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Hey everybody, welcome back to our podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Moreland. And I'm Garrett Moreland. And he's the husband. I'm the husband. I wanted to drop in here real quick that our Strangey Dangey and our Where's the Cameras merch is still available right now. You can find that at fanjoy.co.mwmh.
or at the link in the episode notes or in our social media. I mean, everyone needs a Strangey Dangery shirt. This is true. All right, I think we're going to maybe have a longer story, so let's just jump right into your 10 seconds. Well, Peyton and I have been trying to finish The Walking Dead, and it's very off and on. We'll go through these spurts where we watch like four or five episodes, and then we don't watch for like three weeks. Well, because we get so mad. Yeah, it's kind of frustrating.
We just ate nachos. Peyton did eat half my nachos, so I'm still a little hungry. Just FYI to everybody else out there. Well, I made the nachos. It's true. She made them and she ate them. If you want my secret recipe, it's just a can of good old chili and some tortilla chips with melted cheese.
Yep. Other than that, thanks for all the questions that everyone's been asking and also all like different candy suggestions that people have had. I feel like I need to make a Google like doc or Google sheet for all the questions people ask me. So when I come, when we come down here to record, like I know exactly what I'm going to say for my 10 seconds. Yeah. I ordered some new wheels for my truck. So I'm waiting for those. What? I had no idea about this. Well, now Peyton knows. I ordered just new wheels for my truck. Good. Good.
So other than that. And we cleaned my car. We did. We cleaned both of our cars. Yeah. Well, that's true. Yeah. But I could clean the inside of mine. Yeah. We say our, like there are cars, but I mean, we share everything. So I mean. Right. Right.
Also, Peyton is wearing a blue sweater right now that looks really, really good with her eyes. So I just thought I would give that shout out right there. Thank you. You're welcome. That was very sweet of you. And last but not least, I was listening. I never listen back to episodes ever, but I was doing some stuff on YouTube and the podcast anyways. I was listening and my voice sounded so deep in one of them. Like it jump scared me. Yeah.
I heard myself talking and I was like, who is that guy talking? Because it was, why? It just like deeper voice. I think it was just sometimes my voice like fluctuates a lot. And I think I was just talking deep and I was like, hello. And it was just like super deep and it scared me.
Other than that, that is my 10 seconds for today. Awesome. Okay. Well, our case sources for this week, biography.com, New York Times, Washington Post, notablebiographies.com, fox10phoenix.com, wkyc.com, wikipedia, vintage.es, ualberta.ca, sfgate.com, olivialopez13, ola.com, lock.gov, vogue.com,
Billboard, PopSugar and birdie.com. I know there was a lot. Luckily this case actually had a ton, ton, ton of coverage
not necessarily about the actual crime itself, but more about the victim, which we don't see often. And I wish we had this more often. And so I'm definitely taking advantage of it and going to be able to focus a lot, like a lot more on the victim for this case. That's great. All right. So usually the cases that we cover are people just like us, people who are living their everyday lives when the worst of evil comes knocking on their door. Right.
But what happens when that person isn't your average Joe? What happens when a celebrity is murdered in cold blood? And how does that even happen? - A celebrity? - Yep. - Okay. - And that's what we're getting into today. So our case this week begins when Selena Quintanilla was born in Texas. Selena was born at the Freeport Community Hospital in Lake Jackson, Texas, USA to be specific.
She was born to Marseille Ophelia Quintanilla and Abraham Quintanilla. And Abraham was actually a former Mexican-American musician who played in a band throughout the 1950s and 60s. They played early rock and roll songs mixed with traditional Mexican music. And this type of music would actually later become known as Tejano music. So he was kind of like in the very first stages of this, but then it later got a name.
And although Abraham loved his music career that tied him back to his Mexican roots, he ended up giving all of that up to start a family. When Selena was born, she was the youngest of three children. Her older brother, the middle child, was Abraham Quintanilla III, born on December 13th, 1963. Then the oldest of the two was her sister named Suzette Quintanilla, who was born June 29th, 1967.
And when it came time to deliver Selena that day in 1971, Abraham and Marseille had to quickly come up with the name Selena because they were originally expecting another boy who they had planned on naming Mark Antony. But alas, Selena was born and little did her parents know she was about to take the world by storm.
As she was growing up, it was pretty obvious that Selena was special. She had that star quality. She was the it girl. She had inherited her father's talent and love for music. That combined with her stunning beauty, everyone just knew that she would make it.
In 1981, at just the little baby age of 10 years old, Selena becomes the lead singer of a group called Selena y Los Dinos. Also, real quick, I just wanted to say that we've stopped a couple of times because Peyton has asked me for help on how to pronounce some of these words. She is trying her best right now to pronounce some of these in Spanish.
