Body of Selena Not Afraid Found Near Rest Stop

Sheriff says foul play not suspected in death of indigenous teen
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 21, 2020 7:22 AM CST
Body of Selena Not Afraid Found Near Rest Stop
Selena Not Afraid.   (TexasEquuSearch)

The search for a Native American teenager whose disappearance brought attention to the wider issue of missing and murdered women from the community came to a tragic end Monday morning. The body of 16-year-old Selena Not Afraid was found less than a mile from the I-90 rest stop in rural Montana where she was last seen on New Year's Day, the Billings Gazette reports. Big Horn County Sheriff Lawrence Big Hair says federal agents carrying out a systematic grid search found the teen's body. The sheriff says an autopsy will be conducted Tuesday or Wednesday, but foul play is not suspected. The sheriff says Selena, who had been in Billings for a New Year's Eve party, had been in a van with five adults that broke down at a rest stop.

After the driver restarted the vehicle, they left without Selena and another woman. When a relative arrived to pick them up 10 or 15 minutes later, the teen, who had walked into a field and wasn't dressed for the weather, according to a missing person report, was nowhere to be found. Her aunt, Cheryl Horn, was among hundreds of people who camped out at the rest area during the search, NBC reports. "We brought our baby girl home," Horn said in a Facebook post Monday. "Now she can Rest In Peace. Jackie and I want to thank everyone for helping us bring our girl home." Horn said last week that even after Selena was found, she would be a voice for missing and murdered indigenous women. Almost 300 Native American women were reported missing in Montana alone last year. (More missing woman stories.)

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