Crime Junkie - MISSING: Celina Mays

Episode Date: October 31, 2022

Celina Mays was 12 years old when she vanished from her bedroom in the middle of the night back in 1996. Her disappearance helped peel back the curtain on a small controversial church where an environment of shame, isolation and fear allowed sexual abuse to flourish. If you have any information about Celina Mays, please contact the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children 24-hours a day, 7 days a week by calling 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678). You can also call the Willingboro Police Department at [phone] or the Citizen Tip Hotline at [phone]. If you or a loved one need help or want to find resources on how to detach from a destructive group, cult or leader, check out the following websites:Freedom of Mind Resource CenterThe Cult Education InstituteCult EscapeDare to DoubtEnCourage Survivors of Cults and Abuse For current Fan Club membership options and policies, please visit https://crimejunkieapp.com/library/.Source materials for this episode cannot be listed here due to character limitations. For a full list of sources, please visit: https://crimejunkiepodcast.com/missing-celina-mays/

Hi crime junkies, I'm your host Ashley Flowers, and the story I have for you today is about a young girl whose innocence was stolen in the very place she was supposed to feel safest in her home. This case has been on my mind non-stop since I first heard about it, and every new detail we learned only made me angrier, because you're going to find out that there's really two versions of this story, the one that the public heard about, and the one that actually happened behind closed doors, and as bad as the public version is, the private one is even worse. This is the story of Selena Mays.

It's Monday morning, December 16, 1996, and in a home in Willingboro, New Jersey, everyone is sitting down for breakfast. It's kind of a late meal, at least for them. The teens and kids in the house, eight of them ranging from two to 18 years old, had all been allowed to sleep in that morning until around 9 or 10, which is a rare treat. But someone is missing from the table, 12-year-old Selena Mays. Her younger half-sister, Noriel, is sent upstairs to wake her. She goes up but then comes back down and a few minutes pass, and there's still no Selena.

So Noriel's mom, Selena's stepmother, Yvette, sends Noriel up to get her again. But within a minute, the little girl is back downstairs alone. She tells her mother that Selena's bedroom is empty, like she's not upstairs at all. So another member of the household, 18-year-old Tawana, heads up there to see for herself. Tawana told our reporter Nina that nothing was out of place in Selena's room, her purse is still there, and Selena never goes anywhere without her purse, so she must be nearby. But truthfully, she is not upstairs or anywhere else in the house. Sometimes Selena's dad, Cresonzo Mays, also known as CJ, brings her to work with him.

So Yvette calls him, thinking maybe her stepdaughter woke up early, left with him. But CJ says no, he hasn't seen her since she went to bed the night before. That's when Tawana notices that Selena's long, bright red puffer coat is gone. Taking this as an indication she probably went outside for some reason, she and one of Selena's cousins go out to look for her. But even as they walk outside, the idea that she would just go take a stroll doesn't seem like a likely scenario. I mean, it is December in New Jersey, it is cold.

Tawana racks her brain thinking of where else Selena could be. But there's really not many possibilities. You see, this is a strict, deeply religious household that revolves completely around church. And the young people don't have much freedom. They're all part of the Gospel of Christ ministries, this tiny, fundamentalist, Pentecostal church that's run by Selena's paternal aunt, Serita Smith. According to Jim Nolan's reporting in Philadelphia Daily News, the congregation is made up of

several extended families, and they're pretty isolated from the surrounding community. Like, they don't just worship there, they socialize there, they work there. Serita is the pastor, CJ's a bookkeeper, and Yvette is the secretary. And all of the members' children, Selena plus about a dozen other kids, are homeschooled there. And even the living arrangements are unusual. Almost everyone in the congregation, I've seen estimates ranging from 20 to 60 people, all of them stay in two or three houses, which include the one Selena lives in on Crestview

Drive and the church rectory, which is about 15 minutes away from there. As far as Tawana is aware, Selena doesn't spend time with anyone outside of church. So because of this isolation, there is part of her that's wondering, maybe Selena did run away. Maybe she wanted to see something else, meet someone else. I don't know. But here's the thing, even if she had, why would she leave her purse behind? She had no money, she had no suitcase, nothing but whatever clothes she was wearing and her

coat. Now, it's not until the following day, Tuesday, December 17th, that CJ reports his daughter missing. Willingboro detective Monica Pogoselski told us that he went to the police station to make the report. CJ tells officers about their day before they went to church, which normally on Sundays is like an all day thing. And I'm not kidding when I say all day, like literally upwards of 10 hours broken up throughout

the day, morning, afternoon and night. But oddly enough, there was no night service yesterday. So Tawana and Selena had been dropped off at the house around midday. The two of them hung out and talked. In that evening, someone brought home ice cream and they all had a snack in the kitchen. Selena kissed everyone goodnight like she always did, and then she and Tawana headed upstairs at around 11pm. They went into their separate bedrooms across the hall from one another and closed their

doors. I don't know if CJ tells police anything else that's relevant, and I also don't know what steps, if any, are taken by law enforcement over the next few days. Detective Pogoselski says she thinks police would have followed up, but she wasn't on the force back then and she can't find record of anything happening until Friday, December 20th. And I wish we could find out more about that because based on Selena's age alone, an investigation should have been launched immediately.

