Found Deceased MT - Selina (Selena) Not Afraid, 16, I-90 rest area between Billings & Hardin, 1 Jan 2020

[stattlich1]

Kelch and Taylor still have questions surrounding the investigation into Not Afraid's death.

“I mean, there’s no way that she went missing that close to where she was found. And she was found 20 days later when there were so many people looking for her, family friends day and night,” Rydberg said.

"They didn't give up," Kelch added. "And how she just appeared is just..."

Ya, hard for me too, you know, to not be suspicious.

 

[Luckyzmom]

So sad for this young lady, terrible situation, and then so close to where she went missing. Hope her family has a bit of peace and comfort in knowing her fate and bringing her home. Can not imagine what this Mother has gone through. Truly heartbreaking, what a strong woman she must be. Certainly admire her resolve to find her child JMO

 

[PommyMommy]

JAN 24, 2020
Hardin remembers Selena Not Afraid at vigil
[...]

The family and Crow tribal leaders are also asking for the Montana Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation to take over this case.

Family members made that announcement along with saying it has hired a private investigator and an attorney.

But the night was about everyone coming together for for prayers, stories and songs.

[...]

 

[Stunned]

JAN 24, 2020
Hardin remembers Selena Not Afraid at vigil
[...]

The family and Crow tribal leaders are also asking for the Montana Department of Justice's Division of Criminal Investigation to take over this case.

Family members made that announcement along with saying it has hired a private investigator and an attorney.

But the night was about everyone coming together for for prayers, stories and songs.

[...]

Good! Cause something sure stinks to high heaven here!

 

[AmandaReckonwith]

Selena's Obituary (I edited it to fit the Case Archive)

 

[PommyMommy]

JAN 24, 2020
Relatives, Law Enforcement Clash Over What Killed 16-Year-Old Crow Girl
[...]

AL is writing down questions she has about what happened to her niece, Selena Not Afraid.

She’s at the old Crow casino, taking notes on a massive piece of construction paper as relatives and friends shout out questions about Not Afraid’s death and disappearance.



[...]

For the past year, the community has watched as a handful of girls have gone missing or turned up dead in Big Horn County, where parts of the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Reservations lie.

Some of those cases have been ruled as deaths of exposure or have come back inconclusive. The Not Afraid family says they won’t let that happen to Not Afraid, an enrolled Crow tribal member who was a junior at Hardin High School.

[...]

Leider went to the site where Not Afraid’s body was found the day after it was discovered.

“What I saw is there’s no imprint of a body,” Leider said. “If a body laid there for 19 plus days, there would’ve been an imprint there.”

She also said there were tire tracks near the site, which the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office denies. She wants to know why there were no body fluids at the scene. She also wants to know why early reports included that Not Afraid was possibly intoxicated.

[...]

Amyotte thinks what happened is that her granddaughter was being held hostage during the near three-weeks she was missing.

[...]

“We have to follow the evidence,” WInburn said. “If they have evidence that there was foul play, they need to bring it to the sheriff’s office and we can investigate it. But we have no evidence that there was foul play. Absolutely none.”

He said there’s no sign that anyone else was near the site.

“There’s no tire tracks,” he said.

[...]

He said the autopsy will reveal if any violence was done to Not Afraid and how much alcohol was in her system.

“She had been drinking,” he said. “We don’t know the extent she’d been drinking and that might have been part of it too, yes.”

[...]

Not Afraid’s aunt, Cheryl Horn, said on Facebook that Not Afraid’s funeral will take place Sunday at 11 A.M. at Hardin High School.

 

[mommadukes]

So glad to see the family is standing strong in their determination to be this beautiful girl’s voice. I hope that they get answers to all of their unanswered questions.

 

[janewall]

Perhaps have copies and posted in the Ladies' Rooms.

And every high school girls' restroom. And every sorority house.

Maybe even in middle schools. Girls cannot learn the 'buddy system' too young.

