True Crime with Kendall Rae - What Really Happened to Selena Not Afraid?

Episode Date: August 15, 2023

Selena Not Afraid was a young Native American teen who was out with friends one night, when they started having car trouble on the road. While waiting at a rest stop for a friend’s parent, Selena disappeared. She was missing for about three weeks before her body was discovered nearby, frozen. But the situation all seemed suspicious, like there was something missing in the story. SIGN THIS PLEASE: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/s... Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women USA: https://mmiwusa.org/ National Indigenous Women's Resource Center https://www.niwrc.org/donate Info on Preston: https://billingsgazette.com/news/stat... Donate to NCMEC through my campaign! https://give.missingkids.org/campaign/kendall-rae/c438796 This episode is sponsored by: Smalls - promo code: KENDALLRAE Check out Kendall's other podcasts: The Sesh & Mile Higher Follow Kendall! YouTube Twitter Instagram Facebook Mile Higher Zoo REQUESTS: General case suggestion form: https://bit.ly/32kwPly Form for people directly related/ close to the victim: https://bit.ly/3KqMZLj Discord: https://discord.com/invite/an4stY9BCN CONTACT: For Business Inquiries - [e-mail]

Hey guys, welcome back to my channel and thanks for joining me for another true crime video. Today we're going to be talking about the Selena not afraid case. And if you haven't heard of it, that's okay. A lot of people haven't heard of it because of course it wasn't covered much by the media. Selena went missing on New Year's Day 2020. So very recently, Selena's family wants more eyes on this case and recently they expressed that it's been harder to get attention on it because of quarantine

and everything going on in the world right now. People need to know about what happened to Selena and people should hear what this family has been through. So first of all, this is Selena not afraid. Selena was a Native American teenager living in Big Horn County, Montana. But before we go any further, I just want to note, for those of you who didn't know, that Native American women and children and men make up a huge amount of people who are

missing or murdered. First of all, just in Montana, Native Americans make up about 6.7% of the population, yet they make up 26% of missing people. Most of those people are women and girls, and if you do the math, it just makes no sense. Those numbers are from 2016 to 2018, but it's only been getting worse, especially in the last year. The National Crime Information Center reports, there were 5,712 reports of missing American Indian and Native American women and girls throughout the United States.

But the Department of Justice, Federal Missing Person's Database only logged 116 of those cases. And on some reservations in this country, women are 10 times as likely to be murdered than the national average. 84% of indigenous women have experienced physical, sexual, or psychological violence in their lifetime. Enough is enough.

Enough is enough. Justice for our relations, oh. We're on death's end. They march on Main Street, Montana. We want enough. There are family members. And we need to find out what happened to them. It's just important that they do a thorough investigation when it happens.

So we can have answers instead of waiting for us to march. So Selena was born on June 18, 2003 and she's actually a twin. Her twin sister was named Zoe and they were the youngest of the five siblings in the family. Their mom's name is Jack Lena Big family. Their mom's name is Jacalena Big Hair, and their father's name is Leroy or Sheila Nautafraid. She was a junior at hard in high school. And like I said earlier, she lived in Big Horn County.

This area is in southern Montana and Selena lived on the Crow reservation. Selena was known for being a really happy, bubbly, spirited person. She also was absolutely beautiful. She was 59, had brown hair, a really big and beautiful smile, and people described her to also have the kindest heart. Selena was also pretty active.

She loved to play basketball. She loved to play volleyball. She also loved to ride horses. That was really her passionate life. So much so that she wanted to buy her own farm one day and become an Indian relay writer. She loved to spend time with her horses, that was really her passionate life. So much so that she wanted to buy her own farm one day and become an Indian relay writer. She loved to spend time with her horses,

her favorite one was named Warped. She was practicing to be a future ladies Indian relay race riding champion for the river road relay team. She also loved to spend her time doing a lot of beadwork and sewing. That was something that was a really big part of her family and it was also something that she just enjoyed because she really liked to be creative.