But that Friday, Selena's still not back, so that's when police go to visit CJ at home. CJ tells detectives he doesn't think his daughter would run away. He says she seemed happy recently, she had even thanked him and her family for being there for her before she went to bed on Sunday night. Although he and his wife also say that when Noriel went to wake Selena up on Monday morning, there were pillows, like stuffed under her blanket, almost as if to give the impression that someone was lying in bed in case anyone checked on her.

Now police know that if Selena has been abducted, it's most likely that a family member is responsible. And Child Find of America reports that in nearly 80% of family abductions, the perpetrator is the non-custodial parent. But that's not possible in this case because CJ is right here looking for his daughter. And Selena's mom, Lynn Vitale, died of a brain aneurysm back in 1994, so detectives aren't sure what to think. But then, for the first time, mind you, CJ all of a sudden drops a bombshell on police.

He mentions to them that like, oh, by the way, my missing 12-year-old daughter is 9 months pregnant. In fact, she had just had a doctor's appointment that past Friday and her obstetrician said that she was a centimeter dilated, so that baby could be coming any time, although her due date still isn't until December 29th. Now like you, police are stunned that CJ waited days to tell them something this huge. And obviously the first question they had is the first one I had, the first one I'm sure all of you have, who is the baby's father?

Find him and maybe this case is closed by nightfall. But CJ says he doesn't know who got Selena pregnant, that she refused to tell him, and she didn't tell anyone else either. Now investigators figure, you know, maybe there's some clues at the house. Maybe she has a diary or something and they can get to the bottom of this. But there's another problem. This isn't CJ's house. It actually belongs to Selena's aunt, Sarita, and Sarita's husband.

And according to Detective Pokozelski, when police ask permission to take a look around, Sarita says no. So they apply for a search warrant, but the county court judge denies the request. The judge basically ruled that the family is considered the victim in this case. There's no probable cause that a crime had been committed in the house. Now I know exceptions have been made for emergencies, including missing persons investigations, but we do not have the original search warrant application or the judge's decision. So I'm not sure what the specific reasoning was.

What's interesting is Noriel told us something totally different. Remember she is the one who originally went to wake up Selena and found that she was missing. And listen, there are a lot of people in this story, so I'm going to try and keep you oriented. But anyway, when she spoke with her mother about this recently, Yvette named three detectives who she said were allowed to search the house, although it took them more than two weeks to come and do it. Yvette says that it was actually the church rectory that Sarita refused to allow entry to because Selena had never lived there. Detective Pokozelski told us that is not true.

Actually, she says that police were eventually able to do a walkthrough of the church, but never the house. And unfortunately, without access to case records, we couldn't ever get to the bottom of that discrepancy, which is a big one. Is someone lying? Is someone misremembering? Have people been lied to? And the truth they think they know isn't the real truth. Great questions.

I don't know. At any rate, search or no search, police have a long list of people that they want to speak with. As of December 1996, the Crestview property is home to Selena, C.J. and Yvette. Yvette and C.J.'s daughters, Noreal and Noreal's little sister, Yvette's 18-year-old son. There's also Tawana, who's not a relative but a member of the congregation, and four of Sarita's five children. Meanwhile, Sarita and her husband have been primarily living at the rectory since around 1993, when they bought an old Catholic church and turned it into Gospel of Christ. Their oldest child and her husband are also living there at the rectory with them.

And even though their 22-year-old son, Sean, lives at Crestview, it sounds like his own wife and their child mostly stayed at the rectory with Sarita. He also has two other kids by two different women who are also members of the congregation, although I don't think they actually lived there. So this is a complicated situation, and it's hard to get an accurate headcount of who lives in what location, but all told, there are dozens of relatives slash church members who need to be tracked down. And it doesn't help that according to reporter Richard Pearsall of The Courier Post, police aren't getting much cooperation from the family or the flock.

Congregants seem fearful of speaking out of turn, and even though investigators do manage to nail down some basic statements from CJ, Sarita, and others, following up with them proves to be really difficult. Although Sarita does share her opinion about the mysterious father of her niece's baby, she theorizes to police that Selena met a boy while at a skating rink in nearby Camden County. But to detectives, that's hard to believe. Neighbors of the family tell them the children aren't even allowed to play outside, so when exactly is Selena running off to a skating rink to meet boys,

and how would she be able to keep such a big secret in her small community? So police decide to check with someone who's outside of this close-knit group. They go talk to Selena's obstetrician, Dr. Dolores Williams. But she tells them that Selena wouldn't disclose the father's identity to her either, although the girl did say that he was 16 and not a member of her family or church. The doctor tells them that she thinks Selena probably ran away to get away from the strict environment that she was living in, and to protect her baby's father, who would have been facing felony sexual assault charges because of her age.

