All language subtitles for Murder.in.Big.Horn.S01E02.WEBRip.x264

Tense music

We're traveling down
Interstate 90...

and this road goes all
the way across Montana.

Oftentimes, you'll see people
walking up and down the

Interstate, and, um...

sometimes they don't come home.

Coming up here is the rest stop
where Selena went missing on

January 1st, 2020.

A Missing
Endangered Person Advisory has

been issued for a 16-year-old
girl in Big Horn County.

Selena Not Afraid was last seen
at the eastbound I-90 rest area

between Billings and Hardin.

Not Afraid left her broken-down
vehicle and was seen walking

toward a nearby field.

Authorities say she could have
been intoxicated and was not

dressed for the
weather conditions.

According
to witnesses,

Selena Not Afraid and a group
of people traveled eastbound on

Interstate 90 to the rest stop
between Hardin and Billings.

The vehicle they
were in broke down,

and as the driver was trying
to get it going again,

Selena and another woman
got out of the vehicle.

Witnesses say Selena walked into
a field and the other woman sat

down on one of the curbs.

According to the Big Horn County
Sheriff's Office call log,

a call came in from
Selena's father.

I called
Lawrence "Pete" Big Hair,

the Sheriff of Big Horn County.

I said, "Hey brother, my
daughter was apparently left

behind at the rest area
and they can't find her."

He contacted his
deputies to start moving.

The response
was so quick and so fierce,

and all of that was within hours
of her being left out there.

I called
Selena's mom, Jackie...

"What's going on?"

"We're here, she's not here."

I said, "Who's here?
Who's there with you?"

"Well, there's just us and the
Sheriff's Department are driving

around in the fields
with their lights on,"

and I was like...

"Jackie!

Where the hell is she?!"

We'd already had been
through things with her.

We taught her already to
stay safe and to be strong.

And I got there and there was
a BIA command vehicle there,

there was cops,
there was people,

there was people on horses,
people went in helicopters,

all focused on that
rest stop area,

the whole area.

If anybody
had a chance to be found,

it was Selena.

If Henny was the spark and
Kaysera was the kindling,

then Selena was
the forest fire...

Selena Not Afraid
was last seen...

That just
ignited across the media.

People wanted to know:

what the hell is happening
in Big Horn County?

Tender ambient music

Selena was 16 years old.

She's the same age as my boys.

Went to the same school in
middle school as my boys.

She was always smiling
and surrounded by people.

She was just
funny and she'd always, like,

make side comments.

Kinda like dark humor, you know?

Every day after
school, Selena and I,

we'd always go to the
Bridge.

It's, like, right when you go
on the highway to Billings,

there's that bridge on top.

We'd stand on top of the bridge,
and whenever a semi went by,

we'd always try to make it honk.

Whoever made the
most semis honk,

they won.

No, don't record
this shit!

Oh!

We signed our names
on that bridge.

And...

they're still there.

Dark ambient music

The Interstate, I-90,
is a major highway through

Montana.

It goes straight through
the Crow Reservation.

It goes from Seattle all
the way to the East Coast.

It kind of creates
this high-trafficked corridor

now; like, it's a fast
track out of here, you know?

Well-traveled highways like
I-90 right behind me are fast

tracks for traffickers, getting
their victims out of the state,

further and further
away from salvation.

There's so much movement that
we don't even know about.

Sex trafficking
is at epidemic proportions.

"Epidemic" implies that it's
something that's just hit

recently, but
since colonization,

our Native women
have been targeted.

Tense music

To be able to meet the manifest
destiny of the American dream,

they needed to rid the lands
of the first peoples that were

living there.

We see these white people who
are encroaching as the villain.

They will come in and they
will take what they want.

You know, there's a saying
about Northern Cheyenne...

That a nation is not defeated
until the heart of its women are

on the ground.

White colonizers saw our Native
women as holding these esteemed

places of respect
in our communities,

and there was a strategy to
try and do away with that,

to break down the power
of our Indian nations.

And so, violence against Native
women started very early.

If they couldn't kill
the Indians away,

they were going to
kill the spirit.

So for instance, the
governor in Georgia literally

instructed the Georgia militia
to rape our Cherokee women,

the idea being they'll
leave their homes.

