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Into Thin Air: What Happened to Selena Not Afraid? · 10 Minute Murder | Bingeable True Crime Stories

0:40
Speaker 1: In America, Indigenous women and girls are ten times more
0:44
Speaker 1: likely to go missing than in any other race or
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Speaker 1: nationality living within the borders. But within that cold and
0:51
Speaker 1: startling statistic hides one even more alarming for the community
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Speaker 1: it impacts. That stack comes straight out of Bighorn, Montana,
1:01
Speaker 1: home to the Crow Nation, where Indigenous women face even
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Speaker 1: tougher odds than their peers across the country. Out of
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Speaker 1: the fourteen thousand Crow Nation members, around eleven are currently
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Speaker 1: missing now. As low as that number could seem on
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Speaker 1: the surface, the implications only continue to deepen the longer
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Speaker 1: you look at it. The only other county in Montana
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Speaker 1: that reaches that same number is Yellowstone, which has twelve
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Speaker 1: times the population and has ties to about twenty seven
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Speaker 1: different Indigenous tribes. And today's case shines a light onto
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Speaker 1: those shocking odds staffed against Indigenous women, and along the
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Speaker 1: course of its story, has left a family and a
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Speaker 1: community in ruin Selina. Shelley Fay not Afraid was born
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Speaker 1: not only as a part of her people's long history,
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Speaker 1: but part of a set She and her twin sister
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Speaker 1: Zoe wear the last and final addition to Jacquelina Big
1:59
Speaker 1: Hair and Leroyd not Afraid's growing family, making them the
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Speaker 1: youngest of five siblings. And I know it sounds cliche
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Speaker 1: and it's overdone and over said, but the people that
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Speaker 1: knew Selena said that she was truly the kind of
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Speaker 1: person who could light up any room with just her smile.
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Speaker 1: She was warm and outgoing and made friends wherever she went.
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Speaker 1: Her love for life and the outdoors was contagious, and
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Speaker 1: she spread that love equally among the people she cared
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Speaker 1: about and the animals she adored. From her first horseback
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Speaker 1: ride when she was still only a small child, Selena
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Speaker 1: was hooked. By the age of sixteen, she was living
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Speaker 1: in the Crow Nation with big plans of owning a
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Speaker 1: farm and becoming an Indian relay writer. That was Selena.
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Speaker 1: She approached life just like she did her favorite sport.
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Speaker 1: No saddle, no stirrups, no protective gear, just pure, unfiltered enthusiasm,
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Speaker 1: and maybe in a lot of ways, she had more
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Speaker 1: reasons than most to dive in at first. By sixteen,
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Speaker 1: Selena had not only a clear vision for her life,
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Speaker 1: but she had also been through hardships and losses that
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Speaker 1: many of us might never experience, even in a whole lifetime.
3:12
Speaker 1: It started with Selena's other half, her twin sister Zoe,
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Speaker 1: when the girls were only eleven years old. Zoe struggled
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Speaker 1: with her mental health so much that she ended up
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Speaker 1: taking her own life. This was a devastating loss for
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Speaker 1: the Not Afraid family, and tragically, it was only just
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Speaker 1: the first. About three years after Zoe died, older brother
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Speaker 1: Preston Bell was shot during a confrontation with the police.
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Speaker 1: He died as a result of his injuries at the
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Speaker 1: age of twenty four. That was five Not Afraid children
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Speaker 1: down to three, and there were still more to come
3:50
Speaker 1: in quick succession. Older sister Tristan Gray was struck in
3:53
Speaker 1: a hit and run. She died at the scene. Only
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Speaker 1: a few months after Preston was killed by the police.
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Speaker 1: Selina and her older brother r J were the only
4:02
Speaker 1: surviving children left, But that almost unbelievably changed yet again
4:08
Speaker 1: in twenty twenty. It was New Year's Eve twenty nineteen,
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Speaker 1: just before the Not Afraid families world would be flipped
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Speaker 1: upside down again. Sixteen year old Selena headed out for
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Speaker 1: a night of partying with friends and Billings, Montana. She
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Speaker 1: didn't sneak out or anything, She told her parents where
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Speaker 1: she was going, had a ride lined up and was
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Speaker 1: supposed to be back the next day. Selena and about
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Speaker 1: five friends ended up staying the night in Billings before
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Speaker 1: piling into a friend's van and heading back to the reservation.