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She also looked to bake and read. And in her own words, she said she would read anything. But Selena and her family have been through some really, really hard times. Back in 2014, at only 11 years old, Selena's twin sister took her own life. Not only that, but a few years later in 2017, Selena's brother died at the age of 23. And he was actually shot by a Billings police officer.

His name was Preston David Bell and it happened on November 18th of 2017. And because I wanna keep this video about Salinas case, I'm going to link information about that below if you wanna know more. And if all that wasn't hard enough on their family, that same year in 2017, Salinas' oldest sister was involved in a hit and run and died. She was literally just walking

down the road when some car hit her and drove off. So before 2020, they had already lost three kids and only had two left. Selena and her brother RJ. In 2019, RJ was in college and Selena's plan was to eventually go to college with him because they were really close. So moving forward in time a little bit to New Year's Eve. Like many people around the world, Selena and her friends celebrated New Year's Eve that night by attending a party. This party did have alcohol

and her and her friends were drinking underage. Selena ended up staying at the house that the party was at for the night. And then the next day, New Year's Day, obviously, she and five others, four men and one woman, got in a car and headed back towards Harding. So they were driving down Interstate 90. And at one point, the van that they were driving

actually broke down. So they pulled over at a rest stop between Billings and Harding near mile marker 474. Now this is actually where Selena was the last scene at this rest stop on New Year's Day at 2 p.m. Now the details of this are super flaky. It's really hard to get information on these cases. Oftentimes the media, journalists, people with resources don't spend the time on cases of minorities. In this case does have some kind of gray areas just confusing points.

There's a lot that I have questions about and I'm sure you will too, but let's go through what is available. So from what we know, like I said, there was some type of issue with the van and the driver of the van pulled over and fixed the issue, but apparently he just temporarily fixed the issue and did not allow or I guess told Selena and her other friend that was there not to get back in the van with him because he said it wouldn't be long until it broke down again. And it's really weird and I don't really understand this, but I guess he thought it was a better idea for them to wait at the rest stop and that he was going to have his mom come and pick them up. According to him, his mom was only about 10 to 15 minutes away and could come get them

very quickly and pick them up. So as far as we know, Selina was just waiting at this rest stop for this guy's mom with her friend Arlana. Eventually, the guy's mom did show up when she got there. She did not find them. She ended up looking around the area and found Arlana just sitting in a ditch nearby the truck stop. She did not have Selena with her

and she claimed to have no recollection of what happened at all. She was completely confused. She said she had no idea how she got there or what happened. And she also had these scratches all over her legs and her shoes were missing. As soon as word got back to Selena's family that she was missing from the

rest stop, they immediately called police. They interviewed a woman who claims to be a witness to all of this and she said that she saw Selena run off into the nearby field near the rest stop. The woman even claimed that Selena asked her to go with her but she declined and Selena went on her own. This whole story is just something's not right. So it didn't take long for they started searching that field that this woman claims

Selena ran off into. They searched a three to four mile radius and brought in dogs, horses, ATVs, helicopters and drones to help find Selena. Now, not afraid was reportedly last seen at a rest stop between Billings and Harden on New Year's day. Today crews with the

Department of Indian Terrier, BLM FBI, tribal and Big Horn County Sheriff's Department were all out searching as they covered ground north of Harden. According to Big Horn County, victim witness specialist, Dvene Buffalo, the search

includes more areas than just the rest stop off of Interstate 90 people in the area were really upset and lots of volunteers came out to search for Selena, especially Native American people. Selena's friends and fellow classmates, teachers and family all here to say,

it's not OK. And there's so many kids that I know that have gotten into bad accidents or have gone missing in similar situations and no one's doing anything about it. So many women are going missing and being murdered and it's not okay. In overall common message, be safe. Know your surroundings and don't put yourself in harm's way.

