Thirty years ago, a brazen killing shocked the music world: Grammy award-winning Latin superstar Selena Quintanilla-Pérez was shot and fatally wounded by the former president of her own fan club.
Now, the woman who pulled the trigger in a dingy Texas motel will have a chance to plead for her freedom during a parole hearing later this month.
Yolanda Saldívar, a former nurse who’d recently lost her role as manager of Selena’s boutiques and her fan club, is currently serving a life sentence for the March 1995 murder of the “Queen of Tejano Music.”
The tragic shooting in Corpus Christi unfolded during a confrontation between the two women after the singer accused Saldívar of embezzling tens of thousands of dollars from her businesses.
But even three decades after the killing, Saldívar maintains she shot Selena by accident. In a recent interview with The New York Post, members of Saldívar’s family say she is adamant that the singer was partly responsible for her own death.
As Saldívar’s parole date of March 30 nears, The Independent breaks down everything we know about Selena, her murder and the woman who killed her.
The death of a beloved superstar
Born in 1971, Selena Quintanilla made her musical debut at the age of 10 in the band Selena y Los Dinos, alongside two of her older siblings. She performed Tejano music, a musical fusion style which borrows from Mexican, American, Czech and German traditions.
After winning the Tejano Music award for Female Vocalist of the Year in 1987 (the first of nine wins), Quintanilla spearheaded a surge in popularity for the genre.
Selena won her first career Grammy for the now-defunct category Best Mexican-American Album at the 36th Grammy Awards in 1994, marking the first time a female Tejano artist won the category.
She became the highest-selling Latin artist of the nineties, according to Billboard, who inducted her into its Latin Music Hall of Fame in 1995.
But at just 23 years of age, Selena’s life tragically ended after an argument with Saldívar, a 32-year-old woman who was widely painted as an obsessed fan who had weaseled her way into Selena’s life.
The shooting happened shortly before noon at a Days Inn motel in Corpus Christi, Texas. Quintanilla was shot once in the back before she managed to stumble into the lobby as witnesses watched in horror.
Before losing consciousness, Selena identified her shooter, saying: “Yolanda Saldívar, room 158.” The young star was rushed to the hospital where she died from her injuries.
Police responded to the hotel where they found Saldívar, who sat in a pickup truck in the parking lot, threatening to kill herself.
After an hours-long standoff, Saldivar surrendered and was taken into custody and charged with Selena’s murder.
Who is Yolanda Saldívar?
Before Selena’s death, her killer was an adoring fan who became a significant part of her life.
After attending one of Selena’s concerts, Saldívar repeatedly contacted the singer’s father Abraham Quintanilla, insisting on creating a fan club in San Antonio in 1991, according to Selena & Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them, an Oxygen True Crime docuseries that aired in 2024.
The persistence worked and Saldívar became the founder and president of Selena’s fan club and also managed two of her clothing boutiques.
However, shortly before the murder, Saldívar was fired from both positions when the singer’s family discovered that she had been stealing money from the businesses.
Selena’s father Abraham said in the docuseries that his daughter had demanded that Saldívar return the company’s financial documents and that the two women were meeting at the hotel to discuss it when Selena was shot.
Saldívar also shared her side of the story on the docuseries from behind prison bars. She recalled being confronted about the missing funds by Selena’s sister Suzette and father Abraham on March 9 – just days before the March 31 shooting.
Prosecutor Mark Skurka later claimed at Saldívar’s trial that Selena’s father discovered she had pilfered $30,000 from the fan club, according to The Washington Post.
After the confrontation, Saldívar was allegedly fired and banned from the family’s businesses. At the trial, Skurka called Saldívar a “disgruntled employee” who “lured” Selena to the Days Inn before fatally shooting her.
Saldívar, however, claimed she no longer wanted to work for Selena and that the singer had tried to keep her from quitting when they met at the hotel.
“Selena, when she came into the [hotel] room, she kept trying to put guilt in me for not continuing with her, and how everything was going to crumble,” Saldívar said in the docuseries.
“My emotions were running so high, and I was hurting.”
She went on to say that she had no idea how to use the gun she had brought to the hotel and that she “just clicked it” before holding it to her own head and threatening to take her own life. But the gun allegedly went off and hit the 23-year-old instead.
Saldívar said Selena begged her not to pull the trigger before trying to leave the room.
“I said, ‘Don’t close the door,’” said Saldívar. “And pow! It went.”
Saldívar has maintained that the shooting was an accident.
“It startled me,” Saldívar said in the docuseries. “I did not know my gun went off. I did not know that it hit her. It scared her, it scared me. There was never ever any intention to do her any harm.”
But the jury tasked with her fate believed otherwise. On October 23, 1995, Saldívar was found guilty of first-degree murder.
She was sentenced to life in prison in Gatesville, Texas, with eligibility for parole after serving 30 years, and now Saldívar, at 64 years old, will soon learn if she could have a chance at freedom.
Will Selena’s killer be freed?
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles began the process of reviewing parole eligibility for Saldívar in October 2024.
According to the parole board, the process includes compiling a case file, a recommendation letter from Saldívar, an interview with Saldívar, and any letters submitted from Selena’s family.
Several factors would have to be considered in the parole board’s decision, such as good behavior and how much time Saldívar has served, according to KSAT-TV.
The Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles is expected to vote on Saldívar’s case on March 30.
Saldívar, who has unsuccessfully appealed her conviction at least three times, has publicly claimed she is a political prisoner who didn’t receive a fair trial.
If parole is granted, a release date would then be scheduled. If denied, the case could be reconsidered as early as next year.
A star’s legacy
Selena was often described as the Madonna of the Mexican-American music world, The New York Times reported, and her immense popularity continued after her death.
Her legacy was immortalized by the release of an English-language album, Dreaming of You, recorded shortly before her death.
And Selena continued to win awards. She was named best female vocalist as a teenager at the Tejano Music Awards twice posthumously, according to Time magazine.
Murals across Texas still depict Selena, and a life-size bronze statue of her was erected in Corpus Christi in 1997 — the same year that the film Selena was released, starring Jennifer Lopez in the titular role.
The Quintanilla family opened the Selena Museum in Corpus Christi in 1998 to showcase her awards, concert outfits and other memorabilia.
Then in April 2022, a new Selena album, with digitally enhanced vocals, was released.
“What amazes me…is that 26 years later the public still remembers Selena,” her father said in an interview with NPR at the time. “They haven’t let go of her.”