In New Jersey, it's illegal to have sex with someone who is under the age of 13, regardless of how old the other person is. The doctor said she knew Selena liked this boy because she would smile when she asked about him, and she added that when she examined Selena, she didn't show any signs of being molested. But Dr. Williams is concerned for her. She says that Selena will probably need to have a C-section because at 12, her pelvis isn't large enough for a vaginal delivery. So wherever she is, whoever she is with,

she will need to seek medical care when she goes into labor, which could be now or weeks from now. As the days pass by with no sign of Selena or her baby, investigators touch base with local hospitals and doctors. No one has seen her. Police figure if she did run away, she'll contact her family over the holidays, but Christmas comes and goes, and then her December 29th due date, all of it with no word from her.

Now, I have no freaking idea why everyone decided it was a good idea to wait on this, but it is not until the new year that CJ and the police decide to take the case to the public and ask for help finding her. And despite CJ telling law enforcement that he didn't think his daughter would run away, he has a different story for the media. He tells The Times' Trenton reporter Peter Asseltine that he thinks his daughter took off knowing exactly where she was going, maybe even had a ride waiting.

And he now even has a theory about why she left. He says the family had been pressuring Selena to tell them who the baby's father is, and he had warned her that after the child was born, blood tests could reveal the secret, whether she was ready to or not. So the family speculates that Selena ran off with the baby's father, or maybe she went to stay with friends in a nearby town where she used to live with her mother Lynn before her passing. Or maybe she fled with help from Lynn's family in Florida or Michigan.

One of Lynn's sisters had fought CJ for custody of Selena after her mom died but had lost, and CJ says that they have the means and motive to take her. But when detectives check with these maternal relatives, they are shocked to hear that she's missing, and totally blindsided by news of the pregnancy. They say that CJ cut off their contact with Selena once she went to live with him. They'd send cards and gifts for the holidays and never hear a word back. Selena's half-brother on her mom's side,

this kid Robert, managed to have a brief phone call with her before she disappeared, and he tells the Associated Press that they couldn't speak candidly because CJ was in the background telling her to get off the phone. So Robert told Selena to push a button on the phone if she was unhappy living there, and his heart broke when he heard the beep. When police ask this side of the family where they think Selena might be, they all tell them that they think CJ must have her stashed away somewhere, but they sometimes fear that she may be dead. Now, there's obviously no love lost between

these two families, but the issues they have with each other predate Selena's disappearance, and even Lynn's death. Lynn and CJ had a tumultuous relationship. CJ tells Philadelphia Inquirer reporter Deborah Kong that he was in and out of jail, and both he and Lynn used drugs and alcohol. After they finally broke up for good in 1990, Lynn stopped using drugs and found work to support her young daughter, and the two were inseparable best friends. Meanwhile, CJ moved in with his sister Serita and began attending her church.

Now, why he didn't see Selena when she was growing up depends on who you ask. CJ says that he fell behind on child support payments and was denied visitation rights, and that he repeatedly tried to see Selena, but Lynn always had an excuse to keep him away. But Lynn's family said CJ basically abandoned his daughter, and that his involvement with his sister's church freaked Lynn out. She thought it was more like a cult, and she didn't want Selena around them. In fact, a former church member tells the Philadelphia Inquirer that she spoke with Lynn a couple of years before she died,

and Lynn told her that above all else, she didn't want Serita to get her hands on Selena. But CJ says that ex-church member's accusations are due to a personal vendetta, and while he admits that Selena had a hard time adjusting to her new, stricter life, he says it was her choice to stop talking to her mother's relatives. He says that Lynn's family members who are white don't like him because he's black, which they deny. Just about the only thing the families can agree on

is their frustration with the police investigation. Selena's maternal aunt in Florida says that law enforcement hasn't even searched their family's homes out of state, which they should have done by now, especially since CJ is claiming they took her. CJ's side says that investigators have had a bias against them from the beginning because of their involvement in the church. But police are saying they're doing everything they can to find Selena. A detective even tells the Associated Press that he's working the case 16 hours a day.

A $5,000 reward is eventually put up for information. Local law enforcement with the help of the FBI fly helicopters with thermal imaging technology over the home and church, dogs are brought in to search both areas. But again, they don't find anything, which on one hand is good news, but on the other is bad. It's great that there's no indication Selena is dead. I mean, investigators go so far as to say they don't believe she's been the victim of foul play, and they seem convinced that she is alive and being held somewhere. But no evidence also means no information.

And it's hard to be optimistic since Detective Pogozelski says they haven't been able to check the most critical places. Now, speaking of the did they or didn't they search the house discrepancy again, a few of the articles I read say police did at some point search both the house and the church. Although, like I said earlier, that's not what we're being told by police now. Again, Detective Pogozelski say that police do make it into the kitchen, and that was sometime in like 97 for a brief conversation with CJ. And they also managed to collect some evidence from Selena's room,

although I don't know when or how, but they got her black purse, a bottle of perfume, some handwritten pieces of paper, a fabric hair tie with black hairs on it, and her prenatal vitamins. But that's not much. And the lack of any physical evidence is only one of the many challenges police are up against. Lots of the sources who are normally helpful during a missing child's investigation, like teachers and neighbors and friends, just don't exist in this case. I mean, they're living in a bubble.