So just an FYI. Yeah, I don't really have a good Spanish accent like Garrett. I took years, three years of Spanish in high school, but I definitely was still raised in Idaho. So I'm trying my best. Off topic, but she's doing great.
So Selena's band was made up of her as the lead singer, her brother, Abraham Jr. on the bass guitar and her sister Suzette on the drums. But the band is called Selena y los dinos. So she is the star. It has her name. And around this same time, Selena's father, Abraham, also decided to open his first Tex-Mex restaurant in Lake Jackson, Texas called Papa Gaio's, which I bet that is just such good food.
So Selena y Los Dinos' very first performances were at Papagayo's, a whole family business. Like he opens the restaurant and then the kids come perform. But unfortunately, during the 1980s oil glut, the restaurant hit hard times and closed due to financial problems. And if you didn't know, the 1980s oil glut was a serious surplus of crude oil caused by falling demand following oil
the 1970s energy crisis. I did not know that actually. I didn't either, but apparently impacted lots of people. The Quintanilla family declared bankruptcy and were evicted from their home. They decided to move to Corpus Christi, Texas to restart. They had hit hard times, but this wasn't the type of family to just give up.
So after moving, Abraham Sr. becomes the full-time manager of Selena y Los Dinos. They go full force into the family band. Dad's getting them gigs at weddings, fairs, quinceañeras, and clubs in the local area. All of this to help pay the family bills.
Now, growing up in Texas since birth, Selena only spoke English, but with her father's encouragement from his old music career, she began singing in Spanish, which eventually led to her learning to speak Spanish fluently as she got older. Oh, that's cool.
By 1984, the family band gets a recording contract with Freddie Records, but it falls through after being told by the president of the company that Selena and the band were not ready to record professionally. So Abraham Sr. makes a deal with a small local Texas record company called Kara Records. Once signed, Selena and the band begin working on the New Girl in Town album.
In 1986 and 87, Selena and the band is discovered by GP Productions while performing, and they sign for a year contract. They release Alpha, which is their second full-length album during this time. After that album in 1987, Selena, at just 15 years old, wins the Tejano Music Award for Female Vocalist.
She would actually go on to win this award nine consecutive times, which broke records and made waves in a very male dominated world of Tohono music.
After the first win, Abraham Sr. encourages Selena to use this momentum to swing her into more Tejano and Mexican songs. So by 1988, Selena and her band released their next album called Precious. And this album was actually named after Selena's childhood nickname. Like that's what they called her when she was little. It would go on to sell 20,000 units internationally.
in Texas alone. A successful album and they are really beginning to make some headway. And it was after this album that Abraham Jr., the bass guitarist for the band, meets a musician, a different musician named Chris Perez, and they become friends. Now Chris has auditioned as a filling guitar player for the band and he was actually interviewed and played for everyone at the Quintanilla house.
Abraham Jr. ended up liking Chris enough that he convinced Abraham Sr. to hire him as the lead guitarist for the band full-time.
Abraham Sr. did not love that Chris came from his own rock band where they played strictly American music. But Abraham Jr. convinced him that Chris would learn their style soon enough. They were making headway in this style of music. Did they need another guitarist? I'm kind of confused. So the band was huge. Yeah. Like they had guitarists, people on the banjos, people on the piano. So it was comprised of a lot of people, not just like three or four. Got it.
By 1989, word has begun spreading about the band. I mean, they started as just this small family band and they're not necessarily huge, but they're also doing enough gigs that it's working, right? - Yeah, I mean, kind of makes me think of the Jacksons in a way, right? - Right, right. And so word is spreading about them, but more specifically about Selena, her talent, her beauty, her potential.
And after seeing her perform, the band is contacted by Capitol Records. Wow, that's a big one. Right, like literally the Capitol Records. And the call comes from Capitol Records parent company EMI. And EMI's president, Jose Behar, offers them a contract with the label, except there was a catch.
EMI wanted Selena and the band to record the music and perform together still and whatnot. But they told Abraham Sr. that the world wanted Selena, not the rest of them. So her siblings and band members can still come and be her band and perform with her. But this deal was for Selena alone. Capitol Records wanted Selena to become the label's first Latin artist.
And although she didn't want to steal the spotlight, it was still a family band. You know, they would still be on stage and recording with her. She would just be the name. So they accept. I mean, how do you turn down that deal with Capitol Records? Selena lands the contract and the label explains that they are excited for this adventure and really could see her being the next big artist.