If you look at massacres like
the Sand Creek massacre...

What the US military did
to the Cheyenne and raped,

murdered, and slaughtered
Native women...

It certainly has continued up
through the US military and the

colonial conquest that happened,
and it continues today.

The Disney version
of Pocahontas makes it

seem like there was this love
story between Pocahontas and

John Smith, and
in fact, you know,

it was a situation of sex
trafficking that we have

documentation of in our history.

This is a Native girl that was
taken from her community by a

colonizer.

In today's terms,
a lot of people tend to be more

distrusting of white
men because of that.

These are the people
who raped the women,

these are the people who
fundamentally changed everything

about our livelihood.

So when we're
talking about sex trafficking,

when we're talking about missing
and murdered Indian women,

that corridor of I-90, it really
is terrifying to think about

where they might have ended up.

Selena's not the
first person to go missing off

I-90.

Recently, Shacaiah Blue Harding
has gone missing out of the

Billings area.

She's most likely
been trafficked.

It was here
at Tumbleweed in Billings,

July 23rd, 2018.

That's the last time anyone
can remember seeing 19-year-old

Shacaiah Harding.

I met
Shacaiah at Tumbleweed.

It's an organization
that helps at-risk youth.

These Native youth were facing
a lot of alcohol and drug

problems.

They're the main targets for
trafficking because a lot of

them are very young and...

just want off the
street, or they want...

to feel somebody is
watching out for them,

or taking care of them.

In the Native
community, some people,

because of all the stuff
that they're going through,

it makes them a target
for these evil people.

Sometimes in human
trafficking cases,

women are taken
out of the state,

out of the country, but
sometimes they're enticed with

free drugs and alcohol, and
then they're sold to men,

and they think
they're having fun,

they think they're hooking
up because they don't see the

exchange of money.

In some cases, women are
literally kept drunk or high in

hotel rooms and...

are sold to the highest
bidder every night.

Tense ambient music

If Shacaiah was doing drugs and
still active in the scene of

drugs, that makes her very
vulnerable to be picked up and

trafficked.

To see a young Native American
girl walk down the street,

most people are not
gonna pay attention.

Our home
life was very hard.

My mother has always
been an addict.

With Shacaiah not really
having a stable home,

she started moving out
more towards the streets.

She was diagnosed with
meth-induced schizophrenia.

And that's...

kind of where her life
started to spiral downward.

Shacaiah basically
lived every night for two years

at Tumbleweed, and then...

all of a sudden, she
just... stopped showing up.

When my mom asked me if I had
heard from Shacaiah...

it was a red flag because she
always kept in communication

with somebody.

Three weeks after searching,
my mom filed a missing persons

report.

A couple of months after she
was gone that some of the kids

started finally talking, and
they had told us that she had

been sold for drugs.

And then he was gonna turn
around and traffic her.

That was the last time anyone
heard from Shacaiah or has seen

her.

In September of 2018,

I was assigned Shacaiah's case.

We've conducted several
interviews and we do have

information that she might
have been trafficked,

but we don't know that for
sure, so we cannot confirm that

information.

As of right now, we
don't have a crime.

For traffickers, it
is easy to transport out of

Billings because you have I-90
that runs all throughout the

state, connecting Billings
to the other states in all

directions so that it is almost
impossible for us to trace them.

Tense music

Shacaiah has been
seen in a lot of places that

have high human trafficking.

She has been spotted twice
once at an airport...

and then in a strip club.

When a white woman goes missing,

they search the state, they
drag rivers and they...

pull out every tool they have.

My sister-in-law is missing.

It didn't matter.

It's not a priority
because of what?

It's just some drunk
Native or some crackhead.

Shacaiah's
mother says she is begging

anyone who might have any
information to please come

forward.

She is somebody's daughter.

She means a lot to us.

I didn't think I was
gonna be one of them Indians

waiting for...

one of their family
members to come back home,

to be gone.

There's so many of 'em.

So many that disappeared
off the face of the Earth...

with no traces of
who-knows-where they've been.

The majority of the girls that
have been trafficked out of

Billings that we know of...

I have not heard of any
that have come home yet.

I know a lot of families are
still actively searching.