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Speaker 1: So far, so good. It had been one heck of
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Speaker 1: a party, and like many teenagers do, Selena had managed
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Speaker 1: to get away with a little bit of underaged drinking.
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Speaker 1: The only thing left to do was to make it
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Speaker 1: home in one piece and call it a night, But
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Speaker 1: the van they were riding in ended up breaking down
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Speaker 1: along the way. The van driver pulled into a gas
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Speaker 1: station between Billings and Harden, letting everyone out out while
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Speaker 1: he checked what was up and if there was anything
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Speaker 1: he could quickly fix. He got the van running again,
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Speaker 1: but knew that it was only a matter of time
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Speaker 1: before it broke down again for good. And this is
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Speaker 1: where the stories start to differ. Some versions of the
5:15
Speaker 1: story say that the driver simply explained the situation to
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Speaker 1: everyone and let them know that his mother was on
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Speaker 1: the way with her own car to come and pick
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Speaker 1: them up while he drove the rest of the way
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Speaker 1: in his temporarily fixed van. Some versions say that he
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Speaker 1: told everyone except Selena and her friend Arlena, who had
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Speaker 1: disappeared somewhere into the gas station. Regardless of which version
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Speaker 1: is true, the driver then got back into his vehicle
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Speaker 1: and took off towards the reservation, leaving Selena and Arlena behind.
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Speaker 1: Only about ten minutes after that, his mother showed up
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Speaker 1: to pick up the girls and could not find them anywhere.
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Speaker 1: Knowing that she was supposed to be picking up two
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Speaker 1: teenage girls who had no other way of getting home,
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Speaker 1: the van driver's mother searched the gas station and made
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Speaker 1: a jarring discovery. Arlena was sitting in a ditch alongside
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Speaker 1: of the road. Her body was covered in scratch marks,
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Speaker 1: and her shoes were gone. She was alive, but clearly
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Speaker 1: shaken up, and claimed to have no memory of where
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Speaker 1: she was or how she had gotten there. Realizing something
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Speaker 1: was extremely wrong, someone called Selena's family, who immediately got
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Speaker 1: the local authorities involved. A frantic manhunt kicked off, and
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Speaker 1: during the chaos, an eyewitness claimed that they saw Selena
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Speaker 1: running into a nearby field ATV's Helicopters, drones, dogs, and
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Speaker 1: even Selena's favorite horses were all deployed in a desperate
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Speaker 1: attempt to find her. Selena's mother, Jackie, took to sleeping
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Speaker 1: in her car for days, staring at the frozen highway
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Speaker 1: where Selena had been reported missing. New Year's Day turned
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Speaker 1: into a freezing winter night. Days then turned into weeks,
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Speaker 1: and Selena was nowhere to be found. It was as
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Speaker 1: if she had just vanished into thin air until the
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Speaker 1: search took a shocking turn. Right there in the field
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Speaker 1: where law enforcement and the community had been searching all along,
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Speaker 1: they found Selena. It took three weeks, but by then
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Speaker 1: it was tragically too late. The autopsy revealed that she
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Speaker 1: had died from exposure and hypothermia. In the end, her
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Speaker 1: death was ruled a tragic accident. Unsurprisingly, Selena's family and
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Speaker 1: the whole community were left frustrated and dissatisfied with the
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Speaker 1: investigation's outcome. How could Selena have been in that field
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Speaker 1: the entire time and still been missed. Law enforcement had
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Speaker 1: used dogs, drones, and their own eyes. Volunteers who knew
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Speaker 1: Selena personally had combed through the area. I was there.
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Speaker 1: She was not, one of these volunteers, allegedly told Selena's aunt,
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Speaker 1: Cheryl Horn. For many this was the defining moment of
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Speaker 1: Selena's case. This discovery of her remains in a place
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Speaker 1: that had been so thoroughly searched simply left too many
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Speaker 1: questions where she was found. Cheryl Horn later told the press,
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Speaker 1: I have an eyewitness who walked there more than once.