Selena debuted her first solo album with EMI under the logo title Selena and yielded her first entry on Billboard's Hot Latin Tracks chart. That's awesome. Selena and the rest of the band would go on to record the Coca-Cola jingle after her big debut, and it's a success. I'm just intrigued because I've heard a lot about Selena, obviously. Yeah.
And so it's just, I didn't know this whole backstory. Yeah. I didn't know the whole backstory. And I just don't remember a bunch of information about her death. Right. Like, I'll be honest. I don't even know if I remember that she was murdered. I don't know why. I mean, maybe because I had to have been young. Right. We were. Okay. Yeah. But no, definitely. I had heard of her, but I didn't know that she was even murdered. Yeah. Yeah. So as a
thank you for this success that Selena was having with Capitol records. She just did the Coca-Cola jingle and it's working. Um, they decided to send the whole band and the family on a vacation to Mexico. And Selena stardom was basically blossoming at this time. She'd kind of been small town local, and now she was getting out. She was becoming national.
She had all of the attention and she had basically pulled the family up and out of their hard times just because of her name. It definitely was a family endeavor, but it was her name that had got them to this point on vacation together celebrating their recent success.
And it was just the beginning. According to Abraham senior, there was still a lot of work to be done. He knew a lot of future endeavors rested on Selena shoulders, her image, her talent, her as a public figure in general, Selena was still young, but now was in the public eye, especially in the Latin culture because of all the hard work she'd been putting in over the last five to 10 years, Selena's teenage years were different than most.
She didn't have those normal coming-of-age moments we all had. And by this point in the story, she is now 18 to 19 years old. Now, Chris Perez, the band's guitarist that I told you about earlier and Abraham's friend, was on this vacation in Mexico with everyone. And it was during this time that an attraction between him and Selena began to brew.
It had remained unsaid all of this time while they worked together, played music together. But on this vacation, it was coming to a front. How old was he? He was only two years older than her, I think. So it wasn't like normal. Yeah. Okay. So finally, they're on this vacation and they're eating at Pizza Hut. And Chris and Selena, right, they find themselves alone at Pizza Hut and
And Chris decided this was the time to officially confide in his feelings for Selena. And surprisingly, Selena reciprocated the same energy. Like she was feeling everything he was. But this was never going to work. Selena's dad was still not a very big fan of Chris because he didn't play the same cultural music that the band played.
And any relationship between them would surely be seen as a distraction, disrespectful, and just downright forbidden as Selena is in her basically like coming up era. But this was love between the two of them and they couldn't deny it.
So they began seeing each other secretly, unable to curb their impossible romance. They snuck around, seeing each other whenever they could, finding time alone whenever possible. Hola. ¿Cómo está? Hola, ¿cómo estamos? Want to learn a new language? Well, the best way is to uproot your entire life, move to Spain, and live there for the rest of your life.
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but it was useless. Their secret would eventually come out. I mean, they're working with so many other people at all times. Is Selena living with her family still? So they're on tour, but no, she isn't living with the family, but they're on tour a lot. So they are together quite often. Eventually Selena's older sister, Suzette, who was also in the band found out about the secret affair and she immediately reported it back to their father.
Abraham Sr. confronted Chris and actually ended up kicking him off the tour bus, forbidding the relationship between his daughter. Oh, so he was pissed. He was mad. But as we know, it's hard to tell any young person who they can and can't date, especially because Selena is a legal adult now. Yeah.
And I think it's harder too because she's successful. She's very more adult. I mean, although she's still young, she's living a very adult life at this point. It's like it's her band basically. Kind of. Yeah. So it's on her name. She runs the show in a way. Right. So Selena and Chris continue sneaking around even though he's out of the band at this point. Like he's kicked out.
And because of this, things become even more chaotic between Chris, Selena, and the whole family. Because they've decided not to stop seeing each other, it's causing so much tension. Abraham Sr. refers to Chris at this point as a cancer to the family. He talks about how disrespectful it was that everyone else knew that they were dating and he was the last to find out about the relationship. He felt like it was happening behind his back.
But why did Abraham hate Chris so bad? Yeah, I was going to say, there's got to be something I'm missing because he doesn't like him. Well...
we aren't sure. Like I said, there is a lot of information on this case. There's actually a whole entire Netflix series called Selena that has two, I think two whole seasons. I wasn't able to get through the whole thing, but there's just so much detail, but there's also two sides to every story. Could it have been because Chris had been arrested for drunk driving before, or that while on tour, Chris and others had sometimes caused havoc or,
kind of breaking doors and partying, but this was the kind of life you live while on tour at this time. It's crazy. They're young. I think this happens often. So I don't know. We don't know for sure the disconnect because both sides have come out and tried to say their story, but
Either way, I don't think anyone's right or wrong. There just is definitely some disconnect going on. Throughout 1990, Selena is touring and growing, her success rising and her number of fans multiplying. She's not huge per se still, but she's definitely to a point that I'm guessing most musicians would love to be at.
