Aug. 25, 2024

Into Thin Air: What Happened to Selena Not Afraid?

Show Notes
Transcript

Into Thin Air: What Happened to Selena Not Afraid?

In this episode, we dive into the chilling case of Selena Not Afraid, a 16-year-old girl from the Crow Nation who vanished on New Year's Eve 2019. Selena’s disappearance highlights the grim reality that Indigenous women and girls in America are ten times more likely to go missing than any other group. Despite a frantic search by law enforcement and her community, Selena’s body was found three weeks later in a field that had already been scoured multiple times. Was her death a tragic accident, or is there more to the story? Join us as we explore the haunting details and lingering questions surrounding this heartbreaking case.

Thank you so much for listening to and supporting 10 Minute Murder!

SUBSCRIBE to 10 Minute Murder.
Have friends that also like true-crime stories?
SHARE this podcast with them!
CONNECT on social media to read about new episodes and see visuals that go along with the story.

10minutemurder.com

email: joe@10minutemurder.com
_______
Follow 10 Minute Murder-

Facebook:
https://facebook.com/10MMpodcast

Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/10minutemurder/

TikTok:
https://www.tiktok.com/@10minutemurder

Threads:
https://www.threads.net/@10minutemurder

Youtube:
https://youtube.com/channel/UCkJLUCEZlkn9In3AA46RVxw

If you have a request for a case to be featured on 10 Minute Murder, or have any questions for Joe (the host), please feel free to send them to the email address above.

*******

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/10-minute-murder--4603604/support.

WEBVTT

1
00:00:40.520 --> 00:00:44.600
In America, Indigenous women and girls are ten times more

2
00:00:44.759 --> 00:00:47.719
likely to go missing than in any other race or

3
00:00:47.840 --> 00:00:51.640
nationality living within the borders. But within that cold and

4
00:00:51.759 --> 00:00:56.520
startling statistic hides one even more alarming for the community

5
00:00:56.560 --> 00:01:00.799
it impacts. That stack comes straight out of Bighorn, Montana,

6
00:01:01.200 --> 00:01:04.959
home to the Crow Nation, where Indigenous women face even

7
00:01:05.120 --> 00:01:08.680
tougher odds than their peers across the country. Out of

8
00:01:08.719 --> 00:01:13.400
the fourteen thousand Crow Nation members, around eleven are currently

9
00:01:13.439 --> 00:01:16.680
missing now. As low as that number could seem on

10
00:01:16.719 --> 00:01:21.159
the surface, the implications only continue to deepen the longer

11
00:01:21.200 --> 00:01:24.200
you look at it. The only other county in Montana

12
00:01:24.239 --> 00:01:28.079
that reaches that same number is Yellowstone, which has twelve

13
00:01:28.120 --> 00:01:31.640
times the population and has ties to about twenty seven

14
00:01:31.719 --> 00:01:36.439
different Indigenous tribes. And today's case shines a light onto

15
00:01:36.480 --> 00:01:40.840
those shocking odds staffed against Indigenous women, and along the

16
00:01:40.879 --> 00:01:43.519
course of its story, has left a family and a

17
00:01:43.560 --> 00:01:49.480
community in ruin Selina. Shelley Fay not Afraid was born

18
00:01:49.640 --> 00:01:52.239
not only as a part of her people's long history,

19
00:01:52.680 --> 00:01:55.640
but part of a set She and her twin sister

20
00:01:55.760 --> 00:01:59.439
Zoe wear the last and final addition to Jacquelina Big

21
00:01:59.439 --> 00:02:03.239
Hair and Leroyd not Afraid's growing family, making them the

22
00:02:03.319 --> 00:02:07.120
youngest of five siblings. And I know it sounds cliche

23
00:02:07.439 --> 00:02:11.039
and it's overdone and over said, but the people that

24
00:02:11.120 --> 00:02:13.759
knew Selena said that she was truly the kind of

25
00:02:13.759 --> 00:02:16.840
person who could light up any room with just her smile.

