COVER STORY
MONTANA HIGHWAY PATROL JOINS TASK FORCE TO ADDRESS MISSING INDIGENOUS PERSONS
By Sgt. Matt Caudill, Motor Carrier Services Enforcement Bureau, Montana Department of Transportation
Selena Not Afraid spent New Year’s Eve 2020 at a party in Billings, Montana. The following day, she was in a van with five other people, heading toward her home in Hardin, about 50 miles east of Billings. According to reports, the van broke down at a rest area about halfway to their destination. The driver was able to get the vehicle going
again; however, Not Afraid and a female friend were left behind. The van’s driver had called a relative to pick the girls up. When the relative arrived, only the friend was present. She was without shoes and covered in scratches, and said she was not sure how she had gotten there. The friend reported that she had last seen Not Afraid wandering into a nearby field.
Nineteen days later, Not Afraid was found deceased approximately 1 mile southwest of the rest area. Hypothermia was listed as the cause of death. While authorities ruled her death as accidental, friends and family disagree with this assessment. She was believed to be headed back to the Crow Indian reservation in Big Horn County, which has one of the highest statistics of missing persons. Continued on next page
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