By 1991, Selena is a budding star and learning how to handle everything that comes with that. I know this should be obvious, but I love pop culture so we can talk about it a little bit. As amazing as it would be to be a rising music star, there's definitely a wild and scary side that comes with that. For actresses, musicians, and artists, you have paparazzi, no personal space or life, and stalkers or fans who take it too far.
You also have a dedicated group of people who love you, though, and would do anything for you. So there's good and bad with anything. So right in the middle of all of this for Selena, a woman named Yolanda Saldivar begins reaching out to Abraham Sr., which is Selena's manager and her father.
Yolanda is interested in organizing a fan club for Selena in Corpus Christi, her hometown. This is kind of a rite of passage step for any rising star, like making it official. You now have an official fan club. And I think even more in the 90s, fan clubs were like a really big deal. I was going to say, is that like a thing now? I feel like it isn't. I think it
It is similar to how fans nowadays kind of name themselves something. You know how like Ariana Grande's are like the, I think they're like the Arianators or something and they are all on Twitter and they like stick to her defense. Yeah. I think before there was social media. Yes. The believers. Okay. Okay. Before there was social media, these fan clubs were,
like had to meet in person type things because there was no way to do it online. I could see that. Yolanda actually explains to Abraham that she was Selena's number one fan. She had attended a Selena concert with her niece in San Antonio, Texas, and just became a huge fan after that.
She said that after the show, she was looking around for a souvenir or keepsake from the concert, but noticed that Selena and the band didn't have anything. And so that's why she was reaching out now. Did they need help? Like she's the biggest fan. She could be president of Selena's fan club. She wanted to create something for the fans to be a part of. And after leaving many,
many voicemails on Abraham's phone, Abraham senior finally returned the call and gave Yolanda the go ahead for Selena's official fan club. He's like, sure, we don't have anything, but it's probably time so you can run it. And Yolanda took that to heart.
She began organizing, advertising, and fairly quickly had amassed around 1,500 official members in the area. By June of 1991, Yolanda is named the acting president of the Selena fan club that she had founded. Did you get paid for that? Do you know? So not initially. It was just in...
Like a volunteer job? Yeah, a volunteer job, but eventually she does. But by this point, for the fan club, you had to pay $22 for membership fees. Oh.
And in exchange, you were mailed a swag bag that had Selena merch, Selena upcoming tour dates, any information about where Selena would be, just anything that a fan club now you can get on social media. But back then it came in your mail and it was a piece of paper that was written. You know what I mean? That's pretty good for 22 bucks. Right. Yolanda agreed with Selena's team that the proceeds of the fan club would be donated to charities. And so that's kind of how this all began. Right.
By December 1991, Selena's sister Suzette had actually become the go-between for Yolanda, who was somewhat now kind of managing the fandom. She was also managing the fan club, but I mean, in all retrospect, she was managing like meet and greet, like that type of thing.
And so she was having to talk to Selena's team all the time. I mean, talk about Yolanda manifesting her way into this thing. - Yeah, seriously. - Like being number one fan and then all of a sudden, and I've heard other stories of that happening, but Yolanda still had not worked directly with Selena. I mean, she was her number one fan, but I mean, you're working with a tier when it comes to this thing.
until December, 1991, when she really started to get closer into everything, work her way up. She met Selena. She started working closer with the family and Selena really appreciates all of the help that Yolanda had brought. I mean, she kind of brought all this connecting Selena with her fan type part of this whole thing.
And by this time, the whole family knows who Yolanda is. The whole entire Selena team knows who Yolanda is. By April 2nd, 1992, after continuing their secret, not so secret relationship that created volatile moments within the family and band, Selena and Chris Perez decide to elope.
It's April 2nd, 1992 when they run away and they get married. Selena by this point was 20 and Chris was 22. It said that Selena figured eloping would finally just force her father to accept Chris and
But after they had done it, she was still nervous to tell him. Where did they go get eloped at? In their city in Texas. Oh, okay. Yeah. So they didn't like travel to do it. They went to like Vegas. Right. No, they just did it in their city. Um, but after doing it, they were like, oh, we're going to do this to help. But then after doing it, they were still too scared to tell anyone. So they didn't.
And they just continued on with life. Selena and Chris now married. Wait, they didn't tell anybody? They were, I mean, they told close people, but not like the whole Selena team didn't know that Selena and Chris were now married. Did the family know? No. And Abraham definitely didn't know. Like Abraham Sr. had no idea.