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Speaker 1: Selena was not stupid, she was very smart. When that
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Speaker 1: happened to her sister and Depreston. We spent all of
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Speaker 1: our time telling her about how to be safe, what
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Speaker 1: to do, where to go, where to run to. So
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Speaker 1: the fact that they tell me she ran into a field,
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Speaker 1: I don't believe that. Cheryl and Selena's family continued to
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Speaker 1: put pressure on the investigators. They wanted to know how
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Speaker 1: it would be possible that Selena had not been discovered,
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Speaker 1: how they claimed to not found any bodily fluids from
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Speaker 1: her decomposing remains in the soil underneath her body, and
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Speaker 1: how her body had left no indentation marks on the
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Speaker 1: surrounding vegetation. If she really had been there this whole time,
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Speaker 1: it was almost like Selena had been placed there just recently.
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Speaker 1: This is what her family and many in the community.
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Speaker 1: They argued that Selena was taken, perhaps even kept alive
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Speaker 1: for a period of time before she was dumped back
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Speaker 1: in the field where so many were searching. That would
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Speaker 1: explain how she evaded the technology used in the initial search,
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Speaker 1: and how the dogs had not picked up on her scent.
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Speaker 1: That would explain how law enforcement and volunteers had missed her,
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Speaker 1: even when they had seemingly walked over the very same
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Speaker 1: spots she was later found in on the other side
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Speaker 1: of the fence. Came a cry of conjecture and speculation.
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Speaker 1: That is what the investigators believe is behind all of
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Speaker 1: these theories and all of these questions. To them, Selena
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Speaker 1: was possibly still intoxicated and made the decision she would
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Speaker 1: normally not have made had she been sober. She ran
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Speaker 1: into that field and succumbed to the freezing temperatures at night.
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Speaker 1: That her remains were only discovered three weeks after she'd
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Speaker 1: been reported missing was down to bad luck and unfortunate circumstances.
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Speaker 1: Are they right? Who can really se without more evidence?
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Speaker 1: Bad luck seemed to follow the not afraid children and
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Speaker 1: tour a family apart in the process. On the other hand,
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Speaker 1: maybe when we take statistics into account, this case could
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Speaker 1: go in an entirely different direction, especially when we know that
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Speaker 1: the third highest cause of death for female members of
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Speaker 1: the indigenous tribes in Montana is murder for now? Who's
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Speaker 1: to say it looks like we won't get any more
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Speaker 1: answers on this case until new information comes to light.
10:42
Speaker 1: That's ten minute murder for Today, brief and bingeable true crime.
10:46
Speaker 1: I'm Joe, I'm the host, and thank you for taking
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Speaker 1: the time to listen to the story today. And if
10:51
Speaker 1: you're wondering about my speculation as it relates to this story,
10:56
Speaker 1: the fact that I'm talking about this story on a
10:59
Speaker 1: murder podcast should give you some insight. This is not
11:03
Speaker 1: a missing person's podcast, this is not a tragic accident podcast.
11:07
Speaker 1: It's a murder podcast. So that should tell you where
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Speaker 1: I personally believe the evidence is pointing. And the biggest
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Speaker 1: part of it to me that points in that direction
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Speaker 1: is her friend, who was also missing for a short time,
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Speaker 1: was found in the ditch with scratches, no shoes, and
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Speaker 1: a hazy memory. If it weren't for that particular piece
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Speaker 1: of evidence, I would say, yeah, maybe maybe you're right.
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Speaker 1: Maybe she was drunk, got lost in the forest, maybe
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Speaker 1: out in the field, and wandered around and you know,
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Speaker 1: froze to death. I would get that. However, her friend,
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Speaker 1: who was seemingly beaten up in a ditch tells a
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Speaker 1: different story, and all of that happened within the span
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Speaker 1: of ten minutes. So obviously I don't have all the
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Speaker 1: answers I wish I did, but it's a tragic case. Nonetheless, Hey,
11:56
Speaker 1: if you're a new listener to the podcast, make sure
11:59
Speaker 1: you hit some gribe wherever you listen to podcasts, follow
12:02
Speaker 1: on social media links from the show notes, or you
12:05
Speaker 1: can go to ten minute murder dot com. Thanks for listening,
12:09
Speaker 1: then I'll see you on the next one. Bye.