26
00:02:17.319 --> 00:02:20.879
She was warm and outgoing and made friends wherever she went.

27
00:02:21.319 --> 00:02:24.639
Her love for life and the outdoors was contagious, and

28
00:02:24.719 --> 00:02:27.280
she spread that love equally among the people she cared

29
00:02:27.280 --> 00:02:31.840
about and the animals she adored. From her first horseback

30
00:02:31.919 --> 00:02:35.080
ride when she was still only a small child, Selena

31
00:02:35.360 --> 00:02:38.280
was hooked. By the age of sixteen, she was living

32
00:02:38.280 --> 00:02:40.680
in the Crow Nation with big plans of owning a

33
00:02:40.759 --> 00:02:45.000
farm and becoming an Indian relay writer. That was Selena.

34
00:02:45.240 --> 00:02:47.759
She approached life just like she did her favorite sport.

35
00:02:48.319 --> 00:02:55.000
No saddle, no stirrups, no protective gear, just pure, unfiltered enthusiasm,

36
00:02:55.159 --> 00:02:57.319
and maybe in a lot of ways, she had more

37
00:02:57.360 --> 00:03:01.039
reasons than most to dive in at first. By sixteen,

38
00:03:01.400 --> 00:03:03.919
Selena had not only a clear vision for her life,

39
00:03:04.479 --> 00:03:07.639
but she had also been through hardships and losses that

40
00:03:07.719 --> 00:03:11.960
many of us might never experience, even in a whole lifetime.

41
00:03:12.800 --> 00:03:16.280
It started with Selena's other half, her twin sister Zoe,

42
00:03:16.759 --> 00:03:20.159
when the girls were only eleven years old. Zoe struggled

43
00:03:20.199 --> 00:03:23.400
with her mental health so much that she ended up

44
00:03:23.439 --> 00:03:27.520
taking her own life. This was a devastating loss for

45
00:03:27.560 --> 00:03:31.000
the Not Afraid family, and tragically, it was only just

46
00:03:31.080 --> 00:03:35.560
the first. About three years after Zoe died, older brother

47
00:03:35.639 --> 00:03:39.280
Preston Bell was shot during a confrontation with the police.

48
00:03:39.840 --> 00:03:42.360
He died as a result of his injuries at the

49
00:03:42.400 --> 00:03:46.000
age of twenty four. That was five Not Afraid children

50
00:03:46.159 --> 00:03:49.400
down to three, and there were still more to come

51
00:03:50.039 --> 00:03:53.439
in quick succession. Older sister Tristan Gray was struck in

52
00:03:53.520 --> 00:03:56.159
a hit and run. She died at the scene. Only

53
00:03:56.159 --> 00:03:58.680
a few months after Preston was killed by the police.

54
00:03:59.439 --> 00:04:02.080
Selina and her older brother r J were the only

55
00:04:02.240 --> 00:04:08.039
surviving children left, But that almost unbelievably changed yet again

56
00:04:08.199 --> 00:04:12.199
in twenty twenty. It was New Year's Eve twenty nineteen,

57
00:04:12.800 --> 00:04:15.800
just before the Not Afraid families world would be flipped

58
00:04:15.840 --> 00:04:19.519
upside down again. Sixteen year old Selena headed out for

59
00:04:19.560 --> 00:04:22.839
a night of partying with friends and Billings, Montana. She

60
00:04:22.879 --> 00:04:25.160
didn't sneak out or anything, She told her parents where

61
00:04:25.199 --> 00:04:27.759
she was going, had a ride lined up and was

62
00:04:27.759 --> 00:04:31.079
supposed to be back the next day. Selena and about

63
00:04:31.079 --> 00:04:34.000
five friends ended up staying the night in Billings before

64
00:04:34.040 --> 00:04:37.319
piling into a friend's van and heading back to the reservation.

65
00:04:38.160 --> 00:04:40.480
So far, so good. It had been one heck of

66
00:04:40.480 --> 00:04:43.959
a party, and like many teenagers do, Selena had managed

67
00:04:43.959 --> 00:04:46.759
to get away with a little bit of underaged drinking.