But Selena by this point is a public figure, like I said, and it was only a matter of time before people found out. And literally that's what happened. Radio and news stations began reporting the marriage. Somehow it gotten out.
And somehow, despite the couple's best efforts, Abraham Sr. was once again the last person to find out that his daughter was now married to the one man that he didn't want her to get married to. And I want to mention here that once again, we don't know the full story, so please don't draw conclusions. Was the marriage out of love or retaliation for a controlling father? We don't know. I'm just pointing it out that either way, they're married.
And after the marriage, Selena's success is only getting bigger as she works her way up the social ladder. Yolanda now has over 8,000 paying members of the fan club and has quit her full-time job as an in-home nurse to run Selena's fan club.
She was now being paid like we talked about, but it wasn't nearly as much as she was making as a nurse. By January 1994, Selena has become known for designing her own costumes and outfits and actually was now officially nicknamed in Hollywood as the Mexican Madonna, despite literally being from Texas. Like she wasn't from Mexico, but that was her nickname.
The team decided that Selena should open some boutiques in Texas under her name to capitalize on the success that she's having in the fashion industry. She's kind of like
She's a big deal when it comes to fashion at this time. Abraham Sr. decides to reach out to Yolanda and ask her if she would like to be in charge of these two boutiques that they were opening because the rest of the team was still going to be touring and going about everything else with Selena's success. So Yolanda accepts and is given the position in January 1994. March 1st, 1994, the 36th annual Grammy Awards were held and
And Selena wins her first Grammy Award for Best Mexican American Album. That's a big deal. Huge. This was the same year, just to put it in perspective, this was the same year that Disney's A Whole New World from Aladdin won Song of the Year. And the same year I was born.
And the best record of the year went to Whitney Houston for I will always love you so that she's like She's with big names right now. It's not like she's just going to the Grammys and yeah I mean I've heard of her and so I'm curious to see what happens next because at the beginning of the episode You talked about what happens when a celebrity is murdered So I know she's gonna be murdered, but I'm curious timeline when and how do we get here, right? I
So that same year after winning a Grammy, Selena officially becomes the face of Coca-Cola.
Which is huge. Like think about that. Just to put this in perspective of how big she has gotten, her dreams are coming true. Like she is full stardom at this point. And all of this goes to show the pioneering work that Selena did as a Latina woman in the 1990s. I mean, she's the freaking face of Coca-Cola. She has influence. She has a Grammy. She was representing her culture so well and,
In September 1994, Selena officially signs Yolanda as her registered agent in San Antonio. Wait, okay, but I thought her dad was like managing her. So I think this just means that when it comes to theorizing,
things that are happening specifically in San Antonio, Yolanda will represent her. Got it. This means like Yolanda could act on her behalf to sign some legal documents or other proceedings as part of the company's fan club. So anything that has to do with the fan club, Yolanda can basically sign for Selena on her behalf. That's crazy that Yolanda worked her way all the way up. Good for her. And this also meant that Yolanda could access certain bank accounts and checks, just kind of, you know, things like that. Yeah.
After this, Yolanda moves closer to Corpus Christi to be closer to Selena now that they're working even closer together. She begins assisting Selena with anything she needed, really pushing the limits outside of her designated job to help where she could. And during this time, Selena refers to Yolanda as one of the best assistants she's ever had. Okay.
journalist Maria Celeste, who wrote a book and also the screenplay on Selena, gave some insight into Yolanda's behavior and personality during this time.
One person actually told her if Selena would say jump, Yolanda would jump three times. She was very eager to impress Selena. I mean, she had started all of this as Selena's biggest fan. Sometime after Abraham Sr. found out about Selena and Chris's marriage, he eventually caved and accepted the situation.
and reluctantly allowed Chris back into the band. In January 1995, Selena's cousin, Deborah Ramirez, is hired to work in the boutiques, the fashion boutiques, because Selena was actually wanting to expand them over to Mexico. And so she was trying to get a bigger team involved. But Deborah quits the job within a week.
She tells people that the boutiques were severely unorganized, that receipts were missing. And when she tried to confront Yolanda about all of this, Yolanda was kind of rude and told Selena's cousin to mind her business. This wasn't any of her concern. I think it's crazy that I'm just thinking of Selena in general because she was slash is huge. And like, how did I not...
I don't not hear about, I mean, like we've done about 101 episodes, 102 episodes now. Yeah. And for some reason I haven't heard of like anyone that's been on this. Like I just don't like, I must live under a rock, which I don't. I, I'm always, I keep up with social media. Mine,
Because is that anything that has to do with crime news? You just like brush, like you almost just glaze over. Yeah. Like you don't actually read it. You know what I mean? So you've probably seen things, but you don't even take the time to read them. Just not paying attention. In February 26th, 1995, Selena performs in front of her largest crowd ever, 61,000 fans at the Houston Astrodome. That is so many people. That's like...
