Yolanda Saldívar founded the official Selena Quintanilla fan club in 1991 before working her way up to become a trusted confidant for the superstar singer. But after Quintanilla’s father, Abraham Quintanilla, found evidence that Saldívar was embezzling money from the singer’s boutiques, the father-manager demanded she prove her innocence.
The prospect of losing everything she loved inadvertently drove Saldívar down a malicious path—culminating with the fatal shooting of Selena on March 31, 1995.
“Yolanda wanted to kill Selena because Selena was firing Yolanda. She wouldn’t exist if she didn’t have Selena. And if she didn’t work for Selena, she didn’t want to work for anybody,” Carlos Valdez, a district judge in Nueces County, Texas, who served as the lead prosecutor in Saldívar subsequent murder trial, later told A&E Real Crime.
Saldívar, convicted of first-degree murder that same year, has served 30 years of her life sentence in prison. She will remain incarcerated for at least another five years after the Texas Board of Pardons and Parole denied her first opportunity at parole in March 2025.
Here’s everything you need to know about Saldívar’s infamous crime and her life in prison now.
Saldívar started a fan club for Selena and managed her boutiques
Saldívar’s relationship with the Quintanillas started in 1991—the same year the then-30-year-old received her license as a registered nurse—when she contacted Selena’s father, Abraham, to talk about starting a fan club for the Tejano singer.
Saldívar attended one of Selena’s concerts and wanted to start a club in San Antonio. In the four years she was involved, the organization grew to over 1,500 members. As the fan club thrived under Saldívar’s leadership, the Quintanillas began to entrust her with more and more responsibilities.
Saldívar was eventually promoted to manage Selena’s new boutiques for her clothing line and even controlled the singer’s business checking accounts. Saldívar also had a key to the home Selena shared with her husband, guitarist Chris Pérez.
The registered nurse quickly became intrinsically involved in Selena’s life, though others around her saw several red flags about her obsessive behavior.
Her devotion to Selena turned into a possessive attachment
By several accounts, it seems Saldívar started becoming dangerously obsessed with the singer she admired. According to an article published in Texas Monthly shortly after Selena’s death, Saldívar’s apartment was “like a shrine” for the singer.
Martin Gomez, one of the designers who shared office space with Saldívar, was also alarmed by her attachment.
“She was very vindictive. She was very possessive of Selena,” Gomez, then 30, told The Washington Post days after Selena’s death.
“She’d get, like, very angry if you crossed her. She would play so many mind games, say people had said things they hadn’t said,” he explained. “So many things would happen to the clothing I was working on. I knew that I had finished a certain piece, but I would come back from a trip to New York, and the hems would be ripped out. It was very strange.”
Gomez eventually quit his job after several strange run-ins with Saldívar—six weeks before she killed Selena. He left with a final warning to the singer.
“The last call I had with Selena, the last call, I told her to be careful,” Gomez recalled saying. “It was very weird. I was very afraid of Yolanda. But I never thought she would hurt Selena. I never thought it would come to this.”
A confrontation between the pair preceded Selena’s murder
Abraham began investigating Saldívar after he was contacted by employees missing paychecks and people who paid fan club dues and received nothing in return. He was convinced she was embezzling money.
On March 9, 1995, Abraham, Selena, and her sister Suzette confronted Saldívar and accused her of stealing money from the boutiques and the fan club. Abraham fired Saldívar on the spot, though Selena reportedly kept in contact with her, as she needed several financial documents Saldívar had.
Saldívar stalled for weeks before finally meeting Selena at a Days Inn motel in Corpus Christi, Texas, to provide the documents. But as Selena left the room on March 31, Saldívar pulled out the gun she had bought days earlier and shot Selena under her right shoulder. Doctors would later discover that the bullet severed the young singer’s artery.
Eyewitnesses at the scene later recalled the scary encounter—and it didn’t seem like an accident.
“The fact that Yolanda Saldívar came out of the room immediately after the shooting with a gun in her hand, pointed it at Selena… and then calling her a b—h as [Selena] was running away: all that indicates an intentional act,” Valdez told A&E Real Crime. “If it had been an accident, the reaction would’ve been completely different.”
Selena was able to identify Saldívar as her shooter before dying
While heavily bleeding, Selena was able to run to the lobby and identify Saldívar as her shooter before collapsing. The Grammy winner was rushed to the hospital, where she was later pronounced dead due to blood loss and cardiac arrest while undergoing emergency surgery.
While Selena died at the hospital, Saldívar stayed on the scene of the crime for hours in a standoff with police. The nurse locked herself in her car, threatening to kill herself with the same gun.
“I was on the phone with her for seven and a half hours,” Larry Rucker Young, lead negotiator with the Corpus Christi Police Department, told A&E Real Crime. “Yolanda didn’t ask for anything. What she wanted, really, was to hear what was going on with Selena. Her condition.”
“She wanted someone to hear her story,” he continued. “That they are best friends. That she loves Selena. She admires Selena. She would do anything for her.”
Saldívar remains in prison for the murder
Saldívar was charged with first-degree murder and put on trial in Houston, with her main defense being that she had fired the gun accidentally. According to The New York Times, she had told police she bought the weapon intending to take her own life.
After a short three-hour deliberation, the jury returned a guilty verdict on October 23, 1995. Three days later, Saldívar was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole in 30 years—making 2025 her first opportunity for release.
However, a panel determined that Saldívar—who is currently incarcerated at the Patrick L. O’Daniel Unit for female offenders in Gatesville, Texas—still poses a legitimate threat to public safety and denied her parole. “The record indicates that the instant offense has elements of brutality, violence, assaultive behavior or conscious selection of victim’s vulnerability indicating a conscious disregard for the lives, safety, or property of others,” its statement read. Saldívar will be eligible for parole review again in March 2030.
Saldívar spoke publicly about her relationship with Selena and Abraham during a prison interview for the 2024 Oxygen docuseries Selena and Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them.
Selena’s family lauded the parole board’s decision
Pérez and the Quintanilla family released a joint statement on Facebook and Instagram following the parole board’s determination.
In the message, they wrote they remain committed to preserving Selena’s legacy and that the decision “reaffirms that justice continues to stand” for her murder.
“We will continue to celebrate Selena’s life—not the tragedy that took her from us—and we ask that all who cherish her do the same,” the statement read.
PHOTOS: Selena’s Most Iconic Fashions
Tyler Piccotti joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor and is now the News and Culture Editor. He previously worked as a reporter and copy editor for a daily newspaper recognized by the Associated Press Sports Editors. In his current role, he shares the true stories behind your favorite movies and TV shows and profiles rising musicians, actors, and athletes. When he's not working, you can find him at the nearest amusement park or movie theater and cheering on his favorite teams.