68
00:04:47.399 --> 00:04:49.040
The only thing left to do was to make it

69
00:04:49.120 --> 00:04:51.560
home in one piece and call it a night, But

70
00:04:51.639 --> 00:04:53.959
the van they were riding in ended up breaking down

71
00:04:54.000 --> 00:04:56.959
along the way. The van driver pulled into a gas

72
00:04:57.000 --> 00:05:00.439
station between Billings and Harden, letting everyone out out while

73
00:05:00.480 --> 00:05:03.319
he checked what was up and if there was anything

74
00:05:03.360 --> 00:05:06.399
he could quickly fix. He got the van running again,

75
00:05:06.480 --> 00:05:08.160
but knew that it was only a matter of time

76
00:05:08.199 --> 00:05:11.759
before it broke down again for good. And this is

77
00:05:11.800 --> 00:05:15.680
where the stories start to differ. Some versions of the

78
00:05:15.720 --> 00:05:18.600
story say that the driver simply explained the situation to

79
00:05:18.680 --> 00:05:21.040
everyone and let them know that his mother was on

80
00:05:21.079 --> 00:05:23.199
the way with her own car to come and pick

81
00:05:23.240 --> 00:05:25.560
them up while he drove the rest of the way

82
00:05:25.600 --> 00:05:29.319
in his temporarily fixed van. Some versions say that he

83
00:05:29.360 --> 00:05:33.199
told everyone except Selena and her friend Arlena, who had

84
00:05:33.199 --> 00:05:37.519
disappeared somewhere into the gas station. Regardless of which version

85
00:05:37.600 --> 00:05:40.839
is true, the driver then got back into his vehicle

86
00:05:40.879 --> 00:05:44.839
and took off towards the reservation, leaving Selena and Arlena behind.

87
00:05:45.480 --> 00:05:48.759
Only about ten minutes after that, his mother showed up

88
00:05:48.759 --> 00:05:52.160
to pick up the girls and could not find them anywhere.

89
00:05:53.279 --> 00:05:55.319
Knowing that she was supposed to be picking up two

90
00:05:55.360 --> 00:05:58.199
teenage girls who had no other way of getting home,

91
00:05:58.759 --> 00:06:01.959
the van driver's mother searched the gas station and made

92
00:06:02.319 --> 00:06:06.800
a jarring discovery. Arlena was sitting in a ditch alongside

93
00:06:06.800 --> 00:06:09.879
of the road. Her body was covered in scratch marks,

94
00:06:10.040 --> 00:06:13.759
and her shoes were gone. She was alive, but clearly

95
00:06:13.800 --> 00:06:16.439
shaken up, and claimed to have no memory of where

96
00:06:16.480 --> 00:06:20.240
she was or how she had gotten there. Realizing something

97
00:06:20.399 --> 00:06:24.720
was extremely wrong, someone called Selena's family, who immediately got

98
00:06:24.720 --> 00:06:29.160
the local authorities involved. A frantic manhunt kicked off, and

99
00:06:29.279 --> 00:06:32.600
during the chaos, an eyewitness claimed that they saw Selena

100
00:06:32.680 --> 00:06:38.519
running into a nearby field ATV's Helicopters, drones, dogs, and

101
00:06:38.600 --> 00:06:42.959
even Selena's favorite horses were all deployed in a desperate

102
00:06:42.959 --> 00:06:47.079
attempt to find her. Selena's mother, Jackie, took to sleeping

103
00:06:47.079 --> 00:06:50.519
in her car for days, staring at the frozen highway

104
00:06:50.519 --> 00:06:53.959
where Selena had been reported missing. New Year's Day turned

105
00:06:54.000 --> 00:06:58.680
into a freezing winter night. Days then turned into weeks,

106
00:06:59.040 --> 00:07:02.519
and Selena was nowhere to be found. It was as

107
00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:05.560
if she had just vanished into thin air until the

108
00:07:05.600 --> 00:07:09.519
search took a shocking turn. Right there in the field