That's Taylor Swift level. Right. Like she's huge. Footage from this concert can actually be found in our episode notes. And I would highly suggest going to watch it because it's really cool to see her in that element.
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Yolanda has begun traveling back and forth from Mexico to Texas to help expand the boutiques. And Selena and Chris's relationship is still a little rocky with her father, but I mean, he's back in the band. Things are going good. Then in March of 1995, individuals start reaching out to Abraham. Chris's
complaining that they were signing up for the fan club, but not receiving anything after. Honestly, they were being ghosted. All right. I'm getting a little suspicious now. I'm not going to lie. So Abraham decides to gather some people and to begin looking into this after multiple complaints.
And it was during this small investigation, the Salinas team found out some pretty shady stuff had been going on behind their backs. Checks were being forged. Money was being embezzled. Things were not good. And all of it...
Yolanda. Yeah.
The conversation ends with Abraham having to fire Yolanda. Like they don't, they don't have another choice. She has embezzled money. They couldn't really cut off contact though, because she ran a pretty big part of their business. They needed financial documents from her. They needed help transferring things. It was just pure chaos. Um,
On March 31st, 1995, Abraham Sr. receives a call that someone had attacked his daughter, Selena. Oh my gosh. They have cornered the attacker into their car in the parking lot of a hotel, and they need his help in identifying the person.
So you mean attacked? Is she murdered? Abraham frantically makes his way there and is shocked at what he sees. There sits Yolanda in her truck, surrounded by police, holding a gun to her own head. Oh my gosh. Abraham confirms Yolanda's identity to police. But then where was Selena? What had happened?
On March 31st, 1995, earlier that morning, Selena agreed to meet with Yolanda one-on-one to retrieve some financial documents that they still needed from her. They were to meet that morning at the Days Inn Motel in Corpus Christi, Texas. This meeting was emotion-fueled as Selena was extremely hurt by what Yolanda had done to her. She felt stabbed in the back.
It was almost like meeting after a breakup to get your stuff back. That's kind of what I would say this is similar to. When Selena arrived to the hotel that morning, the meeting takes a bizarre turn when Yolanda confides in Selena that she had just been raped in Mexico. A devastated and caring Selena immediately drives Yolanda to the hospital for an exam, but...
but the hospital actually turns them away, claiming that they couldn't conduct one since the sexual assault had happened in another country.
Selena drives Yolanda back to the days in motel and before parting brings up the financial records that she had been there to collect in the first place. Like she's like, okay, Yolanda, it's time to say goodbye. Like this is it. But Yolanda was not ready to say goodbye. Selena watched as she takes out a gun, a 38 Taurus model 85 revolver and points it directly at Selena. What in the world? Selena immediately turns and tries to run, but
but Yolanda shoots her in the back, severing an artery. Oh my gosh. I didn't think it was going to be Yolanda. I guess I thought the whole time it was...
I don't know, going to be the husband or someone random, like something crazy. Because, I mean, I guess it makes sense now why you were talking so much about her in a day's look in my head. But, oh my gosh. So Selena collapses in the lobby of the hotel and an employee calls 911. And as police arrive on scene, Yolanda has made her way back to her truck and police corner her in in the parking lot.
A 10-hour standoff begins between Yolanda and police while she sits in her truck in the hotel parking lot with the gun to her head. At 9.30 p.m. that night, 32-year-old Yolanda surrenders to police and Abraham identifies her. Responders rushed Selena to the hospital, but there wasn't anything they could do. Selena dies at the hospital at 1.05 p.m. from severe blood loss.
fans gathered immediately around the days in motel weeping and crying playing Selena's songs together and I think for me I kind of feel like the biggest time I felt this and I necessarily wasn't a huge fan but kind
of was when Kobe Bryant, when we heard the news about Kobe Bryant. Oh yeah, that was insane. I don't know if I, I mean, I guess Mac Miller, but I don't know if I had been mature enough yet to quite like to understand the gravity of someone who is so prominent and has affected so many people to leave this earth. Like, and, and Kobe Bryant, I was sad when Kobe Bryant died and I don't even like basketball. You know what I mean? But it,
it hits you hard. And so imagine the pain that her fans are going through when randomly a disaster happens, right?
On April 1st, 1995, a vigil was held in Bayfront Plaza in Corpus Christi with nearly 3,000 fans. Eventually, an open viewing was held and between 30,000 to 40,000 fans showed up to pay their respects and over 78,000 people signed a book of condolence for Selena.
