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

[imstilla.grandma]

A funeral is planned for Selena Not Afraid on Sunday, January 26, at 1 p.m. at Hardin High School.
Therapists help Hardin students grieve classmate

 

[imstilla.grandma]

In this lesson, students will learn about the crisis of missing Native American women and the response from communities, law enforcement and politicians. Students will then create their own visual response to what is happening.

Questions for Writing and Discussion
Read the article, then answer the following questions:

1. How would you summarize the situation in southern Montana and in Big Horn County? What facts or numbers in the first several paragraphs stood out and helped you to understand the issue?

2. What are some of the reasons that violence and disappearances of Native American people have not been accurately or effectively documented?

3. How do law enforcement officials and families differ in their understanding about why these cases have not been adequately investigated? What are some of the things that families are doing to encourage law enforcement officials and politicians to more aggressively respond to the cases of missing women?

4. The article states, “At 16, Selena already knew the toll of violence too well.” What does that statement mean in the context of the article? What does Selena’s family’s experience with violence illustrate about the larger issues that many Native American communities are facing?

5. Why did Jay Harris, the county prosecutor, declare a state of emergency? Why were some families disappointed about the timing of his declaration?

6. Why have the stories of Kaysera Stops Pretty Places and Selena become intertwined? What were some of the questions and concerns that Kaysera’s family wished law enforcement had asked?
Lesson of the Day: ‘Rural Montana Had Already Lost Too Many Native Women. Then Selena Disappeared.’

 

[Dave F.]

Yes, I think those two links are important. There are two sides to the victims family. Her Aunt posted:

"I'm not done my girl!! I will continue the fight!!' Horn posted as followers commented supporting her fight for justice.’

Also in the article is a snapshot of the Snapchat video posted by the aunt where the boy is grabbing Selena’s hat and yelling at her."



And that seems inconsistent with what her Uncle has stated, when he said no foul play was suspected:
Big Horn County Sheriff Lawrence Big Hair said her death was not foul play after her body was found Monday a mile away from an I90 rest stop following a three-week search.

Crow Tribe of Indians
Statement from Chairman Alvin Not Afraid Jr.

It is with great sorrow, that I address you all this evening.
Authorities have confirmed that they have found my niece, Selena Not Afraid earlier today, deceased, less than a mile from where she was last seen.
Please keep Selena’s family and friends in Prayer...



From reading a lot of statements from both sides, I have learned that Horn, her Auntie feels like her niece needs to find some Justice. And it is rumoured that there were adult family members of the victims at the party AND in the car she was riding in, but they were from the Sheriff's side of the family, Not Aunt Horn's side of the family....

I want to make this as clear as possible:
Selena's auntie is not a sister to her mother or her father. She holds the title of auntie purely out of love and longtime acceptance of familial co-responsibility. That relationship runs deep within the Crow culture, and is highly respected. The sheriff is her mother's first cousin. They are equal members of the same Big Hair family. The tern "uncle" is not improper, but it does not mean that the sheriff is the male equal to her auntie. There was at least one person in the van who is a member of the same clan, which is more extended than immediate family, and also alliance that is also deep in the Crow values. Clan members are bound to "look out for each other", and there is obviously some questions remaining, about that.
When you read Selena's obituary, you may be surprised at the extensive and complex listing of immediate family members.
There are rumors, attitudes and judgements circulating about the individuals in this case, some of which are based more on clan relationships than on legal ramifications. IMO

 

[PommyMommy]

MOO, something smells bad about this entire affair.

Early posts on this thread indicate searchers on horseback, ATV, foot, helicopter, drone and dogs.

So they failed to find her less than a mile from that rest stop, but voila, now they do?

Search For 16-Year-Old Selena Not Afraid Extends Into Wyoming, South Dakota

IF, this young lady did indeed run in to a field from that rest stop, a trained dog/team would surely have been able to track her scent for less than a mile.

Early on they suspect foul play, but hey, now they don't.

C'mon, I was born at night.....but not last night

MOO

BBM It happens more often than you may realize.