 

[AmandaReckonwith]

Updated.
Selena Not Afraid Case Archive:
Selina Not Afraid -MT- by amanda reckonwith

Cellphone (if that link doesn't work well) click and scroll...
Selina (goes by Selena) Not Afraid

 

[stattlich1]

JAN 24, 2020
Relatives, Law Enforcement Clash Over What Killed 16-Year-Old Crow Girl
[...]

AL is writing down questions she has about what happened to her niece, Selena Not Afraid.

She’s at the old Crow casino, taking notes on a massive piece of construction paper as relatives and friends shout out questions about Not Afraid’s death and disappearance.



[...]

For the past year, the community has watched as a handful of girls have gone missing or turned up dead in Big Horn County, where parts of the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Reservations lie.

Some of those cases have been ruled as deaths of exposure or have come back inconclusive. The Not Afraid family says they won’t let that happen to Not Afraid, an enrolled Crow tribal member who was a junior at Hardin High School.

[...]

Leider went to the site where Not Afraid’s body was found the day after it was discovered.

“What I saw is there’s no imprint of a body,” Leider said. “If a body laid there for 19 plus days, there would’ve been an imprint there.”

She also said there were tire tracks near the site, which the Big Horn County Sheriff’s Office denies. She wants to know why there were no body fluids at the scene. She also wants to know why early reports included that Not Afraid was possibly intoxicated.

[...]

Amyotte thinks what happened is that her granddaughter was being held hostage during the near three-weeks she was missing.

[...]

“We have to follow the evidence,” WInburn said. “If they have evidence that there was foul play, they need to bring it to the sheriff’s office and we can investigate it. But we have no evidence that there was foul play. Absolutely none.”

He said there’s no sign that anyone else was near the site.

“There’s no tire tracks,” he said.

[...]

He said the autopsy will reveal if any violence was done to Not Afraid and how much alcohol was in her system.

“She had been drinking,” he said. “We don’t know the extent she’d been drinking and that might have been part of it too, yes.”

[...]

Not Afraid’s aunt, Cheryl Horn, said on Facebook that Not Afraid’s funeral will take place Sunday at 11 A.M. at Hardin High School.

I sure do wish I could make out all those questions. One of them appears to be "Why was her ring off to her side?"

And the absence of bodily fluids, if that's true, meaning, no bodily fluids lying where her body was found? .....google what happens when a person dies.

MOO, this case reeks. I'm having real difficulty buying the idea that hundreds of searchers covered that ground, SAR canine teams, choppers, drones, atv's, horseback, and they didn't find her body, then suddenly, VOILA! HERE SHE IS!

Speculation here, IF she did jump the fence, and run flat out into the Montana countryside, then why? If drunk, or stoned, she may have not been thinking clearly. However, for some odd reason, the fight or flight response jumped in to my mind. Might she have been attempting to escape danger?

I'm with Annie Leider in this case, too many things don't add up.

 

[imstilla.grandma]

The issue of disappearing and murdered Indigenous individuals may seem removed from Sheridan County, but Big Horn County borders Wyoming, and it’s government seat, Hardin, sits just 70 miles from Ranchester. It’s closest community, Wyola, is only a 15-minute drive from Parkman. These are our neighbors who shop, eat, work and often attend school in Sheridan County.

Vigils and task forces offer a start, but we must do more. We must find a way to turn sadness and fear into action, guided by respect. We must work to support our Native American community members and their efforts to affect positive change, and do so without cultural judgment. We must look to those populations for guidance as we all seek solutions.
We need more than vigils


"A moment of silence to lift the family and friends of Selena Not Afraid in thought and prayer and to continue to bring awareness to the Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women's movement," the public address announcer said.

The Hardin girls wore red shirts with the words "Hope for Sal" as a warm-up top.

Central players wore red shirts with MMIW, for Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women.