Just happen to basically be at the wrong place in the wrong time. A place these students say you should never put yourself in. People out there who are evil and they're trying to get at us and as a community we just have to be safe and with the drugs and alcohol it's become so normalized in this society today and especially on the reservation there's so much of it and everyone's just treating it like it's not a big deal. It's been six days since we're in an audit for it has gone missing and her friends and students at heart and High School have decided

to not sit behind their deaths, but instead helps spread the word. They will find you. We all hope we can find you. We're here for you. We are all hoping that you can return home safely and we're going to find you.

Yeah, for the worst. Ah, that's how each get the leg of such a show. What really it's a bad, it's bad. And at first, the big corn county police department was in charge of the search, but quickly, other authorities came in to help them search. The Crow Tribe police, the Billings Police, the Montana Highway

Patrol, and even the FBI stepped in to help search for Selena. Selena's family was absolutely heartbroken, and they were determined to do anything they could to find her. They even camped at the rest stop where she was last seen. The police searched the van that she drove from the house party to the rest stop in and they haven't released any information about if anything was found or what was found. In fact, they haven't released a lot of information about this case at all.

A lot of people really started to worry that someone possibly could have abducted her from the rest of, which could definitely be the case. Restops can be very, very dangerous. Also, police discovered that there was a green Subaru Forester with Wyoming plates in the parking lot of the rest of, at the time that she went missing. People have speculated that maybe Selena was walking around the rest of, and this person forced her into his car.

Also, there was a lot of speculation that she possibly could have gotten picked up and taken somewhere else or left. A lot of people started coming forward and saying that they saw Selena in all these different places and placed it and ended up falling up with each of these individual tips. And after looking at security footage at these places,

they were able to determine that Selena was not in any of them. Of course they tried to track her phone, see if she's possibly still using it. By pinging her phone and looking at her snapchats police were able to figure out that the party was on Montana Avenue in Billings. And this was key because they needed to figure out where the party was so that they could figure out which route she would have taken to get to that Restop. This way they could broaden their search in a more targeted direction. And it's super weird because they really did search. Like I said, there were tons of Volunteers, there were dogs brought in, but nothing was found. That is until January 20th, 20 days after Selena had originally went missing on New Year's

day. Her body was found in that field near the rest stop and get this, her body was only found one mile into the field and they somehow missed it. It took them 20 days to find her and I don't want to be too judgmental here because this is a lot of volunteers and people who did want to find her. A lot of people have just brought up how can it possibly take that long to find someone a mile from where they were last seen. We begin tonight with some sad news out of Big Horn County. The body of 16 year old Selena not afraid was found this morning about three quarters of a

mile away from the rest stop on i90 where she was reported missing. She did have her phone with her, however, it was dead, of course. It's been 20 days. Like I mentioned, dogs were brought in and many people wondered how is it possible that the dogs didn't pick up her scent and she was only a mile away. And they said that this is actually because the dogs, first of all, they weren't kid-abidogs, they were just police dogs. They were also kept on leashes. I guess

were trained to attack peopl people volunteering. They d to accidentally attack one that's why they were kept also as we talked about, they drones. How did they not se to see from that high f I, I guess. I don't know. 16-year-old Selena Naderfrey reported missing

from this rest stop between buildings and heart on New Year's Day. Found dead 20 days later, about a mile away. We tried the quickest and the most likely areas first because we wanted to try to find her alive. We spent 28 hours that first day just searching. And then we spent another, I think, 12 to 13 hours up in buildings doing the interviews, chasing down people.

It was just straightforward every day, 15 to 18 hours a day, every day. But that explanation and those efforts haven't been enough for some in this community. You know, you get Facebook, social media, we get slammed, you know, we're crooked, we're not doing our jobs, we're not investigating. It starts to wear on you. That foul play was not suspected.

If somebody had killed her and tried to dump her out there, there'd either be footprints or there'd be tire tracks. There was neither one of those. Linus Funeral was held on Sunday, January 26, 2020 at 11 a.m. And she was buried at the Fairview Cemetery in Hardin. Over 1,000 people showed up to Selena's Funeral and they had her casket carried in on a horse-drawn carriage. Not only that, but tons of people rode their horses behind her as she was being taken to her burial site. And I thought this was really

cool, but there was this group of runners known as the gas cap renegades who ran all the way from the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota for several days in order to get to the service in time. They said that they ran to raise awareness not just for native missing women, but also women and children in general who go missing. Hey, Mom! Hey, hey, hey, Mom! All the prayers brought our girl home. That's what we asked for, and you guys helped us.