A classic example is Christina Morris. She was found in a field where LE and volunteers had searched multiple times.

Maddox Ritch was found in an area that had been searched on foot, and by ATV's, kayak teams and drones.

James McGrogan - SAR teams searched for five days and didn't find him. He was found about two weeks later by skiiers in an area (an ice fall) that was previously searched.

Kenny Woodd-Cahusac is another example. LE used a bloodhound but said a snowstorm hindered both the dog and officers. Kenny was found near his home in an area that was previously searched.

Dale Hunter was found in an area that was already searched using K9 teams and air support. He was found in a ravine by a private citizen who continued to search after LE's search was called off.

Jerika Binks (she had broken her leg), Rudy Rockett, Paul Miller, etc. etc. etc.

What kind of dogs were used in the search for Selena? ie: What was their training? Are you familar with how snow affects their search capabilities?

From the sheriff's remarks, it doesn't sound to me like a grid search was performed in that area. The DOI had been grid-searching for a week before they got to that specific location. And, IIRC, it snowed the morning after Selena disappeared? There were no foot or boot prints near her remains. MOO

 

[Syxanthi]

Hang on so the woman found bare foot and scratched up and 2 miles from the rest stop didn't die of hypothermia before they found her but the girl with fully clothed less than a mile from the rest stop somehow succumbed to hypothermia in tht short distance? Maybe I am over simplifying it I dunno.

 

[razzledazzle]

Selena did not ride to the party with these people? Why did she go back with different people? Way too many questions with no good answers and strange circumstances.
Prayers for her family

THIS^^^

 

[Syxanthi]

I want to make this as clear as possible:
Selena's auntie is not a sister to her mother or her father. She holds the title of auntie purely out of love and longtime acceptance of familial co-responsibility. That relationship runs deep within the Crow culture, and is highly respected. The sheriff is her mother's first cousin. They are equal members of the same Big Hair family. The tern "uncle" is not improper, but it does not mean that the sheriff is the male equal to her auntie. There was at least one person in the van who is a member of the same clan, which is more extended than immediate family, and also alliance that is also deep in the Crow values. Clan members are bound to "look out for each other", and there is obviously some questions remaining, about that.
When you read Selena's obituary, you may be surprised at the extensive and complex listing of immediate family members.
There are rumors, attitudes and judgements circulating about the individuals in this case, some of which are based more on clan relationships than on legal ramifications. IMO

That's not that dissimilar to where I was raised altho not quite so complicated, all I do kno is that we on the outside will probably kno very little that we are not permitted to kno. And that nothing will change for indeginous women if it doesn't change from the inside out.

 

[stattlich1]

What kind of dogs were used in the search for Selena? ie: What was their training? Are you familar with how snow affects their search capabilities?

Excellent post/reply.....thank you so much. I'm not certain the breed and/or training of the canine/SAR teams that supposedly were on this case, but I do know for fact that there are trained dogs to do avalanche rescue, along with water search. Dogs can track scent that emanates up through both snow and even ponds, lakes, and streams.. Not that any of that matters at this point.

Just one example.....

Western Montana Search Dogs

 

[mickey2942]

There are so many layers to why Selena Not Afraid is dead.

If someone doesn't get charged with a crime here, it is like society accepts leaving a young woman in the wilderness as "acceptable".

Not in my opinion.

 

[Dave F.]

Hang on so the woman found bare foot and scratched up and 2 miles from the rest stop didn't die of hypothermia before they found her but the girl with fully clothed less than a mile from the rest stop somehow succumbed to hypothermia in tht short distance? Maybe I am over simplifying it I dunno.