109
00:07:09.920 --> 00:07:12.920
where law enforcement and the community had been searching all along,

110
00:07:13.560 --> 00:07:17.720
they found Selena. It took three weeks, but by then

111
00:07:18.160 --> 00:07:21.480
it was tragically too late. The autopsy revealed that she

112
00:07:21.519 --> 00:07:25.680
had died from exposure and hypothermia. In the end, her

113
00:07:25.720 --> 00:07:31.399
death was ruled a tragic accident. Unsurprisingly, Selena's family and

114
00:07:31.439 --> 00:07:34.879
the whole community were left frustrated and dissatisfied with the

115
00:07:34.879 --> 00:07:38.720
investigation's outcome. How could Selena have been in that field

116
00:07:38.759 --> 00:07:42.879
the entire time and still been missed. Law enforcement had

117
00:07:43.000 --> 00:07:46.680
used dogs, drones, and their own eyes. Volunteers who knew

118
00:07:46.759 --> 00:07:51.000
Selena personally had combed through the area. I was there.

119
00:07:51.360 --> 00:07:55.240
She was not, one of these volunteers, allegedly told Selena's aunt,

120
00:07:55.639 --> 00:07:59.319
Cheryl Horn. For many this was the defining moment of

121
00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:03.079
Selena's case. This discovery of her remains in a place

122
00:08:03.120 --> 00:08:06.519
that had been so thoroughly searched simply left too many

123
00:08:06.600 --> 00:08:11.000
questions where she was found. Cheryl Horn later told the press,

124
00:08:11.079 --> 00:08:13.720
I have an eyewitness who walked there more than once.

125
00:08:14.120 --> 00:08:17.519
Selena was not stupid, she was very smart. When that

126
00:08:17.600 --> 00:08:20.399
happened to her sister and Depreston. We spent all of

127
00:08:20.439 --> 00:08:22.680
our time telling her about how to be safe, what

128
00:08:22.800 --> 00:08:25.560
to do, where to go, where to run to. So

129
00:08:25.680 --> 00:08:27.759
the fact that they tell me she ran into a field,

130
00:08:28.240 --> 00:08:32.480
I don't believe that. Cheryl and Selena's family continued to

131
00:08:32.480 --> 00:08:35.440
put pressure on the investigators. They wanted to know how

132
00:08:35.440 --> 00:08:38.639
it would be possible that Selena had not been discovered,

133
00:08:39.039 --> 00:08:42.080
how they claimed to not found any bodily fluids from

134
00:08:42.080 --> 00:08:45.639
her decomposing remains in the soil underneath her body, and

135
00:08:45.759 --> 00:08:48.600
how her body had left no indentation marks on the

136
00:08:48.639 --> 00:08:52.320
surrounding vegetation. If she really had been there this whole time,

137
00:08:53.039 --> 00:08:56.480
it was almost like Selena had been placed there just recently.

138
00:08:57.480 --> 00:08:59.840
This is what her family and many in the community.

139
00:09:00.879 --> 00:09:05.000
They argued that Selena was taken, perhaps even kept alive

140
00:09:05.159 --> 00:09:07.720
for a period of time before she was dumped back

141
00:09:07.759 --> 00:09:10.480
in the field where so many were searching. That would

142
00:09:10.480 --> 00:09:14.080
explain how she evaded the technology used in the initial search,

143
00:09:14.480 --> 00:09:16.799
and how the dogs had not picked up on her scent.

144
00:09:17.399 --> 00:09:20.600
That would explain how law enforcement and volunteers had missed her,

145
00:09:20.960 --> 00:09:23.919
even when they had seemingly walked over the very same

146
00:09:23.960 --> 00:09:27.240
spots she was later found in on the other side

147
00:09:27.279 --> 00:09:30.360
of the fence. Came a cry of conjecture and speculation.