Plus, they still haven't had any luck learning more about the father of Selena's child, although they have eliminated someone from their list of potential candidates, CJ. You see, he had a vasectomy in 1994, and he brings Detective's medical documentation to prove it, which they verify is legit. What's interesting is, even as the limited cooperation from CJ's side of the family evaporates completely, they are still speaking with the media.

Serita tells reporter Peter Asseltine that her knees initially wanted to get an abortion, but she and CJ urged her not to because of their religious beliefs and assured her that they could place the child up for adoption if that's what she wanted. She says that as time passed, Selena started to accept the situation, faithfully taking her prenatal vitamins and even talking about having a baby shower. But Serita also says that Selena's refusal to name the baby's father caused tension in their family. And even though they tried to be supportive, there was an air of quote-unquote reproof directed at Selena in the home.

But here's the thing, former Gospel of Christ members tell the Philadelphia Inquirer that it is inconceivable to think that Serita doesn't know who the father is. And before I get into why, I just need to pause here for a minute and tell you guys a little more about this church. Because former members agree with Lynn's assessment. They say it's a cult-like commune that Serita rules with an iron fist. Nothing happens without her knowledge and approval, and no one wants to risk her wrath. Though current members defend their pastor, they say Gospel of Christ teachings are based on the Bible

and the church brings new life to people at the end of their rope. But the church was already in dispute by the time Selena went missing. In fact, Gospel of Christ is not technically even a church anymore. Serita got her minister's license in 1988 through Christ Gospel Churches International, which is a Pentecostal Christian denomination with churches across the world. But by 1991, complaints from congregants about her unorthodox methods, plus accusations about misusing church funds, led to the international branch withdrawing Serita's license and the rights to use its name.

She sued for slander in return, but later dropped the suit and just changed her church's name to Gospel of Christ. But in 1995, Gospel of Christ found itself back in court after filing trespassing and harassment complaints against two former members, both of whom were mothers of young women who were still active with Gospel of Christ. And both of these young women have children with none other than Serita's son, Sean Smith. The former members allegedly showed about a worship service with some friends and accused Serita and company of a bunch of stuff, including brainwashing their daughters and brainwashing their grandchildren. During a trial for the case, Serita testified that Gospel of Christ is actually a non-profit organization, not a church. And it's private, open only to members and invited guests.

But a judge still dismissed the charges against the former members. And he also called on the local prosecutor to investigate Gospel of Christ tax-exempt status. So now, Serita's disappearance brings even more heat onto the church or organization or whatever you want to call it. And needless to say, they're not happy about this. And really, overall, Serita seems way more concerned with defending the church's slash organization's reputation than actually finding her own niece. And not only that, but she actually blames Serita for everything. She insists that Serita got herself into this mess, and she even goes so far as to victim shame her during a sermon that she gives in January.

According to Richard Pearsall's reporting, Serita tells her congregation that Serita deceived the family about her pregnancy, that she lied for months and then made the choice to flee, just as she made a choice to have sex. Because she says that if Serita had been raped, she would have told them, and she would not have hidden her pregnancy at all. Serita says that by the time Selena moved in, she had seen more of life than most girls her age. In fact, she considers her more woman than child. And she says 12 is only a number, and that some 12-year-olds, quote, make you think that they're 18 years old. End quote.

So I guess if this pastor thing doesn't work out, she could always get a job as, I don't know, R. Kelly's spokesperson. Children cannot, cannot consent to sexual activity end of story. And I could go on about that all day, but I want to get down to the brass tacks. Because if you remember, in the intro for this episode, I told you that there are really two versions of this story. The one that the public heard about, and the one that actually happened behind closed doors. Well, up to this point, this is everything the public and police know. But there was so much more going on behind the scenes that only people in that small community were privy to. And Tawana told us that practically everything Serita and CJ said to police and the media were lies,

including their comments about the mystery man who fathered Selena's child. And she should know, because Tawana was the first person in the house to find out about Selena's pregnancy. And who the real father was. Tawana and Selena had gotten close over the past couple of years. They were usually put on the same fundraising team. And I don't even know what it's really called or what you would call this, but it's super messed up. Basically, gospel of Christ members have certain responsibilities. They support the church by selling pretzels and Mary K cosmetics and soliciting donations

outside of supermarkets and stores. And it's not like they just do this in their spare time. Tawana remembers being dropped off at locations early in the morning, and then not getting home until like 10 or 11 some nights. She says that only Serita's children were exempt from these so-called fundraisers. Tawana and Selena and Yvette's son Enrique were often dispatched as a team, so they spent lots of time together. And Tawana and Selena became practically like sisters.

Once Selena started getting her period around like fall of 95, Tawana made sure she had all the supplies she needed every month. Well, in May of 1996, Tawana did her usual check-in, asked Selena if she needed anything, and Selena said, no. So she asked a couple of weeks later, still no, then a third time, no. Now, Tawana told her not to worry. Lots of girls and women get irregular periods, and then she kind of joked with her, at least you're not pregnant.