We're not sad today. You know, the joy and the relief take away all the pain. Right away, a lot of people thought Selena's death was very suspicious and strange and they wanted to see the results of the autopsy and those finally came back on February 24th. Here's the autopsy report which was signed by four

state medical examiners. They actually determined that Selena's cause of death was hypothermia and marked her death as accidental. They said that she had no wounds, no injuries, no marks, nothing that was shown signs of foul play. But a lot of people think there's something missing from this story. This case is not closed.

It is still open. And right now, there's three huge, three-minder notebooks like you see back there that are with DCI, the state DCI, or reviewing my case and making sure that we didn't miss anything. Are you glad the state DCI is doing that? Yes, I, as a matter of fact, when he was here, I challenged him to find something we missed or did something wrong because I have all heart faith that we did absolutely everything and beyond what we could have done.

For her to just wander off and get hypothermia a mile away from the rest of she was at, doesn't make any sense. A lot of people have brought up the idea that maybe Selena and her friend were intoxicated. They're said to be drinking going on in the van, so it is possible. I also think it's possible that maybe they were given something. They were given some type of drug. I mean for her friend to be so confused and in a ditch and for slainage is just have wandered off and gotten hypothermia. It doesn't seem like they were in their right states of mind if that's truly what happened. So obviously it

would be really helpful to know what her toxicology report says. However it's in line if that's truly what happened. So obviously it would be really helpful to know what her toxicology report says. However, it still has not come back yet. It's now June. It still isn't out yet. So hopefully it comes back soon because maybe there could be some answers in there. Also, it would not be totally shocking if there was still alcohol in their systems from the night before if they were drinking really heavily. However, would there still be enough alcohol on our system by 2 p.m. that day that she would be in such an intoxicated state to wander off and for a friend to have no idea what was going on? I personally feel like that's unlikely, but I guess it is possible.

Also, a lot of people are wondering if it's possible to still charge anyone in this because we did have miners who were drinking and clearly got alcohol from someone who is a wage. It's possible Selena did go up to that Subaru. Maybe someone did try to adopt her and she ran into the field out of, you know, self-protection. But she was only a mile into it unless she was extremely intoxicated. Why would she have not turned back? It's also possible that there was some type of altercation in the van that we don't know about, and there was a reason why they were left at the truck stop, not just because the van like wasn't working.

There was a Snapchat story which was posted by Arlana, and it showed two men who were riding with them fighting in the back, and it also showed drinking in the car. So they were thinking maybe there was some type of argument, something happened that is not being reported. Now I don't want to put anything out there that's salacious or rumory in any way, but there has been some speculation about the people that she was with for sure. I'm not saying that this means that she did anything. There's been a lot of talk about how Arlana has deleted her Facebook page.

And apparently the two other men in the car have moved out of state. Of course, I cannot confirm this. And like I said, there's really not enough information out there about this case. It's very frustrating, but that is definitely going around on the internet. Overall, with this case though, things just don't make sense. She went missing at 2 p.m., broad daylight. The sun wasn't going down until about 5 p.m.

at this time in January in Montana, so she would have had plenty of time to get back to the rest stop if she did wander off. And it's pretty unlikely that she would have gotten hypothermia before it got dark out. It doesn't make sense, like what she just running around the field until she finally laid down and succumbed to hypothermia. I mean, clearly something is missing here. That is gonna be it for me today, guys.

Thank you for joining me for another episode. And make sure you follow the show on Spotify and Apple podcasts. It really does help me out. If you want to watch the video version of this show, you can find it on my YouTube channel, which will be linked, or you can just search Kendall Ray. I will be back with another episode soon, but until then, stay safe out there. you