No video or photography was allowed during that viewing. Selena's official funeral is attended by 600 guests because it was closed, mainly just friends and family. But 600 guests of friends and family. I mean, that is still a lot of people at a funeral.
Apparently the funeral was broadcast live by local radio stations without the family's consent. They didn't know that this was happening.
And later, a special mass was held the same day over at Los Angeles Sports Arena that drew a crowd of 4,000 people. Why did Yolanda, one, kill her, and two, why was she stealing money? Did she just need more money? Did she want more money? Was she buying something specific? What was going on?
Well, so this comes out at trial on October 9th, 1995 trial started for the state versus Yolanda. The trial was covered in Spain, the Philippines, Europe, South America, Australia, Japan, Mexico. I mean, it's, it's worldwide. The defense argued that the shooting was accidental.
that Yolanda accidentally hit Selena while trying to attempt suicide. That's her defense. Oh my, give me a break. However, the prosecution pointed out that Yolanda was a trained nurse. And after Selena was hit, she did not call 911. She did not try to help Selena. Yeah, that's true. And Selena was shot in the back.
So how is that an accidental shot? Yeah. Cause that makes it even worse for her because if someone is shot while they're running away, it's a lot worse. Also a hotel staff member witnessed the whole thing, witnessed the whole fight and saw Yolanda pointing the gun directly at Selena. I can't believe she did it just in the lobby. Well, it wasn't, they ran to the lobby after, but it wasn't a more secluded area, but there were still people around at
At the time of everything, it's discovered that Yolanda had been actually using Selena's American Express card to rent nice cars, to go to upscale restaurants, to buy cell phones, electronics, anything she wanted. It also comes out that she had embezzled over $60,000 using forged checks from the fan club and boutiques. Which is a lot, but honestly, I think I was expecting more. Right.
I think that she was doing it in small amounts to not get caught. So it's not like we were going to probably see if, if she hadn't got caught, it probably would be a larger amount.
Martin Gomez, a designer who shared office space with Yolanda testifies. She was a very angry person who was manipulative and played mind games that he would finish pieces for Selena leave and then come back to them ripped up. Like she was purposely destroying his stuff. He, along with other employees ended up actually quitting because of Yolanda. Like she was very toxic in the whole environment and,
On October 23rd, 1995, Yolanda was found guilty and was sentenced to life imprisonment with the eligibility of parole in March of 2025. Oh, so that's coming up. Yes. So she could possibly be released or on parole soon. Now, this is hard because you asked why. Yolanda never said why. She never said why. So we don't have a clear answer. I think...
what people have drawn, like the best conclusion we can come to and what the state came to was that Yolanda was
so obsessed with Selena, so obsessed with her that she began kind of taking over her life, like treating people bad, using her credit cards, kind of just taking over Selena. And so then when Selena had to fire her and was saying that final goodbye, I think maybe the sexual assault allegation was the last ploy to gain sympathy from Selena to keep the friendship. But then when Selena got back to the hotel and was like, no, actually I need the documents and you need to leave.
Yolanda was so obsessed that she couldn't let her go. Yeah. And that's literally what I think happened. A crazy, crazy fan obsessed with a famous person to the point that they're stalking and it's harmful. Gosh, it's just so cool. It's just, she killed her. Like what? Right. She stole money. Um,
obviously a very bad thing, but that and killing someone is just on a completely different playing field than my eyes. Correct. So I just, I don't know. I just think maybe also she couldn't handle the fact that she had disappointed Selena. Yeah. That's a good point. She had stolen money from her and I just don't, I don't think she could live with it. Because in her eyes, Selena was like, I don't, I don't like you anymore. Right. Right.