It's disheartening because
when years start going by...

you start to worry if you're
ever going to find them.

Tense ethereal music

I've lived in
this community my whole life.

I've seen people just vanish and
families desperate for help and

no one respond.

And then when Selena
Not Afraid went missing

two years after
Shacaiah Blue Harding,

there was such a quick response,
and this was unprecedented.

Selena Not Afraid's case
happened after missing and

murdered indigenous women
started to gain national

attention.

And at that point, enough cases
had come through that there was

some more involvement, and
so we did get a quicker law

enforcement response.

The search for Selena was
something I had never seen

before ever in my life.

They had a drone,
they had a helicopter,

they had volunteers
from all over the place.

Selena Not Afraid was last seen
at the I-90 rest area between

Billings and Hardin
on New Year's Day.

Today, search and rescue dogs
widened the search radius by two

or three miles.

Tense ambient music

There are so many things that
could have happened just from

the rest area 'cause it's
hooked on the interstate.

Was she trafficked?

Was there drugs involved?

Was there family members
involved that weren't saying

anything?

The one woman is still
there but Selena is gone.

The other woman said that Selena
tried to talk her into crossing

the fence and going
towards Old Highway.

And she refused,
so she went anyway.

And that was the last that
Selena Not Afraid was seen by

anybody.

When I was there,
I walked down that creek and I

walked around there.

I kept yelling for Selena.

And I come back and I
said, "Selena ain't here.

How was she supposed
to get over that fence?

Look how high it is.

Selena didn't go
that direction."

As soon as that happened, I
suspected that somebody abducted

her right away.

We had a lot of obstacles, but
there were certain volunteers

who weren't law enforcement that
wanted to be law enforcement,

and it was hard to
coordinate all of that.

There's only just a few
law enforcement people,

and we didn't have the
evidence we needed to find her.

The Big Horn
County people were interviewing

the people that
were in that van,

but to this day, they never
talked to me about the people

she was with.

They never talked to any of us.

It's
surrounded in mystery,

this case.

The weeks that
Selena was missing,

it was like time stood still.

Everybody knew who she was.

I'm not sure what it was about
Selena that people resonated

with, but there was something
about her that people connected

with.

Even as a child,
she was like that;

people wanted to be around her,
they wanted to be her friend.

Tense ambient music

Selena would walk
into a room and just light it

up, and her smile
was contagious.

It reminded me, like, I
was safe being myself.

She was just happy
even though, like,

she was going through things.

She struggled a lot with, um...

losing her three siblings.

Selena came from
a family with a lot of loss,

and all of that loss in that
family amped up the stakes to

find her because the community
thought that it was too much for

the family if Selena
was to not be found.

Out of the five children
that Jackie had,

three of them had
died untimely deaths.

Selena's brother Preston, he
got shot up there in Billings by

the Yellowstone SWAT team.

He got shot 17 times.

Preston
was killed in 2017.

One year later, she lost
her sister, Tristan.

Tristan was killed in
Billing, she was hit and run.

Selena had
a twin sister named Zoe.

Zoe died by the time she was 11.

Selena would get lonesome
for Zoe sometimes,

and she'd come to me and she'd
be crying for Zoe 'cause they

were real close.

Zoe killed herself,
hung herself downstairs.

After Zoe's death, we
got her into counseling,

we got her into therapy,
and after Preston's death,

it was a downhill spiral.

She was
really sad and down,

but she never really showed it.

Selena was able to
control her emotions.

She was a strong person.

After losing her three siblings,
she definitely made it a

priority to be there for others.

If you were having
a bad day, like,

she'd just smile and,
like, make you laugh.

And she'd always say, "Be glad
you're still here, you know.

Some people don't
get another day."

She had so many
people in her corner, you know?

She was a lot of their strength
without realizing that that's

what kept her going is being
other people's strength instead

of focusing on all
of her own grief.

Tender ethereal music

At that stage in her life, all's
we cared about was whatever it

takes for you to be happy.

You want freedom? You got it.

You want to go stay
with your friends?

You got it.

You wanna go out New Year's Eve?

You got it.

Tense ambient music

It all started at Billings.

When Sal went out
New Year's Eve,

it was just a last-minute thing.