But instead of laughing along, Selena dropped her head, and she confided to Tawana that actually, she did think she was pregnant. Tawana was stunned. I mean, she asked her, how, who? And Selena told her, Sean, her 22-year-old cousin. Sean worked in the music industry, and he had been promising to get Selena an autographed photo of like her favorite pop group or whatever. And the way Selena told Tawana the story, one night he went into her bedroom that she shared

with one of Serita's daughters back then, and he woke her up. And he woke her up. Well, he took her into the attic, where he told her that if she wanted him to get that autograph, she'd have to do some stuff for him first. Now, she didn't understand why would her own cousin want to have sex with her. But he told her everything would be fine. This didn't mean they weren't cousins anymore. But Selena was afraid that someone would wake up and find them, and she'd get in trouble.

Now, that was the first time it happened. But it happened twice more. And Tawana had no doubt whatsoever that Selena was telling the truth, because Sean had been sexually assaulting Tawana for years, practically since she joined Gospel of Christ as an outsider. You see, when she joined, the members of the church saw a vulnerability in her own mom, who was going through a difficult time, and they exploited it. Tawana started attending services to make new friends,

but she became deeply involved with the congregation. At some point, Tawana's mother moved the family back to Camden about a half an hour away, and their new apartment was in this bad neighborhood, and Tawana hated it there. She became depressed, she stopped going to church, and so her mom appealed to Sarita for help. And Sarita, who was still living at the Crestview House, assured Tawana that she was always welcome to stay with them whenever she wanted. So she did come stay, and then basically never left. Eventually, Sarita even managed to get temporary custody of her.

She told the court that Tawana's mother was unfit. So Sean started grooming her as soon as he could. He told her that they could be boyfriend and girlfriend, but it would have to be a secret. He started raping her when she was just 13. He'd wake her up in the middle of the night, in the bedroom she shared with one of Sarita's daughters, her best friend. She lived in fear of someone finding out. I mean, society in general fetishizes virginity and places way more pressure on women and girls

to be quote-unquote pure, no matter what religion they are. And sexual predators often use this guilt and shame and fear to keep their victims silent. But in conservative religious environments, it can be especially difficult to come forward. Because Tawana knew if this came to light, she would get in way more trouble than grown a**. Sean. She had seen Sarita make members confess their perceived sins to the entire congregation. Sean might have to make, I don't know, a brief apology, but females take the brunt of

the blame for sexual activity, no matter what the circumstances. And Tawana would be subject to a public interrogation at 13. And that was the last thing she wanted, especially after she started dating Enrique, a relationship approved of and controlled by the church. Sean even used this. He constantly threatened to tell Enrique that Tawana wasn't a virgin. But as bad as her situation was, she had never dreamed that Sean would rape his own little cousin. She told Selena that she needed to let CJ know what was going on.

But Selena said that she didn't want to yet, because Sean had told her everything was going to go back to normal soon. He was going to arrange for her to have an abortion. Now, that part actually didn't surprise Tawana because he had just made her get an abortion that past April. She had been scared, but he said that she had to do it. He had another woman set it up and told Tawana that if anyone at the clinic asked, which they did, she better tell them it was her choice to get it.

To hear that he had this same setup in mind for Selena makes her sick. But there was a hole in his plan. He couldn't sneak Selena out of the house to get an abortion. With Tawana, that part had been easy. She wasn't a legal family member. Serita didn't have guardianship or permanent custody of her, so she couldn't take her out of the public school system that she attended. So, she left to go to school one day and used that as her cover when she went to the clinic.

But getting Selena out of the house for a day proved to be impossible. And as time passed and Sean couldn't pull it off, Selena started wearing loose-fitting clothing to hide her stomach. But everything came to a head one day over the summer. Tawana snuck away from a fundraiser. So, she could go to a store and steal a pregnancy test. It actually wasn't for Selena. Tawana thought she was pregnant by Sean again.

But she got caught trying to shoplift. And rather than call police, the store called the church. When Tawana got back to the house later and heard a bunch of commotion, like everyone they're talking, she panicked and ran away for the night. No one informed authorities that she had left. And a janitor found her sleeping behind a local school. Thought he had stumbled upon a dead body, and he called police, who then brought her home. But a lot had changed in the one day she was gone, because not only did the family assume

Tawana was pregnant, someone had caught a glimpse of Selena's growing stomach. So, both of them were sent to the hospital where they took pregnancy tests under other women's names. And only Selena's test was positive. Tawana says that after the pregnancy came to light, Selena told everyone that Sean was the father of the baby. It was not a secret in the house, it wasn't a secret in the church, everyone knew. But Sean denied it.

And Serita and her minions started making life very difficult for Selena. She only had two outfits that fit while she was pregnant, and they wouldn't buy her any new clothes. So that's all she had to wear. They wouldn't let her have a baby shower, because they told her this was nothing to celebrate, and it shouldn't be a happy time for her. Tawana had given her a diaper bag from Goodwill with onesies in it. And Selena loved it, but she even had to keep that well hidden.

