On March 31, 1995, Selena collapsed in a pool of blood inside the lobby of the Days Inn motel in Corpus Christi, Texas and used the last of her strength to identify her killer: "Yolanda Saldívar in Room 158."
In the mid-1990s, singer Selena Quintanilla was on her way to becoming a sensation in America. At just 23 years old, the so-called “Queen of Tejano Music” was making waves thanks to her talent, charm, and inimitable sense of fashion. She was happily married to her guitarist Chris Pérez and she was ready to take her career to the next level.
She undeniably had all the makings of a star – until her light was snuffed out in a sudden, brutal murder on March 31, 1995.
The shock wasn’t only that Selena had been murdered, but also that she had been murdered by a woman named Yolanda Saldívar, the president of Selena’s fan club and manager of her boutiques.
Saldívar had been following Selena’s career since the singer first burst onto the international scene with her self-titled 1989 album, which proved to be a massive hit in Latin America.
Two years later, in 1991, Saldívar proposed the idea of starting a fan club for Selena in San Antonio, and Selena’s father, Abraham Quintanilla Jr., approved the idea. Saldívar became the club’s president, and though she was working as a nurse at the time, she eventually left her job to manage the club full-time.
Eventually, her dedication and organizational skills earned her the family’s trust, and she was appointed as manager of Selena’s boutiques, Selena Etc. It was every fan’s dream – to become a close and trusted member of your star’s orbit. Unfortunately, Saldívar was no normal fan.
FacebookSelena and Yolanda Saldívar — her biggest fan, and eventually, her killer.
Saldívar became obsessed with Selena. Reports indicated that her home was adorned with Selena memorabilia, and according to Martin Gomez, a fashion designer for Selena’s boutiques, Saldívar was “vindictive” and “possessive of Selena.” This behavior was concerning enough, but when Selena’s family noticed discrepancies in financial records around early 1995, their relationship with Saldívar began to sour.
Fans complained to Abraham that they never received merchandise they had purchased from the club, and a subsequent audit revealed that Saldívar had been embezzling funds from both the fan club and the boutiques. When the family confronted her in March of that year, she denied the accusations but was nevertheless dismissed from her positions. Saldívar responded by drafting up a resignation letter with a lawyer – and purchasing a .38-caliber revolver.
Oddly, she returned the revolver just two days later, and then re-purchased it on March 26, a few days before she and Selena were set to meet at a Days Inn motel in Corpus Christi, Texas. They met on March 30 so that Saldívar could hand over important financial documents, and the meeting was, by all accounts, uneventful.
But Saldívar hadn’t handed over all of the documents, and when Selena went back the next day, the meeting took a tragic turn.
An argument broke out between the two, and Saldívar shot Selena in the shoulder. Selena ran and managed to make it to the lobby, where she collapsed in a pool of blood, and used the last of her strength to identify her killer: “Yolanda Saldívar in Room 158.”
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