She dropped Sal off and Sal
turned around and waved at her

mom.

Jackie dropped her off
thinking she'd be back.

On New Year's Eve, I knew that
Selena was gonna be out in

Billings at a house party.

And there was older people there
I know that... at that party,

and people, like,
in my eyes, like,

she'd never hang
out with.

It was just mostly alcohol
that brought her to that house.

So the next morning, I called
Selena... this was nine o'clock

and Selena answered right away.

And I was like, "Hey,
Sal! How's it going?"

She said, "Good," and
we both said, you know,

"Happy New Year,
happy New Year!"

And then, like, then it...

clicked; the background
noise clicked to me.

I heard men talking,
I heard guy voices,

and I was like,
"That's not right."

And I could hear music in the
background and I was like,

"Hey, Sal," I said,
"whatever's going on,

it's time to go home now."

And she said, "Oh, I am!

My mom's coming to get me."

Selena
calls her mom, Jackie,

to come pick her up, and Jackie
did show up at that house

where they were partying at,
and they couldn't find Selena no

place.

Couldn't have been no
more than 45 minutes.

And then, meantime, that's
when they got in that van.

Someone in that
van posted a Snapchat video.

It shows them drinking.

So you
look at the video,

they're driving
around in Billings,

and they could have easily
dropped Selena off on South Side

where Selena's mom lives.

They didn't, they...

just drove right by, you know.

They could have let her off.

Why was
Selena in that van?

Why take Sal?

That's what I don't know.

I don't know where
they were going.

Sal had no reason
to go anywhere.

She already told me she was
waiting for her mom to go home.

She wasn't drunk when
she talked to me,

she wasn't slurring, she
wasn't being belligerent,

she wasn't anything.

And I would've known if
there was anything different,

but it wasn't.

The search for
Selena Not Afraid is still going

following her disappearance
on January 1st.

They've been searching out here
all day and the sheriff says

they're also doing more
investigating to get a better

idea of where Selena might be.

Tense music

I knew this matter
was getting bigger and bigger,

and all I can do is keep
contact with law enforcement.

And I trusted my family who were
participating in the search,

but I can't go there because
there is a court order in place

that says I cannot have
contact with my daughter.

Leroy Not Afraid and
the mother were having a bitter

divorce and he just wanted to
stay out of the middle of it.

He had a restraining order, so
we knew that Leroy would not be

out there searching
for his own daughter.

We did talk to the mother.

The detectives interviewed
people in the van,

and they interviewed other
people at the scene that were

actually at the house party,
because at that point,

they still didn't know
if she was in Billings.

We just didn't know where
she was at that point.

Pretty much know
that she's not in this area.

We feel... not only myself, but
lot of the family members as

well... you know, with all
the people coming through here

several times over, we would've
found her if she was here,

so we've been kind of leaning
towards she may have left the

area.

We're gonna continue
searching, you know.

BIA pulled out and
Big Horn County were looking in

different areas.

But we weren't
leaving the rest area.

"When I get her, I'll leave."

Because Sal deserves...

a happy ending.

Today, a symbol of support and
solidarity as the search for a

missing Hardin teenager
approaches one week.

Today, Hardin
High students rallied together

to raise awareness and spread
the word about Selena Not

Afraid, who's been missing
since New Year's Eve,

hoping their message grows
hope throughout the community.

There's hope and
they will find you.

We all hope we can find you.

Just wanna, like, think of a
good outcome and not think of

the worst, 'cause I know she's
still out there and alive.

The task force
was brought in by the FBI.

They're specifically tasked
to find individuals that are

missing in these cases,
these national cases.

When we brought in the national
law enforcement agencies to help

us, we wanted to show that even
if there was something bad going

on in Big Horn County
Sheriff's Office,

the other agencies would've
said something if there was.

Some people just didn't
trust the Sheriff's Office.

Every day, I just
would get up in the morning,

update.

"This is what we're doing today.

This is all we heard."

I have to update because I
have to keep their attention,

they have to keep sharing Sal,
because once they scroll by her,

it's over.

We were setting up our own
little command station,

feeding people,
recruiting volunteers.

According
to Selena's aunt Cheryl Horn,

the local assistance
has been great,

but they still are in need of
locals who know the land to lend

a helping hand.

