The death of a 16-year-old Hardin teen remained under investigation Tuesday, a day after her body was found less than mile from where she was last seen alive three weeks prior.
Big Horn County Undersheriff Eric Winburn said there does not appear to be any evidence that the body of Selena Not Afraid was moved before she was found by federal trackers less than a mile from the I-90 rest area that had been the focus of the three-week search.
There were no footprints or tracks in the area near her body, he said, and there was also no obvious injuries on her body.
An autopsy is scheduled in Billings on Wednesday. Winburn said evidence collected to date indicates everyone in the group Not Afraid was with was intoxicated, but it was difficult to speculate why she separated from the group as they were returning to Hardin from Billings on New Year’s Day. Everyone in the group has been cooperating, Winburn said.
Searches had already gone over the area where the body was later found by professional federal trackers. Sheriff Lawrence Big Hair said on Monday that he had also walked the area previously and did not find her body.
“Myself, I went walking there into the night. And I was within 200 yards of her body probably about a week ago. I just took a wrong turn and didn't walk up to where she was at. But I was that close to her body that evening. It's just a big country out here to search," the sheriff said.
Winburn said that investigators had stayed interested in the area around the rest area because they had some video from social media that appeared to show Not Afraid was there before she disappeared.
