This story is about suicide. If you or someone you know is in crisis, call 988 for the Suicide and Crisis Helpline. You can also call the network formerly known as the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at: 800-273-8255text HOME to 741741 or visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for additional resources.
Three decades after the tragic death of music icon Selena Quintanilla Perez, a new documentary features never-before-seen footage of the Mexican-American singer's journey from humble beginnings to international superstardom.
On November 17, Netflix released document entitled “Selena and Los Dinos” the same name of the family group with which Selena performed before her death at age 23 on March 31, 1995.
Selena's sister Suzette Quintanilla tells TODAY.com that they invited director Isabel Castro to the family “vault” where hundreds of footage from the early days of the group are stored.
This celebration of the life and legacy of music of the “Queen of Tejano” also includes the team she worked with. One of the squad members was Yolanda Saldivar, a 65-year-old woman convicted of Selena's murder.
Before her conviction, Saldivar was a registered nurse and founded a Selena fan club. She later managed two of the singer's clothing boutiques.
Read on to find out more about her.
Who is Yolanda Saldivar?
According to media reports, after working as the head of Selena's fan club and overseeing two of her clothing boutiques, Saldivar was fired in early 1995 when the singer's family accused her of embezzling money from the fan club and boutiques. NBC News.
Selena's widower, Chris Perez, testified in court that he and Selena removed Saldivar from the singer's checking accounts because they “didn't trust her,” according to the report. Texas Court of Appeals court document since 1998, when Saldivar unsuccessfully appealed her murder conviction.
“There were a lot of things that came up, you know, unaccounted for, and we couldn't get an explanation that was satisfactory to us for some of those things,” Perez told prosecutor Carlos Valdez, according to a 1998 court document.
Perez also testified that Saldivar was removed from the accounts approximately two weeks before his late wife's death.
What crime was Yolanda Saldivar convicted of?
On March 31, 1995, Saldivar shot and killed Selena at the Days Inn motel in Corpus Christi, Texas. The singer was 23 years old.
According to a 1998 Texas Court of Appeals case document, Selena “ran screaming from the room into the motel lobby” and Saldivar “pursued in pursuit with a gun.”
According to a 1998 court document, Selena passed out in the motel lobby and was able to identify Saldivar as the man who shot her before passing out.
Saldivar then sat in her truck for more than nine hours in a motel parking lot and threatened to commit suicide, the same court document states. After speaking with the hostage negotiation team for several hours, she surrendered to police.
On October 23, 1995, a jury in Houston, Texas found Saldivar guilty of first-degree murder. Three days later, she was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 30 years.
Where is Yolanda Saldivar now?
According to the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Saldivar is currently being held at the Patrick L. O'Daniel Jail in Gatesville, Texas.
According to online records from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, in January 2025, she applied for parole in Texas.
On March 27, 2025, the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles announced that Saldivar was denial of parole and will remain in prison for at least another five years.
“After careful consideration of all available information, including any confidential interviews conducted, the parole boards have decided to deny parole to Yolanda Saldivar and set her next review for March 2030,” the board said in a statement.
The statement continued: “The reason given by the panel for denial was the nature of the crime: The record states that the crime contains elements of cruelty, violence, aggressive behavior or deliberate selection of the victim's vulnerability, indicating a willful disregard for the life, safety or property of others such that the offender poses a continuing threat to public safety.”
What has Yolanda Saldivar said about Selena in the past?
Saldivar stated that she did not kill Selena intentionally.
“They made me out to be a monster and I just want to say that I didn't kill Selena. It was an accident and my conscience is clear,” she said in her interview. 1995 interview on ABC's 20/20.
In the same interview, Saldivar offered her version of what happened the day Selena died.
Saldivar claimed that she and Selena had an argument at the Days Inn motel, and that in a heated moment, she (Saldivar) put a gun to her head and threatened to kill herself. Saldivar claimed she then waved the gun toward the door and accidentally shot Selena.
According to a 1998 court document, the prosecutor at the singer's trial argued that Selena's murder was not random.
In an interview with “Behind the Music” 1998Saldivar spoke about her relationship with Selena in the early 90s and explained why she founded a fan club dedicated to the singer.
“I didn't have a social life while I was in college. I didn't have one because I was dedicated to university, to my career, to getting my license,” she said. “Now it's time to have some fun.”
Selena's father, Abraham Quintanilla Jr., also shared his early memories of Saldivar in the Behind the Music special.
“My whole family liked Yolanda at one point,” he said. “We would invite her to dinner at our house. We would get together and invite her.”
Saldivar said her connection with Selena “has evolved from a fan-celebrity type of relationship to a personal type of relationship.”
In her 1995 “20/20” interview, she also revealed that Selena even called her “mom” at times.
“She was like a cuddly bear, a teddy bear that… she let you love her,” Saldivar said. “I told her I loved her like a daughter. And she says: “You know, I give you this right.” On the phone she called me “Mom.”
The singer's family questioned whether Selena ever called Saldivar “mom,” 20/20 reported.
In the trailer for Oxygen's 2024 documentary Selena and Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them, Saldivar seemed to suggest that she had previously undisclosed information about the circumstances of Selena's death that she could share. (Oxygen is owned by NBCUniversal, the parent company of TODAY.com.)
“My family collected evidence, showed different versions of what happened,” Saldivar said in the trailer.
What did Yolanda Saldivar say in the documentary series Oxygen?
The three-part series, which aired in February 2024, featured new interviews with Saldivar, as well as interviews with prosecutors, a hostage negotiator who spoke with Saldivar after Selena's death, and police detectives who were at the murder scene after the murder. Oxygen.
On the show, Saldivar said she did not intentionally kill Selena and rejected the long-running theory that she embezzled the money. Instead, Saldivar claimed that Selena was having an extramarital affair and instructed Saldivar to make purchases on her behalf to conceal the tryst. Saldivar said she was just paying herself back and that Selena knew it. But in the documentary materials, Saldivar did not provide any evidence to support her claims.
“After all these years, I think it's time to clear up the story,” Saldivar said in the series trailer.
“I knew her secrets,” Saldivar said later in the trailer. “And I think people deserve to know the truth.”
Selena's family criticized the docuseries for giving Saldivar a platform.
“Nobody's going to believe what she says anyway. Everybody knows there's no truth in what comes out of her mouth,” Abraham Quintanilla Jr. told TMZ.
Selena's family refused to participate in the documentary series. At the time of publication, NBC News had reached out to a family representative, as well as Abraham Quintanilla Jr. directly, for comment on Saldivar's allegations.