Now, they did bring her to Dr. Williams, but Selena couldn't be honest with her. She told Tawana how Serita coached her to pretend she was pregnant by a teenage boy that she met while skating. Now, Tawana says CJ seemed to believe his daughter. And as the treatment of her got worse, and Selena told him she couldn't stand being in the house anymore, he promised that after the baby was born, they would get a blood test, they would prove Sean was the father, and they would leave. He said he would take her to Florida and Tawana planned to go with them and help with the baby.

But then in September, Tawana's mom regained custody of her, so she went back to live with her. But within a month, right before her 18th birthday, members of the congregation came to see her and asked her to come back. By then, she was just happy to be with her real family. She didn't care where they lived. But then she thought of Selena, pregnant, mistreated, and pregnant. Pregnant, mistreated, stuck in the same house that Sean still freaking lives in, and she agreed to return for her. Now, by the time she moved back, Sean had stopped creeping into Selena's room at night.

Basically, he stopped once word got out about her pregnancy, but he was plenty busy. In fact, Tawana says that he got multiple women pregnant around this time, including his wife, because remember, this dude has a wife, and he got another young woman who stayed at the same house pregnant. Tawana got to be there for Selena just like she wanted, and she says that they spent the last Sunday together talking about plans for the baby. They didn't know if she was having a boy or a girl, and if the adults were privy to that information, they hadn't shared it. But Selena was still thinking of possible names, writing down ideas in this little notebook she had. So, yeah, in the early days, Tawana thought maybe she ran away. I mean, did you hear the story I just told you? Who wouldn't want to leave all of that behind?

But when we talk about days with no word, Tawana figured someone from the church must have carted her off to have the baby away from prying eyes. But then, when even more time went by and Selena never returned, it made Tawana come to an even darker realization. And this distinct memory came flooding back. Tawana thought back to the morning they realized Selena was gone. How Yvette seemed genuinely surprised, but Sean, who was in the kitchen with them, started anxiously bouncing his leg and then went into his room in the garage without a word. And even though it's been widely reported that Noriel found a bunch of pillows stuffed under Selena's blanket, which Noriel herself says she remembers, Tawana doesn't recall seeing any pillows. She just saw the comforter on Selena's bed pulled back, and she wonders if a false memory was planted in the little girl's mind.

So Tawana decides to do her own investigating, and she starts looking through Selena's bedroom for clues. And when she finds the diaper bag she gave her, tucked away in a chest, her heart drops. Because she knows that Selena wouldn't leave without it. It was the only thing she had for the baby. So that is what was really going on behind closed doors. Everyone knew the truth, at least about how Selena got pregnant. But no one is saying any of this to police. But here's the thing about secrets, they have a way of oozing.

Police have been hearing rumors from former church members, and they ask Tawana about them. But at this point she's too scared to tell them the truth. So when confronted directly, was Shawn the baby's father, she said no, he's not. And when detectives sit down with Shawn on January 10th, he swears he has no clue what happened to his little cousin. He insists that he didn't get Selena pregnant, and when police ask him to take a polygraph, he says he'll give back to them. But he doesn't. Instead, a few days later, Sarita informs the department that she's hired a lawyer. No more chats with her son.

But suddenly, right around this time, a new lead ignites everyone's hope. In late January, a man who owns a sizzler in Howell, New Jersey, this is about 15 minutes away from Rillingborough, tells police that he is sure that Selena ate at his restaurant last week. According to a Philadelphia Inquirer article by Karen Auerbach and John Way Jennings, the sizzler owner says a guy who identified himself as a pastor called and asked to reserve a private room for Friday, January 24th. There were eight people in the party, including the girl that he thinks is Selena, who arrived with a woman. He says that the girl seemed quiet and kind of sad, and it didn't appear that she knew anyone there except for the woman that she came with. And she didn't look like someone who had recently given birth, but she was wearing baggy clothes, so it was kind of hard to tell.

Oddly enough, a professional photographer also showed up to take pictures of the group, but the restaurant owner got the impression that he had been hired and didn't personally know them. It was days later when the owner saw Selena's picture on the news, and he said he was 100% sure that it was her. He didn't know the name of the pastor or any of the other people there, but luckily a man who was with the group came in again after the owner saw her photo, so he took down the guy's license plate number for police. This is the best lead that they've gotten, and Selena's loved ones are ecstatic, but their happiness doesn't last long. On Wednesday, February 5th, police locate the man and determine that the girl is not Selena, so it is right back to square one.