And I think she's a, she's a bad person. So instead of just cutting her losses and leaving, she had to kill Selena because of it. Oh, it's horrible. Chris Perez actually quit the band pretty soon after Selena's murder. He started his own band, dedicating a song to Selena called the best I can. And after that band broke up, Chris actually decided to join Selena's
brother abraham jr his new band because selena the band doesn't exist without selena they had to create a new band and chris actually ends up going back to that band in march of 1997 selena the movie opens in theaters worldwide it grossed 11 million six hundred and fifteen thousand seven hundred and twenty two dollars making it the second highest grossing film debut that week
Wow. Selena's family worked on the movie in hopes of honoring Selena's memory. So they were completely involved in all of that. Over 21,000 people auditioned for the title role of Selena. Whoa, that's crazy. It was like ended up being the second largest audition since the search for Scarlett O'Hara and Gone with the Wind. Got it. Jennifer Lopez ended up
playing the role of Selena. The movie talks about how her life, music, and the film have become touchstones in Latin American culture and how her infectious appeal crossed over to audiences of all kinds. Everybody loved her. Selena's family goes on to launch a Selena Mac makeup collection, which was her dream apparently. And that launched in 2016 and sold out within hours. Like, I guess I've heard about
I mean, I've heard about Selena, obviously, but I mean, I guess I've heard about her murder, but like not, I don't know if it's because I was so young. It's just, I just didn't know any of this information. Everything you just told me, like I probably want to say, I didn't know 98% of it. And I actually think we could take a lesson from this because
because Selena isn't remembered for her murder. No, she's remembered for who she was. And that's what I was saying at the beginning is I wish every story remembered. I we're all here because we're intrigued about why people do what they do. I'm not saying that. I'm just saying that I wish every story gave the same amount of coverage to victims as this one did. And I'm so happy that we were able to cover so much of Selena success and that she,
Her murder is memorable, but it's not the main thing she's remembered for. She's remembered for her music. Right. In February 2017, Chris Perez finally opened to the public about watching Selena. He didn't watch it until 2017. And how hard that whole thing was on him. That was his wife. Abraham had actually asked for the elopement scene in the movie to be cut for fear that it would set a bad example, but the scene wasn't cut.
And still to this day, Chris feels as if his role in Selena's life has been erased through the years. Chris wrote a book about the whole thing and a Selena museum still exists in Corpus Christi today, along with so many monuments, as well as Selena Day in Texas, which is celebrated April 16th.
There is also a Netflix series, like I said, about Selena that dives deeper into Selena's childhood and who she was, very much honoring her legacy, which I would highly suggest watching. Selena was actually most recently honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2021 Grammys. Wow.
Oh yeah. I feel like I knew that. You knew this because Selena's family was there. Yes. And they talked about how excited Selena was when she won that first Grammy and she would have gone on to win many more if tragedy hadn't have struck.
Selena's family knows that Selena continues to inspire generations to chase their dreams. Chris Perez actually put a statement out on Facebook after the Lifetime Achievement Award that said, Lifetime Achievement Award to say that I'm proud of all that Selena represents. Sorry, sometimes it's hard to get through these things because you just remember that these are real people and to see a post on Facebook that's so raw. Yeah.
And Rill is so sad, but also I'm just happy she's being remembered. So sorry. He said that to say that I'm proud of all that Selena represents and so proud of her accomplishments would be a huge understatement. He wrote special thanks to the Grammy organization and especially all of you, her fans that continue to listen, watch and support Selena.
To me, it sounds like Selena truly had a tight-knit and wonderfully supportive family.
Even though there seems to have been some indifference between Chris and kind of Selena's family, they all seem to have tried to come together in the end. And studies have shown over and over again that most families do fall apart a little after tragedy. And these are all very unfortunate circumstances when a tragedy like this hits a family, but this family did seem to come together, at least in what we can see.
And I think it speaks to a very united, uniquely loving family that is rare. I'm not sure we could encapsulate the magnitude of this case in just a 45 minute episode. There are so many details that I couldn't include. Not necessarily about the murder, but just about Selena's life in general, which you can go and watch the things, check out the case sources to learn those things.
The devastation that is felt when someone dies who's affected so many people's lives is just, it's incredible. Losing someone so talented at such a young age is painful to watch. There's so much footage of her. Once again, we see someone in their prime. She's just breaking one record barrier after another in her drive to be a successful musician.
It kind of reminds me of other talented artists that I was talking about earlier who've been lost at a young age. Kurt Cobain, Amy Winehouse. In fact, Wikipedia actually notes that the public reaction to Selena's death was compared to the deaths of John Lennon and John F. Kennedy.
Wow. So it was just so devastating for so, so many people. And I think all of this comes back to the fact that we were talking about how huge stardom seems amazing from the outside. But when you go into the inside perspective, Selena was murdered by her biggest fan. Yeah, it's crazy because I mean, I knew obviously that Selena wasn't alive, but I didn't know she was murdered by...
Someone that like worked for her basically. Right. That's crazy. Right. I just, what? Like, I can't believe she did that. I know it's, it's just, again, so frustrating. It's so frustrating, but I know that, um, you know, Selena is remembered for who she was and that we can do that today. And I also know that Selena would have gone on to continue to change this world, but the little time she did have on earth, she changed the world. Yeah.
And that is the story of Selena. And like I said earlier, please go check out those other case sources if you are more interested to learn. There's so much more to learn about Selena. This was kind of just the brief overview of her life and her story that ended in her murder. A reminder that next week we will have a bonus Patreon crime episode coming out. So if you want to check that out, you can find us on patreon.com slash murder with my husband. And we will see you guys next week with another regular episode. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.