We don't have a lot of people
coming here from this area who

live here, who have
family members missing.

We need you to come and say,
"Let's all go together."

More people were
coming with food,

more people were
coming with donations,

more people were
coming with SUVs,

more people were
willing to walk.

Strangers, strangers, strangers,
all came with their moms and

their kids, dads and their kids.

Missing and murdered
indigenous women,

an issue here in Montana and the
nation that communities are now

trying to create
more awareness about.

The Murdered and
Missing Indigenous Women's

Movement has been a conversation
in Indian country for decades.

When people started to
realize that Native women,

Native girls are in danger
every day of their lives,

they started to want to help,
they started to want to rise up,

and a lot of non-Natives
really latched onto it.

And then when Selena
Not Afraid went missing,

it really solidified
that movement.

But in Selena's case,

the initial response
was totally different.

Five,
six years ago,

we weren't getting any national
news coverage for these cases.

Melancholy music

When Henny Scott went missing,
it hit a cord in the community

at large.

It wasn't just Natives,
it was everyone.

And then Kaysera went missing
and people started asking,

"What is going on
in Big Horn County?"

Say her name!

Kaysera!

Say her name!

Kaysera!

And then
once the Selena case hit,

the news coverage
was everywhere;

it went international.

And that was because the
family pushed really,

really hard to get
that story out there.

ELM flew their big
high-power drone over here,

we had a helicopter fly
over, we had people walking.

Some of the family members
of Selena Not Afraid,

they wanted to be
in the spotlight,

which is why they kept pushing
themselves in the national

media.

They wanted their
15 minutes of fame,

which, again, put more pressure
on the Big Horn County Sheriff's

Office, 'cause you
can't do your job there.

They just called
me on Messenger...

Big Horn County Sheriff's
Office wanted me to be quiet!

They wanted me to quit
posting on Facebook.

And I said, "No!

You bring me a court
order and I'll be quiet."

Okay, bye.

"I want everybody to know what's
going on and what happened."

tense music

When you're looking for 17 days,

like, obviously, you
start freaking out.

But once the snow
started falling,

I just started crying.

And I was like, "Oh my
gosh, it's cold out there,

and she has her
little jacket on.

Like, her little jacket
she always wears every day,

like, she just had that on."

That's all she had.

Tense ambient music

I woke up really
angry on January 20th...

Like, really angry.

It was just something, it was
like I felt heaviness on me.

Not even probably
an hour later...

I got a call...

if I knew there was a body
found in Big Horn County.

Sparse sad music

We begin
tonight with some sad news out

of Big Horn County.

The body of
16-year-old Selena...

Selena
Not Afraid has been found.

Her body was
found about three quarters of a

mile from the I-90 rest stop.

Between
Billings and Hardin,

the same place where she was
last seen alive on New Year's

Day.

I see this article and they say,

"Body Found, Claimed to
Be Selena Not Afraid's."

And then I remember,
um, I automatically...

just busted out crying
and I was like...

I never cried like that
before, you know?

Crews from
the Department of the Interior

found Selena's body after a
systematic grid search of the

area.

Now, with the body of Selena Not
Afraid being found only three

quarters of a mile away from the
rest area where she originally

disappeared, that
begs the question:

why was she not found sooner?

Well, authorities in the area
say that this place is big

country and things
can go unnoticed.

Well, you could
almost walk right on top of her

and not see her.

Until we got the professional
trackers out there actually

doing that, we didn't find her,
and they were taking one grid at

a time and searching
it and that took days.

Big Horn
County Undersheriff Eric Winburn

says 16-year-old Selena Not
Afraid's body was located out in

the open.

There was sage brush in the
area and she was kind of laying

in the middle of the sage brush.

She was less than a
mile from the rest area,

and that frustrated everybody
because they were thinking,

"If she's only less than
a mile from the rest area,

why didn't we find her sooner?"

We went to the
site where they found Sal.

And she is not
laying in any bushes,

she's not laying in
any brush, nothing.

Where she was was
out in the open.

You could see her from 100, 200
yards away if she was laying

there.

She was right there by
that cut-across road.

Tense ambient music

There were so many
people searching for Sal.

