Sixteen-year-old Selena Not Afraid vanished on the way home from a New Year’s party in 2020. Now a man has been charged in her death, and Selena’s aunt tells Andrea Cavallier that she’s ready to hear the whole story of what happened that day. For 20 agonizing days, the local Hardin community tirelessly searched for Selena Not Afraid, a16-year-old Montana girl who vanished on New Year’s Day in 2020.
![[Selena Not Afraid, a member of the Native American tribe Crow Nation, was 16 years old when she vanished after being left behind at a rest stop in 2020. Her body was found nearby three weeks later]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/10/21/448671431_1738390533633966_8108836533605604137_n.jpg)
After a night out celebrating the new year, the teen, a member of the Native American tribe Crow Nation, was travelling home in a van when it broke down at a rest area near Billings. Wearing just a light coat and jeans, Selena was not dressed for the frigid temperatures.
![[Selena’s aunt, Cheryl Horn, who has long dedicated her time to the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) movement, says the charges in her case bring a new chapter of closure]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/10/21/Screenshot-2025-01-09-at-10.34.21%E2%80%AFAM.jpg)
Witnesses said she walked off into a field, something her family disputes, and was never seen again. The van later drove off without her and when relatives went to look for her, Selena was nowhere to be found. For nearly three weeks loved ones searched, until her frozen body was found less than a mile from the rest stop.
![[Selena’s family has faced tragedy in recent years. In 2018, her sister, Tristen Gray, was walking along Highway 3 in Billings when she was killed by a hit-and-run driver]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/10/21/newFile.jpg)
She had died of hypothermia, an autopsy determined, and the local authorities ruled out foul play. But her family was not convinced. When Selena first went missing, her aunt jumped into action. She rallied for help through social media, organized searches, and spoke out about combating the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People epidemic.
![[A massive search was launched at the rest stop along the desolate Montana highway but Selena Not Afraid wasn’t found for weeks]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2025/01/10/21/EOVW6KWXUAIXe62.jpg)
