Inside Selena Murder Scene as Detectives Revisit Investigation in New Docuseries Clips

Yolanda Saldivar has been behind bars since she was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in October 1995. She has continued to maintain her innocence. Now, she faces the possibility of parole on March 30, 2025 and says she agreed to the docuseries because “it’s time to set the story straight.”

The investigation into Quintanilla’s murder unfolds in two new clips from the forthcoming docuseries as two detectives who were there that fateful day return to the Days Inn where the shooting happened. With graphic photos of blood from the crime scene and recreations, viewers are taken inside the moment when Saldivar shot Quintanilla.

Then, the Corpus Christi Police Department hostage and crisis negotiator recalls arriving on the scene where Saldivar was found sitting in her red pickup truck in the parking lot of the hotel threatening suicide. Quintanilla was taken to the hospital, where she succumbed to her wounds, while Saldivar held police in a standoff for hours before she was ultimately detained.

After the scene was finally cleared that evening, Detective Ray Rivera says he and the other officers immediately started their investigation. They recalled interviewing witnesses and examining the crime scene, which enabled them to recreate what happened in that hotel room before Selena ran out.

Eyewitness accounts then detailed not only seeing Quintanilla fleeing after she’d been shot on the threshold of the room, but Saldivar emerging from the room, still brandishing the gun and pointing it toward Selena.

One of the detectives recalled the testimony of one individual who was there. “According to our best witness, Yolanda comes out and she points the gun at Selena,” he said. “Selena’s gone by this time, running. She brings the gun down and she says, ‘Bitch!'”

After witnesses called in the shooting, officers from the Corpus Christi PD remembered how quickly the crime scene became a mad house. Larry Young, the department’s primary crisis negotiator at the time, recalled the unsettling scene as Saldivar was still present, sitting in her truck.

“On scene about 15 minutes or so, there’s a red truck sitting out there in the parking lot. The driver of this truck is a woman and she’s got a gun and she’s threatening suicide,” Young recalled. “As I’m walking across the street, I’m just kind of like mesmerized by the hundreds, if not thousand people or so, that surrounded this hotel. Media’s everywhere and that’s never happened before, that I’m aware, of in Corpus Christi.

One of those on the scene was Univision. Martha Flores echoed Young’s sentiment, saying, “The network came and I was there doing live shots and, uh, this was big for Corpus Christi. And Corpus Christi is such a small city.”

Ultimately, Saldivar was brought in, but it was too late for Quintanilla. Though her legacy lived on through her music, her story also lives on in Saldivar, who was once president of Selena’s fan club and operated two of her retail stores.

“After so many years, I think it’s time to set the story straight,” Saldivar says in another clip from the new docuseries, from behind bars. “My family gathered the evidence and it showed different versions of what was going on.”

“I was scared. I was frightened,” she continues. “I knew her secrets. And I think people deserve to know the truth.”

Saldivar became a trusted family friend, a part of Quintanilla’s inner circle. She even had a key to the home Quintanilla shared with husband Chris Perez, and access to the star’s business checking accounts.

Things took a turn between Quintanilla and Saldivar, however, when Quintanilla’s father, who worked as her manager, realized that $30,000 had been embezzled after fans complained that they had paid membership fees and received no merchandise in return.

Quintanilla would go on to reportedly fire Saldivar over the phone, just days before her death.

In an attempt to patch things up, the former employee asked Quintanilla to meet at a Corpus Christi-area Days Inn, claiming she had bank statements that could help clear her name.

It was there that Quintanilla was shot in the back with a 38-caliber revolver, later pronounced dead at the hospital, and Saldivar was taken into custody — and ultimately convicted of murder.

Neither Quintanilla’s former husband nor members of her family have yet to speak out about the doc.

The three-part Selena & Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them premieres with back-to-back episodes on Saturday, February 17 a 8pm ET, concluding Sunday, February 18 at 7pm ET on Oxygen.