ISLE OF WIGHT COUNTY, Va. — The body of a missing Williamsburg teenager was discovered by her family last Friday in rural Isle of Wight County after a friend gave them her location based on the young woman's previous social media activity, according to authorities.
Officials with Isle of Wight County Sheriff's Office said 21-year-old Andarius McClelland shot 18-year-old Aonesty Selby's after the two got into as fight. McClelland was arrested Tuesday in Newport News for second-degree murder and use or display of a firearm in committing a felony.
Capt. Tommy Potter said Selby, whose family had reported her missing earlier in the day on Jan. 13 after they said they had not heard from her since Jan. 11, had shared her location via social media with a friend that Wednesday.
"That friend did not see that location share until Friday when she heard the news that Aonesty was missing," Potter explained.
Potter said that Selby's mother called 911 to say that the tip had led them to a logging path near Orbit Hunt Club along Blue Ridge Trail just outside of Windsor.
"They were advised to standby until deputies could arrive," Potter said. "They did not, but they proceeded to search the roads and the paths in that area. They, unfortunately, discovered the body of Aonesty Selby."
Potter said that when deputies arrived 12 minutes after that 911 came in, investigators and other personnel secured the scene and began their investigation, which included forensic examination of Selby's phone recovered at the scene.
As a result of the data on her phone, deputies said the 18-year-old took an Uber on the day she was killed from Williamsburg to an apartment complex in Newport News just before 1:50 p.m. Then based on their investigation, deputies said they learned Selby "may have been seeing" a man named Darius who lived in Newport News. That led police to their suspect, Andarius McClelland.
Potter said that McClelland sent money to Selby via CashApp for her to take an Uber to his apartment in Newport News.
Then the pair drove to Isle of Wight to smoke marijuana before an argument broke out and McClelland killed Selby, according to Potter. Officials said the 21-year-old later confessed to shooting her, then panicking and driving away.
Potter said that McClellan told them what led to the argument, but said "we're not going to go into detail at this point, but that will eventually come out."
Potter said that based on the "forensic download and investigation of her phone," there were no warnings signs or indications of previous arguments or disputes between the two.
McClelland told deputies he and Selby first met in Williamsburg and that over the past two months they would text each other they would arrange to meet.
"Either she would come here to Newport News or he would go to Williamsburg and meet her," Potter explained. "And so it wasn't an every day relationship. But it seemed like that they did have an off-again, on-again relationship for the past 60 days."
Potter said the victims's phone was crucial in linking McClelland to Selby.
"I think him sending money via Cash App. I think his address on the Uber app with Uber dropped her off. And then I just think common information shared on his phone and her phone," Potter explained. "I think information we got off her phone, we were able to confirm it with his phone."
Deputies also credited the county's license plate recognition or LPR camera system, which they said captured the suspect's brother's car leaving Isle of Wight County and entering Newport News at 10:47 p.m. on Jan. 11 at the base of the James River Bridge on the Newport News side.
"There's a new system that a lot of the cities here in the seven cities, as well as throughout Virginia and other localities," Potter said. "Basically it's a license plate reader — and so what Flock cameras do is they use basically facial recognition technology. And they convert that technology to recognize cars."
For example, Potter said deputies could search, for example, for a red Mitsubishi and the system will give you every red Mitsubishi that passes one of the locations. Investigators can also search for license plates and partial plates.
"I will tell you that anytime as an investigator trying to establish a timeline is also crucial to the case," Potter said. "Based on those LPR cameras, that hit of that car was the only time in the past 30 days that that car has left the Newport News-Williamsburg area. That car has never been to Isle of White County before in the previous 30 days."
While those were critical clues in this case, Potter said information from the public is also important.
"A lot of people have information, but they think maybe that information is not that important. 'How can that solve the case?'" Potter said. "And so that was information to find was critical."