There's tire tracks,
there's four-by-four tracks,

there's dog tracks,
there's horse prints,

all of that in that
area, all of it.

We had a woman, her and her sons
had side-by-sides and they just

covered that whole area,
and they were there.

Both of the sheriff and
undersheriff tried to convince

her they missed it, they tried
to convince people in the

helicopters they missed her.

No, if she was there, you would
see her because of where she's

laying; she's not hidden.

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.

You couldn't have drove a
vehicle out there and dumped her

without lights and somebody
would've saw her or heard her,

because there was constantly
somebody there 24/7 at the rest

area.

The undersheriff
also reported to us that there

was no animal activity in
or around Selena's body,

which means there
was no scavenging.

To have a body out in the
wilderness for 20 days...

and to have it fully intact...

is impossible.

I don't believe that her body
was there the whole time.

I don't.

No foul play is
suspected at this time.

When will you guys know more?

Probably, you know,
after the autopsy's,

you know, conducted there
in the next couple of days.

Without an autopsy complete,

how could investigators rule
out foul play so quickly?

It makes you guys look like
you're trying to cover something

up.

I know, and we didn't view this
as a criminal investigation;

this was a search and rescue.

Um... it's a missing person.

It makes absolutely
no sense for Selena to walk into

a field.

Selena was 16 years
old, a student athlete,

and very, very healthy.

Why couldn't she stand up
and walk to the rest stop?

There's never a
question into why.

Why is someone in the
middle of a field?

As a journalist, I was
always taught to ask why.

So as an investigator, why
are they not asking the same

question?

An autopsy
is slated for tomorrow,

but questions still remain.

Will anyone be held
accountable for Selena's death?

Undersheriff Winburn, I asked
him if any criminal charges

could follow in this case.

He said it is possible; once
that autopsy for Selena is

complete, authorities will have
a better understanding of what

happened to her.

At the
time of discovery,

her remains were frozen.

There was no indication of foul
play from the standpoint of

trauma, strangulation,
or otherwise.

We did not discover alcohol.

However, if Selena was able to
walk around... as I believe she

was... for hours, it's very
possible for the alcohol to be

metabolized in the body.

We were able to find findings
that were associated with

dehydration, with starvation,
and with freezing to death.

The determination of the cause
of death was hypothermia.

With hypothermia deaths, it's
not uncommon for individuals to

become disoriented and
gradually incapacitated.

During that state, they
may crawl on the ground,

and there were abrasions
consistent with that type of

activity.

Individuals who experience
hypothermia will oftentimes

paradoxically begin
removing their clothing.

Selena's legs were facing up

and she was rotated
at the torso and

seems to be in the process
of removing a sweater.

It's my opinion that Selena
ultimately walked to that

location where she was
discovered and died at that

location.

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An official
autopsy report shows Selena Not

Afraid died of hypothermia
according to the state's Medical

Examiner's Office.

The state medical examiner's
report says the situation

surrounding what happened to
Not Afraid was an accident.

This report confirms...

They said it was hypothermia
and it was an accident,

accidental.

So there's no investigation.

But I knew what happened
and I knew she was abducted.

I knew that 'cause we
couldn't find her for 20 days.

She wandered out
there on her own accord and she

died of hypothermia.

And, you know, she was drunk,
she had very little clothing on.

It started raining
that first night,

so she'd been out
there that whole time,

wet and cold.

That was the absolute
reason why she died.

But again, the family did
not want to hear the truth.

When families experience
a sudden unexpected loss,

it's difficult at times to
accept that an individual may

have been...

responsible for the
circumstances that led to their

death.

In many ways, it's easier to
displace that responsibility on

someone else.

Hypothermia is the go-to answer
to the dead Indian problem in

Montana.

No questions are answered,
sweep it under the rug,

"hypothermia,"
every single time.

This disregard for trying
to provide answers to family

members and that there can be an
attempt to close out these cases

you know, close them
out like they're done,

you know, like it can ever be
over... with these statements of

accidental hypothermia,
it's just mind-boggling.

Most of these
cases of missing and murdered

indigenous women,
a lot of the time,

they're found in a
field, or along the road,

or in a ditch.

A lot of times,
they're found beaten,

but according to
medical reports,

they die of hypothermia,
like in Henny Scott's case.

