt uneasy. “I was worried about the baby,” she said, “and I did reach out to the grandma [Nichole’s mother] about that time.”

“You’d go look and think maybe the baby was okay,” she said. “But something just didn’t feel right.”

According to Rosebrook, concern intensified after relatives allegedly heard a story that Thorpe’s vehicle had once been stolen with the child inside — but that no police report appeared to exist.

An Arcata Police CAD entry later reviewed by RHBB appears consistent with that account. The entry describes a grandmother contacting police to report that her transient daughter had allegedly claimed her vehicle had been stolen with her three-year-old child inside approximately a year earlier.

Screenshot of a December 2, 2023 report to APD mirrored on Lost Coast Outpost that Debbie Rosebrook says shows a report made as family attempted to sort out what Nichole Thorpe claimed had happened to CarmenEve.

By then, according to Rosebrook, she began urging family members to contact law enforcement. “You call the cops right now,” Rosebrook recalled telling relatives of Thorpe. “Nicole has not even been posting that baby.”

What investigators uncovered afterward remains largely hidden from public view. Rosebrook alleges, “[Carmen] died while Nichole was doing drugs with her boyfriend.”

She went on to state, “Nichole was pregnant with her third baby, also born drug addicted, when it was discovered Carmen-Eve was dead.” Rosebrook told RHBB she later learned CarmenEve’s remains had been recovered after Thorpe allegedly directed investigators to the location in the woods. RHBB has not independently confirmed those details through official records, and no publicly available court document reviewed by RHBB currently describes whether the child’s body was recovered or the condition in which it was found.

Before investigators began working the case, prosecutors allege Thorpe fraudulently collected public assistance benefits intended for CarmenEve between May 1, 2022 and May 31, 2024 — more than two years after the alleged homicide date.

The complaint alleges the total amounted to approximately $18,636.30.

Then, on April 7, 2026, Humboldt County prosecutors formally filed murder charges.

Two days later, a warrant was issued for Thorpe’s arrest.

Three weeks after that, officers in a small Indiana town took her into custody.

As of publication, no additional suspects have been publicly charged, and authorities have not officially stated how investigators came to believe CarmenEve was killed or when they first learned the child was missing.

RHBB reached out to the Eureka Police Department for additional information regarding the investigation but did not receive answers to questions prior to the publication of this article.

Rosebrook told RHBB, “It is so incredibly sad to me. It didn’t have to happen…[CarmenEve] had no one, because….everybody surrounding her were involved with drugs.”