The scratched up woman in the ditch was a RUMOR, repeated by Selena's aunt and thus published by several mainstream news outlets. The complete rumor was that it was a partially unclothed, shoeless, dazed woman with scratched up legs who was found standing in a ditch along Sugar Factory Road, north or Hardin. She admitted having taken drugs, but could not remember how she got there. Interstate 90 does not have ditches. The roadway is actually built up above the surrounding terrain, with steel culverts under the roadway at the level of the prairie to allow free natural run of rare excess water. Sugar Factory Road has shallow irrigation ditches lining either side, along it's entire length. It has never been said exactly where this woman was standing, but it's not a long road. I picked a spot sort of in the middle, and went to Google Earth Street View for this shot, showing the ditches on either side. I've also included a Google Earth overhead view showing the original search area defined by Sheriff Big Hair as a blue circle, and an "air distance" red line showing the 19 miles from the spot of my street view to the rest area.
There is a yellow pin, farthest to the left, which shows approximately where Selena was found. At the very least, I think this demonstrates how quickly a search can blow up into an impossibly broad area, and end with a lot of questions as to what might have been done differently. JMO
(Both illustrations done by me in Google Earth Pro)

 

[Dave F.]

Excellent post/reply.....thank you so much. I'm not certain the breed and/or training of the canine/SAR teams that supposedly were on this case, but I do know for fact that there are trained dogs to do avalanche rescue, along with water search. Dogs can track scent that emanates up through both snow and even ponds, lakes, and streams.. Not that any of that matters at this point.

Just one example.....

Western Montana Search Dogs

Cheryl Horn publicly thanked the dogs named Bear, Charlie, Sabre and Chapter. Sabre is listed with handler Bonnie Whitman on the website you linked, and Chapter is listed with handler Colette Daigle-Berg. One of the news media also identified handler Russell Lubner in a photograph, but with a different dog than the ones listed with him on the website.
Member Bios — Western Montana Search Dogs

 

[Syxanthi]

The scratched up woman in the ditch was a RUMOR, repeated by Selena's aunt and thus published by several mainstream news outlets. The complete rumor was that it was a partially unclothed, shoeless, dazed woman with scratched up legs who was found standing in a ditch along Sugar Factory Road, north or Hardin. She admitted having taken drugs, but could not remember how she got there. Interstate 90 does not have ditches. The roadway is actually built up above the surrounding terrain, with steel culverts under the roadway at the level of the prairie to allow free natural run of rare excess water. Sugar Factory Road has shallow irrigation ditches lining either side, along it's entire length. It has never been said exactly where this woman was standing, but it's not a long road. I picked a spot sort of in the middle, and went to Google Earth Street View for this shot, showing the ditches on either side. I've also included a Google Earth overhead view showing the original search area defined by Sheriff Big Hair as a blue circle, and an "air distance" red line showing the 19 miles from the spot of my street view to the rest area.
There is a yellow pin, farthest to the left, which shows approximately where Selena was found. At the very least, I think this demonstrates how quickly a search can blow up into an impossibly broad area, and end with a lot of questions as to what might have been done differently. JMO
(Both illustrations done by me in Google Earth Pro)

Thanks that helps with perspective. It also looks like the there is some difficult terrain out there that you just don't see from photos taken on the ground.

 

[rkendmar]

The scratched up woman in the ditch was a RUMOR, repeated by Selena's aunt and thus published by several mainstream news outlets. The complete rumor was that it was a partially unclothed, shoeless, dazed woman with scratched up legs who was found standing in a ditch along Sugar Factory Road, north or Hardin. She admitted having taken drugs, but could not remember how she got there. Interstate 90 does not have ditches. The roadway is actually built up above the surrounding terrain, with steel culverts under the roadway at the level of the prairie to allow free natural run of rare excess water. Sugar Factory Road has shallow irrigation ditches lining either side, along it's entire length. It has never been said exactly where this woman was standing, but it's not a long road. I picked a spot sort of in the middle, and went to Google Earth Street View for this shot, showing the ditches on either side. I've also included a Google Earth overhead view showing the original search area defined by Sheriff Big Hair as a blue circle, and an "air distance" red line showing the 19 miles from the spot of my street view to the rest area.
There is a yellow pin, farthest to the left, which shows approximately where Selena was found. At the very least, I think this demonstrates how quickly a search can blow up into an impossibly broad area, and end with a lot of questions as to what might have been done differently. JMO
(Both illustrations done by me in Google Earth Pro)

Looking forward to what can be done differently in the future is certainly a important question to ask.
At this time, perhaps the legal system needs to send a very strong message to any "adults" who chose to 'party' with children (>18 years old).
That would be a good start, IMO.