And over the next few months, all the tips that come in are dead ends, even after the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and a direct mailing company team up to send postcards of Selena's picture to 73 million homes across the country. By then, the hope that Selena will be found alive and well is starting to fade, even for Tawana, and she finally gets to the point where she can't stick around in hopes of being there if Selena returns. She has to look out for herself, and it had become clear to her that she wasn't safe in that home. You see, she had moved into Selena's old room not long after she disappeared, and she was having nightmares. Over and over again, she dreamed that Selena was telling her to leave. In one, Selena told Tawana she was dead,

and in the morning, a couple of months after Selena went missing, she woke up to Sean's hand over her mouth. She told him to get out, but then they heard Yvette knocking on the door. Sean told Tawana to be quiet, and he held the door closed as Yvette pounded on it, yelling for Tawana to wake up. Eventually, Yvette left, and Sean just ducked out of the room. And that was it, the final straw. Later that day, Tawana literally ran out of the house. And during that first summer out of Sarita's clutches, Tawana takes an especially brave step forward. That's when she goes to police and tells them what she knows about Selena.

And she, along with another young woman, also a former church member, report Sean's sexual abuse. Now at this point, there's still not enough to charge him for anything involving Selena, because there is still no Selena or her baby to be found. But he is charged with aggravated sexual assault for raping Tawana and the other young woman. So a warrant is issued that November, although according to Lillian Weiss's reporting for the Philadelphia Inquirer, he's not arrested until January 29th of 1998, because prosecutors say that they weren't able to find him. But when they do find him, he is sent to jail to await trial, though he quickly posts the $50,000 bail. And by May of that year, the case still hasn't even gone to a grand jury.

And then what's even weirder is soon after that, poof, the charges are just dismissed. Now, I know cases involving sexual abuse can be difficult to prosecute for any number of reasons. But Tawana says she was 100% willing to testify against him, so she's not sure why the case fell apart. And I have no clue either. And even though Tawana is devastated about Selena about dropping the charges, she keeps taking the steps to rebuild her life. Meanwhile, it sounds like Selena's dad still has his nephews back at this point. CJ admits to the Philadelphia Daily News that Sean had gotten multiple church members pregnant, but he insisted that Sean was, quote, not behind Selena's pregnancy, end quote.

He implied that the stories were coming from people who just wanted to tear Gospel of Christ down. And really, there seemed to be no shortage of people against the church. According to an article in The Trentonian by Paul Mickle, there were even accusations that Sean was essentially acting as a stud, basically that he was getting women pregnant to boost flagging membership. Over the years, news reports detail how police field tips from near and far, from hair salons in Jersey and North Carolina, from the National Zoo in Washington, D.C., all in Florida, a small town in upstate New York, even from Honduras, but none of them pan out. But in the early 2000s, Selena's little sister, Noriel, has an odd run-in while she's out doing one of those all-day fundraisers.

A woman recognizes the church logo and starts talking to her about Selena. She tells Noriel that Sarita had either killed her or gotten her killed somehow. Noriel calls her mom from a pay phone to tell her what's happening, and after she hangs up, the woman approaches her again. This time, she tells her she was friends with Selena's mother, Lynn. She says that she promised Lynn on her deathbed that she would never let CJ raise Selena, and she's so thankful that they got her out of the house. So Noriel kind of takes this with a grain of salt. I mean, there was plenty of media coverage about the back and forth between Lynn and CJ, so it's not exactly a secret.

Plus, again, this woman is like flip-flopping from murder accusation to a rescue story, like within two minutes. But this woman keeps talking, and Noriel realizes this isn't just some random lady. She knows stuff about the layout of their house. And when the lady drives away, Noriel sees that she's in a pink Cadillac. As someone who's very familiar with Mary Kay, Noriel knows the company leases the signature cars for their top-earning salespeople. Sarita actually had a car just like it at some point. But Noriel doesn't recognize the woman, who's white and about 70 years old. And police never get the chance to try and track her down, because according to Noriel,

Sarita made sure that the strange encounter never got reported to police. Many more years pass after this, and in 2007, investigators go to Florida to visit CJ, who they hear is sick. Lots of people police interviewed in the 90s thought CJ was brainwashed by the church, but by this point, he had left the Gospel of Christ, and detectives hope that the time, distance, and maybe his illness will loosen his tongue. And they're right, it all has. CJ tells them that he knows that Sean was the one who got Selena pregnant, and he wishes that he had stood up to his sister more. But he still says that he doesn't know where Selena is or what happened to her. Which both Tawana and Noriel believe.

Noriel says that her father was being manipulated and even threatened, and that lots of people don't understand how it happened, because they don't understand how cults work, especially family cults. Now, fast forward to 2012, that's when Sean is finally convicted of something. He pleads guilty in federal court to mail fraud. The FBI says that he stole more than $100,000 from a nonprofit called Clothes for Kid's Sake, while he was a warehouse director there, and he is sentenced to 18 months in federal prison. But that is all he gets convicted of. Like the end.

And then Sean died in 2020. Other important people in this story have died as well, including CJ in 2017 and Serita in 2018. But detectives say that this case and their search for Selena is still active. Police are actually still trying to track down a guy named Keith Burns for an interview. He was a driver for Gospel of Christ. Detective Pogozelski says that he has agreed to speak with them multiple times, but never follows through. Investigators are also using forensic genealogy through Jedmatch to search for a link to Selena's DNA, hoping for some connection to her or her baby. In pursuit with John Walsh actually did an episode on Selena's case that aired in September, and new tips keep coming in.

