THE murder of Selena Quintanilla shocked the Tejano community – and the world.
Selena's killer was crazed fan Yolanda Saldivar – who was head of the Selena fan club, and knew the Quintanilla family personally.
Why did Yolanda Saldivar kill Selena Quintanilla?
Yolanda Saldivar killed Selena Quintanilla after being fired by the singer and her family for embezzling company funds.
Carlos Valdez, lead prosecutor in Saldivar's murder trial, explained why Saldivar wanted to kill Valdez.
He said: “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,”
In 1995, Selena's father, Abraham, was informed by boutique employees that Saldívar had successfully stolen over $60,000 from the company.
After he looked into the situation, he became convinced that Saldivar was embezzling money.
Abraham confronted her, and immediately sacked her from all her duties relating to the Selena franchise.
However, Saldivar still had financial documents that Selena needed, and so the crazed fan told the singer to meet her at a motel so they could exchange the records.
Saldivar kept delaying the handover of the documents, reportedly telling Selena she had been sexually assaulted in Mexico in order to further delay the exchange.
The pair finally returned to the motel and Saldivar handed over the documents – but as Selena turned to leave the room, she pulled out a revolver and shot the singer in the back.
Selena ran towards the motel lobby for help, followed by Saldivar.
The iconic singer was taken to hospital, but later died from blood loss.
Saldivar was arrested after a 9.5-hour standoff with police in which she threatened to kill herself.
Saldivar pleaded not guilty, claiming she had meant to use the gun on herself.
But a jury took less than 3 hours to convict Saldivar.
On October 24, 1995, she was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to life in prison.
Saldivar is still serving her sentence at Gatesville, a women’s prison in Texas.
Who was Yolanda Saldivar?
Yolanda Saldivar was a former nurse who became Selena’s fan club president after attending one of Selena's concerts.
She contacted Selena’s dad, Abraham Quintanilla, about starting a fan club, which he agreed to.
She was later given the responsibility of running Selena’s clothing boutiques and became increasingly close with Selena and her family.
Although the fan club grew to over 1,500 members during the four years she was leader, questions over Saldívar’s leadership of the fan club started to develop after fans began contacting Abraham about issues with payments.
He fired her – and that's when Saldivar turned murderous.
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