Hardin, Billings Central remember Selena Not Afraid before basketball game

 

[imstilla.grandma]

The official story is that Selena ran off into a field near the Interstate rest stop and disappeared after being left there with another young Native American woman the family says was found with scratched legs from running through bushes and without shoes, hiding in a ditch. It almost sounds like the plot of the movie Wind River, which featured a missing Native American woman who runs without shoes in frigid weather; however, the family of Selena Not Afraid strongly believed she was still alive, and this missing person’s case was all too real. Tragically, it didn’t have the ending so many hoped for.

Detectives now view Selena’s disappearance as “suspicious.” There was a *** page to raise money for a reward to solve Selena’s case.

Cheryl Horn, a “blood sister” of Selena’s mother who watched Selena grow up and was actively involved in the search for the teenager, told Heavy in a lengthy interview:
“We believe she was taken. She did not get out and run.”
She said the family was told that a “man in a green car” may have tried to get the two girls to go with him, and they ran. She questioned why authorities have not issued an Amber Alert for Selena. “We’re having to be our own investigators,” she told Heavy.

On Facebook, family members and friends have posted extensively on the disappearance. They’ve been posting a Billings, Montana address where they say Selena was with other young people before she disappeared.

Selena’s name is given different ways by the news media and authorities. According to the Montana Department of Justice, her full name is Selina Shelley Faye Not Afraid. However, on Facebook, she goes by the name Selena Bell, and family members use the Selena spelling also. Many in the news media are calling her Selina Not Afraid.
Selena Not Afraid Found: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know | Heavy.com

 

[MimosaMornings]

I thought she had gone to spend the night with a friend? Was this party next door or how did she get mixed up with this group?

 

[mickey2942]

Kudos to everyone who posted above me. I had to give myself a "time out", because this is so heart wrenching for me.

There is a problem here. Why was a young woman left alone in the middle of nowhere? I wouldn't treat a dog like this, let alone people.

 

[Stunned]

Well, made some signs about leaving together and have been posting them in every bathroom of places I have traveled today. Including Burger King! I will continue to be that kind of Johnny Appleseed. Well, I guess a woman's Appleseed.

 

[Jazzy5980]

No. Montana Attorney General Tim Fox is from Hardin, Montana. He and Chairman A.J. Not Afraid are old acquaintances. Under the Montana structure, the County Attorney does answer directly to the Attorney General, but it is very rare indeed for an Attorney General to intervene in a case at the local level. It doesn't hurt to ask, though. IMO

Often times the MT Department of Justice will assist counties in prosecuting felonies and homicides. Especially smaller counties with fewer resources. (Old Lawyer here)

 

[imstilla.grandma]

Well, made some signs about leaving together and have been posting them in every bathroom of places I have traveled today. Including Burger King! I will continue to be that kind of Johnny Appleseed. Well, I guess a woman's Appleseed.

it!

 

[rkendmar]

it!

@imstilla.grandma
I posted "The Girl Code" to 3 Facebook pages having to do with Selina and it has been shared, in total, over 950 times so far.
Many little apple trees will be growing from your efforts!

 

[Seenit]

Selena's Obituary (I edited it to fit the Case Archive)

I had not read anything before about her adopted parents until reading this.
I am not familiar, is that usual in the Native American culture to have adopted parents?

 

[Seenit]

I sure do wish I could make out all those questions. One of them appears to be "Why was her ring off to her side?"

And the absence of bodily fluids, if that's true, meaning, no bodily fluids lying where her body was found? .....google what happens when a person dies.

MOO, this case reeks. I'm having real difficulty buying the idea that hundreds of searchers covered that ground, SAR canine teams, choppers, drones, atv's, horseback, and they didn't find her body, then suddenly, VOILA! HERE SHE IS!

Speculation here, IF she did jump the fence, and run flat out into the Montana countryside, then why? If drunk, or stoned, she may have not been thinking clearly. However, for some odd reason, the fight or flight response jumped in to my mind. Might she have been attempting to escape danger?

I'm with Annie Leider in this case, too many things don't add up.

Here, here!