148
00:09:31.279 --> 00:09:33.960
That is what the investigators believe is behind all of

149
00:09:34.000 --> 00:09:37.720
these theories and all of these questions. To them, Selena

150
00:09:37.879 --> 00:09:41.519
was possibly still intoxicated and made the decision she would

151
00:09:41.600 --> 00:09:44.960
normally not have made had she been sober. She ran

152
00:09:45.000 --> 00:09:47.840
into that field and succumbed to the freezing temperatures at night.

153
00:09:48.440 --> 00:09:51.559
That her remains were only discovered three weeks after she'd

154
00:09:51.600 --> 00:09:56.639
been reported missing was down to bad luck and unfortunate circumstances.

155
00:09:57.960 --> 00:10:01.159
Are they right? Who can really se without more evidence?

156
00:10:01.600 --> 00:10:04.879
Bad luck seemed to follow the not afraid children and

157
00:10:05.000 --> 00:10:08.320
tour a family apart in the process. On the other hand,

158
00:10:08.679 --> 00:10:12.200
maybe when we take statistics into account, this case could

159
00:10:12.200 --> 00:10:15.720
go in an entirely different direction, especially when we know that

160
00:10:15.799 --> 00:10:18.840
the third highest cause of death for female members of

161
00:10:18.879 --> 00:10:24.039
the indigenous tribes in Montana is murder for now? Who's

162
00:10:24.080 --> 00:10:26.360
to say it looks like we won't get any more

163
00:10:26.360 --> 00:10:29.679
answers on this case until new information comes to light.

164
00:10:42.080 --> 00:10:46.120
That's ten minute murder for Today, brief and bingeable true crime.

165
00:10:46.519 --> 00:10:49.080
I'm Joe, I'm the host, and thank you for taking

166
00:10:49.080 --> 00:10:51.559
the time to listen to the story today. And if

167
00:10:51.559 --> 00:10:55.600
you're wondering about my speculation as it relates to this story,

168
00:10:56.039 --> 00:10:59.120
the fact that I'm talking about this story on a

169
00:10:59.240 --> 00:11:02.960
murder podcast should give you some insight. This is not

170
00:11:03.039 --> 00:11:07.600
a missing person's podcast, this is not a tragic accident podcast.

171
00:11:07.639 --> 00:11:10.279
It's a murder podcast. So that should tell you where

172
00:11:10.320 --> 00:11:14.480
I personally believe the evidence is pointing. And the biggest

173
00:11:14.559 --> 00:11:16.960
part of it to me that points in that direction

174
00:11:17.200 --> 00:11:20.879
is her friend, who was also missing for a short time,

175
00:11:21.360 --> 00:11:24.440
was found in the ditch with scratches, no shoes, and

176
00:11:24.720 --> 00:11:28.679
a hazy memory. If it weren't for that particular piece

177
00:11:28.720 --> 00:11:31.759
of evidence, I would say, yeah, maybe maybe you're right.

178
00:11:31.799 --> 00:11:34.639
Maybe she was drunk, got lost in the forest, maybe

179
00:11:34.639 --> 00:11:38.799
out in the field, and wandered around and you know,

180
00:11:38.960 --> 00:11:42.679
froze to death. I would get that. However, her friend,

181
00:11:42.960 --> 00:11:46.559
who was seemingly beaten up in a ditch tells a

182
00:11:46.559 --> 00:11:49.360
different story, and all of that happened within the span

183
00:11:49.399 --> 00:11:52.440
of ten minutes. So obviously I don't have all the

184
00:11:52.480 --> 00:11:56.759
answers I wish I did, but it's a tragic case. Nonetheless, Hey,

185
00:11:56.759 --> 00:11:59.000
if you're a new listener to the podcast, make sure

186
00:11:59.240 --> 00:12:02.759
you hit some gribe wherever you listen to podcasts, follow

187
00:12:02.799 --> 00:12:05.320
on social media links from the show notes, or you

188
00:12:05.320 --> 00:12:08.960
can go to ten minute murder dot com. Thanks for listening,

189
00:12:09.360 --> 00:12:11.720
then I'll see you on the next one. Bye.

Into Thin Air: What Happened to Selena Not Afraid?

Listen On

Recent Episodes