 

[Pax10]

Regardless of whether or not anyone in the car with Selena was related to her - there must be some way that it's child neglect or something to drive a minor to a rest stop and abandon her there in the middle of the night? Once they agreed to take her with them, I mean?

Assuming the best possible scenario - that nothing nefarious was planned , it still seems likely that leaving an intoxicated teen at a closed rest stop at night with another woman who it sounds like was also in an altered mental state is not a very safe thing for the teen.

Please correct me if I have details wrong - I read about this in the beginning,but I don't really understand the reasoning for she and the other woman being left there.

 

[rkendmar]

Thanks that helps with perspective. It also looks like the there is some difficult terrain out there that you just don't see from photos taken on the ground.

It is difficult terrain and very isolated.
Which is why "adults" should never leave a child at a closed rest area, especially in the middle of winter and especially if the child is not dressed appropriately for the weather and is "possibly intoxicated."
MOO

"She [Selina] was possibly intoxicated and is not dressed for weather conditions, according to an email from Big Horn County Sheriff's office."
Search continues for missing girl in Bighorn County

 

[stattlich1]

Cheryl Horn publicly thanked the dogs named Bear, Charlie, Sabre and Chapter. Sabre is listed with handler Bonnie Whitman on the website you linked, and Chapter is listed with handler Colette Daigle-Berg. One of the news media also identified handler Russell Lubner in a photograph, but with a different dog than the ones listed with him on the website.
Member Bios — Western Montana Search Dogs

Very nice info. MOO, the fact the dogs didn't find this girl is quite amazing.

 

[Dave F.]

It is difficult terrain and very isolated.
Which is why "adults" should never leave a child at a closed rest area, especially in the middle of winter and especially if the child is not dressed appropriately for the weather and is "possibly intoxicated."
MOO

"She [Selina] was possibly intoxicated and is not dressed for weather conditions, according to an email from Big Horn County Sheriff's office."
Search continues for missing girl in Bighorn County

Montana has laws concerning these actions that don't even resemble other state laws, and are much tougher than you can imagine. For starters, we are the only state that has "vigilantism" written into our state constitution and permeating all of our other laws. Every citizen has an explicit duty to help someone else in danger or that is injured, and an obligation under the law not to abandon anyone. As a reminder to all citizens, the Montana Highway Patrol proudly displays "3-7-77" on their badges and arm insignias, which is a key date in the history of Montana Vigilance. There are severe penalties for failure to be vigilant.
To "a Philadelphia lawyer" our laws probably make no sense at all, but I have seen Montana prosecutors seek and win justice when there didn't seem to be a possibility. The county attorney of Big Horn county is a local Native American, raising his family to be local Native American; and he is a highly regarded attorney. He is the right man to get the job done. I didn't take his proclamation as a slap down of the sheriff at all. It was a simple statement that responsibility for the case was now in the county attorney's hands, and a strong warning to news media that the sheriff would have no further public comment.
Between the lines, I read: "Stand back, I have a job to do, now." JMO

 

[rkendmar]

There are so many layers to why Selena Not Afraid is dead.
If someone doesn't get charged with a crime here, it is like society accepts leaving a young woman in the wilderness as "acceptable".
Not in my opinion.

We'll have to wait and see if the driver is charged with negligent homicide and if there are any charges for the other adults in the van.
I wonder who owns or rents the house in Billings where the New Year's Eve party occurred as they're potentially liable if minors were drinking.
MOO.

 

[catch_22]

Dub post

 

[Dave F.]

We'll have to wait and see if the driver is charged with negligent homicide and if there are any charges for the other adults in the van.
I wonder who owns or rents the house in Billings where the New Year's Eve party occurred as they're potentially liable if minors were drinking.
MOO.

The story now seems to be that Selena stayed the night with a friend, and didn't join the van until just before it left Billings. Earlier in this thread, I pointed out that police visited the party twice in response to disturbance complaints. The party being a factor seems really doubtful at this point. IMO