Friends, family remember slain Williamsburg teenager
Selby ‘loved life,’ uncle says during candlelight vigil
YORKTOWN — Dozens of friends and family gathered Friday evening for a candlelight vigil to mourn a Williamsburg teenager found dead last week in a remote area of Isle of Wight County.
Aonesty Selby, 18, was located on an old logging path Jan. 13 by family members who began searching for her when she hadn’t been heard from in a couple of days.
Attendees, some wearing shirts that read “Long Live Aonesty,” comforted each other, signing messages on poster boards adorned with photographs of Selby, and gathered to pray. The vigil was held at Yorktown Beach. According to Selby’s aunt, Jeanie Bailey, her niece loved the water and loved to swim.
At the end of the vigil, friends and family released several balloons into the night sky.
“Everyone had something they loved about her,” said her uncle, Shoyn Sellers.
Though not biologically related,
Sellers knew Selby since she was a toddler. His niece was an average teenager — not perfect, not bad, but a normal girl who “just got caught up” — he said.
“Everyone has assumptions, but at the end of the day, she loved life,” he said. “She lived life, too.”
The Isle of Wight County Sheriff ’s Department said earlier this week that her family tracked her and found her body after a friend realized Selby had shared her location data.
According to the sheriff’s department, surveillance data and information on her cellphone led to second-degree murder charges against Andarius McClelland, 21, of Newport News. Authorities said the two were in an “on-again, off-again” relationship but got in an argument, during which McClelland shot Selby. McClelland, who was arrested Tuesday night, confessed, the sheriff’s department said.
Selby grew up on the Outer Banks, but moved to Williamsburg in November to live with family and was attending Warhill High School, where she was a senior.
At the vigil, her math teacher said he noticed Selby’s “youthful energy” even during the short time he had her in class. Selby was quick to make friends at her new school, Matthew Fleischer noted.
“She didn’t seem daunted by being in a new place,” he said.
Speaking to the assembled crowd, Sellers called for Selby’s death to not be in vain, beseeching teenagers to understand that while their parents may fuss and seem strict, “it comes from love.”
The message, he said, is that young people need to be aware of danger, especially in an internet age. He also emphasized the importance of doing the right things like going to school and listening to one’s parents, because family will always be there for you.
“Parents aren’t supposed to be burying kids,” he said.