And there is no shortage of theories. Some people, like Noorayel, still think that Selena really did run away. Others think that she and her child are living in captivity somewhere, something she was murdered to prevent the baby's paternity from being revealed, or that she died as a result of labor complications and her body was disposed of. There's even social media chatter about rumors that Selena is buried in the basement of the church building, which is no longer in use. Tuana believes that she's dead, that someone who lived in that house was responsible, and that multiple people know what happened. But with no physical evidence of foul play, her disappearance remains a missing person's case. And of course, that's the biggest question, the one Selena's loved ones want the answer to most.

Where is she? But I also want to go over a couple of other major questions I've seen come up, because I had them too. Starting with Selena's medical care. New Jersey law about mandatory reporting of child abuse has been around since the mid-1960s, and Selena got pregnant when she was 11. So no matter who the father was, 16-year-old kid at a skating rink or her 22-year-old cousin, there was a crime committed. So lots of people wonder why her doctor, who was obviously a mandated reporter, never raised any alarms. But the state's definition of child abuse only includes offenses perpetrated by a parent or caregiver. So the nameless 16-year-old Selena was told to mention doesn't fit the bill.

So technically, I don't think Dr. Williams was required to report Selena's pregnancy to anyone. An article in the American Medical Association Journal of Ethics points out that if doctors are forced to report adolescent sexual activity, young people might reject medical services altogether, which could lead to them living with treatable STDs, foregoing counseling or birth control measures, and even self-inducing abortions. And that actually makes sense to me. But I still have concerns about this situation. Because Detective Pogozelski told us that Dr. Williams was seeing Selena basically under the table. Her family or the church paid for all of her appointments in cash, and there was no record of any visits.

The detective said, quote, most doctors would have lost their licenses. It would have been all over the newspapers. So how it got squashed? I have no clue at all. End quote. Now, Dr. Williams is not practicing anymore, but as far as we can tell, it's not because she got in trouble or anything. There are no disciplinary actions listed on her license records. And what's interesting, though not really all that surprising, is that Sarita and the doctor already knew each other before Selena's pregnancy.

Detective Pogozelski told us that Sarita knew the doctor's husband, who was also a physician, and according to Richard Pearsall's reporting, Dr. Williams was also Sarita's obstetrician. Again, not a shock. A woman who wouldn't even let Selena take a pregnancy test using her own name probably isn't going to bring her to some random doctor. But the whole thing leaves such a bad taste in my mouth. And we tried to get in touch with Dr. Williams. I mean, maybe there's some piece of this that we're missing, but we weren't able to reach her. And that brings me to another big question.

Did New Jersey's Department of Child and Families, known as DCF, ever step in? Detective Pogozelski says the agency was involved with the family while the custody dispute between CJ and Lynn's sister was ongoing in 1994. But it's not clear if caseworkers ever visited his home or checked in on Selena. And police don't have record of DCF doing anything in the aftermath of her disappearance. Ariel told us that DCF came by regularly, but it wasn't until later, probably like the early 2000s, and the children didn't want to be split up. So they said that everything was fine. The whole story just breaks my heart. Tawana says that despite everything, Selena loved her family, including her Aunt Sarita.

This girl deserved so much more than what she got, all of those kids in that house and the church did. And I just want to give a special thanks to Tawana. I can only imagine how hard it is to share such a painful story, but she did not only in hopes of finding Selena, but also to raise awareness about the warning signs and the dangers of situations like the one she was in. She and Norael both told us how Sarita's church prayed on people who were going through difficult times, especially women. In Tawana's case, Gospel of Christ entered her life when her family had just moved to the area with the father of her younger siblings. But he had left them, and then her mom was working long hours and trying to raise her kids alone. So a church member, selling Mary Kay products, offered Tawana and her mom free facials and used that as an opportunity to tout the church.

Tawana started to go because she wanted to make new friends, and little by little, Gospel of Christ took over. It was insidious conditioning. Now, Sarita apparently ran the church in some form until her death. Some people remained loyal to her, but by all accounts, Gospel of Christ died with her. You can check our website for resources on getting help from detaching from a destructive group or cult or leader. And if by some chance, some miracle, Selena is listening to this. Tawana and Noriel want you to know that they love you and you don't have to be afraid anymore. No one is going to hurt you if you come forward.

And if anyone who's listening to this has any information, keep burns, take note. Please contact 1-800-THE-LOST or the Willingboro police at 609877-3001. Or you can contact the Citizen Tip Line at 609877-6958. We're going to have all of that information in our show notes. If Selena is alive today, she's 38, and the child that she was carrying would be 25. She was 5 feet tall, about 120 pounds with long, curly black hair and brown eyes. Again, all of our source material, those contact numbers will be on our website, crimejunkiepodcast.com. Don't forget to follow us on Instagram at crimejunkiepodcast, and I'll be back next week with a brand new episode.

Crimejunkie is an audio chuck production. So, what do you think, Chuck? Do you approve?