Henny Scott's cause of death
was reported as hypothermia,

but according to the family, she
had obvious bumps and bruises on

her forehead, on her
arms, on her chest,

and she had a broken nose.

If you're beaten to a point
where you can't move and you're

out in the elements
in Montana, yeah,

you're probably gonna die of
hypothermia if you can't get

anywhere.

But there's a reason
you're out there,

there's a reason that you're
unable to get to help.

Hypothermia is only a
small piece of the puzzle.

Regardless of what a
medical examiner might say is

the cause, we know that there
is more to it than that.

Our girls don't just die.

There are factors
that lead up to that.

On top of
the trafficking scare,

we have drug addictions,
the alcohol abuse,

and we have domestic
violence rates that are...

skyrocketing.

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It's a shame because a lot of
crime gets swept under the rug,

and these young girls are
at risk for a lot of issues,

sometimes in their own homes.

In the case of Selena,
apparently there were...

allegations of sexual
abuse against her father,

Leroy.

After Zoe died, Leroy
kept Selena from us.

He got custody of
her just like that...

and took Selena out of
here, away from her mom.

She was with him that whole
year or year-and-a-half,

18 months before we
even seen her again.

After that, it seemed like
Selena was always scared all the

time when she was with him
and she was real quiet.

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One day, I'm sitting here and I
get a text from Jackie and she

said, "Selena found her voice.

She's gonna tell
what happened to her,

and we're doing an interview
with the authorities."

I witnessed Selena giving the
statement to the BIA Office,

Social Services.

Selena said that her dad
abused her four times.

There was an order
of protection to restrain me

from seeing my daughter.

The petition stated...

very ugly...

made-up details.

There was allegations of abuse,

that I touched her
inappropriately in a sexual

manner.

When I read the document,
I about fell over.

There is no flippin' way I would
ever touch my girls or any of my

children... or
anybody's children,

for that matter... in any way
that would hurt them at all.

I said, "Okay, if
they wanna push it,

let's do a polygraph.

Have my daughter do a polygraph
and I'll do a polygraph."

I said, "Let's dance.

They wanna to do
stuff like this?

Let's do it!"

The mom withdrew the order
of protection in Yellowstone

County, and then, in our
settlement negotiations,

I agreed to stay...

keep my distance from my
girl until the age of 18.

I was thinking, "We've got
a 16-year-old girl now who's

accusing me of horrible
things that never happened.

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Can I be alone with her again?

Can I discipline her again?"

I had to come to the realization
I can't parent my girl no more,

I can't be in the same
room alone anymore.

The last time I saw
Selena was July of 2018.

Why wasn't
he charged with anything?

I'm tired of it.

I'm tired of no justice.

Because behind Sal is a big,
long line of girls... all these

other missing girls... and there
are some families who really

think they're working on their
cases at that sheriff's office

and...

that case is probably
in the trash.

People don't see
Native women and girls as human.

We are looked down on, we are
devalued by society at large,

by law enforcement.

These girls mean
nothing to them.

"Look, it's just
another dead Indian."

That's all it is to these people
investigating these cases.

In my experience growing
up here right in Crow,

I never felt like cops were
doing the work for you.

And it always seemed to me like
law enforcement that worked in

our communities, they felt
like they had to be there,

and so there was this annoyed
behavior that came with them,

instead of someone who
wanted to do the job.

In the
Native community,

they must feel like the white
people are not doing their job,

they're not trying to bring
justice for the Native

Americans.

Or they trying to
make it out that,

you know, it's a white boogeyman
killing or abducting people when

it isn't the case.

And, uh, what they
don't realize is...

the Native Americans don't take
the responsibility of what's

happened in the community...

Alcohol, drugs, the parents
aren't taking care of them.

To me, it looks like there's
gonna be big problems if you

accept that stuff and if you
accept it as a culture as a

community.

In that Selena Not Afraid case,
Selena's mother took her to the

alcohol party.

The mother should have been
prosecuted for taking her

daughter there in
the first place.

The driver... who was
a Native American,

who was an adult... basically
abandoned Selena there at the

rest area.

That should have never happened;
he should've been charged.

Instead of taking responsibility
for some of the Natives doing

things to other Natives,
they come up with,

you know, "It's the white
man doing this to us."

If it doesn't fit that, they
don't wanna know the truth.

Selena Not Afraid is just
a prime example of that.

Working in Big Horn County, I
don't believe that MMIW is real.

I don't think the issue's real.

It's easy, I think,
to point at something and say,

"It's this way because of
them" or "because of that."

But ultimately, you are
of your environment.

You tell a people that
everything they've done is

wrong, and then you repackage
it to fit the opposing side,

and people really start
to doubt themselves.

We don't value
ourselves anymore,

therefore, we're not gonna
value anything around us,

which, unfortunately,
women are a part of that.

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I think a lot of
people think that Native women

are disposable.

I mean, we're easily forgotten.

How do you just leave somebody
on the side of the road without

any regard for their life?

How do you...

go home at night...

without everyone that you left
with and just think that that's

okay?

You should think that there's
something wrong with that act,

but it's so ingrained that I
think even Native women see

other Native women
as disposable,

to the point where we
don't even realize it.

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I mean, it goes all
the way back to the history of

colonization.

We lack cultural
confidence, we lack...

cultural competency.

We've allowed ourselves
to be a defeated people,

so therefore,
everything around us,

it's all part of
this thing, you know?

This...

this garbage system
we've inherited,

which is to have
no self-respect.

And the most dangerous
thing is an insecure man.

When you're growing up in
a situation where you're

constantly on-edge
who's lurking,

who's looking, who's
following me?...

Inside, you feel like you're
gonna be the target of sexual

abuse or gonna be attacked.

It's not a matter of if,
it's a matter of when.

And it puts kids in that
sense of "Eff it," you know?

"If I'm gonna die,
I'm gonna die.

I don't have to worry
about who's around me,

I don't have to worry about the
people I'm with because if I'm

gonna die, or if I'm
gonna be trafficked,

or if I'm gonna be murdered,
or if I'm gonna be kidnapped,

I might as well have fun."

That attitude contributes even
more to the crisis that we're

living in.

They're gonna put themselves
in dangerous situations anyway.

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With so many of
these cases of our missing and

murdered girls, someone knows
what happened in all of these

situations.

A lot of times, we know who
might have been involved,

and that someone is still
walking around our community.

There's not anyone out there
fighting for justice for us.

I resigned as the
undersheriff in August 2020,

and the sheriff, he appointed
Leroy Not Afraid as my

successor.

Leroy Not Afraid was the
father of Selena Not Afraid.

I knew that there was, um...

charges of sexual abuse.

I don't know how far
the investigation went,

but I know he was never
charged at the time.

My current occupation is I'm
the undersheriff for Big Horn

County, Montana.

And I'm not here in
my official capacity,

I'm here as...

the dad of the late
Selena Not Afraid.

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In the
case of Selena...

after her body was found, it
seemed like that case just

stopped, it hit a wall.

And shortly after that
point, Leroy was appointed

undersheriff, which, to me, felt
odd that an open case involving

his daughter is still in the
hands of Big Horn County and

he's appointed undersheriff.

I never thought in a
million years I would be part of

the law enforcement.

My adopted brother is the
sheriff of Big Horn County,

and he had asked me before,
when Selena was still alive,

to be part of law enforcement.

But I told him no because of
everything that was going on in

my personal life.

When he fired his
last undersheriff,

he came again.

And I thought to myself, "Hm.

Maybe I'll give this a go."

As the undersheriff,

is he investigating?

Is he not investigating?

He very well could be.

He probably shouldn't
be, but we don't know.

There's been no addressing
of that in any way,

shape, or form.

When I took the oath in
Big Horn County, Montana,

I made the personal decision
and the professional

decision to insulate myself
from any investigative file,

having any kind of discussions
with any of the detectives,

any law enforcement
officer, because...

I, as a law enforcement
officer, cannot compromise an

investigation that may
or may not be ongoing.

So he's undersheriff now.

His friend, Sheriff
Big Hair, hires him.

They're cousins and
they're good friends.

The problem that really lies
here in Big Horn County is that

everybody is connected and
everybody is related to

everybody else in
one way or another.

So somebody knows something.

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