Yolanda Saldívar () (born September 19, 1960) is an American former nurse<!--- Do not add "murderer". Reason 1: Living persons are introduced by his/her occupation and reason for notability. "Murderer" is not a valid occupation unless the subject is an active serial killer. Reason 2: Sentences like "John Doe is a murderer who murdered Jane Doe" is just poor writing ---> who murdered singer Selena in Corpus Christi, Texas, on March 31, 1995. Saldívar had been the president of Selena's fan club and the manager of her boutiques, but she lost both positions a short time before the murder, when the singer's family discovered that she had been embezzling money from both organizations.
In October 1995, Saldívar was found guilty of murder and sentenced to a prison term of 30 years to life. In 2025, she became eligible for parole. Saldívar's petition for parole was denied on March 27, 2025; the next parole review is set for March 2030.
Biography
Yolanda Saldívar was born on September 19, 1960, in San Antonio, Texas. She was the youngest of seven children born to Frank and Juanita Saldívar. While growing up, she was teased and occasionally bullied at school because of her weight. She rarely made any friends and isolated herself from social activities. Her father was a head waiter at Jacala, a Mexican restaurant in the West End. She attended three different elementary schools in the Edgewood School district. Saldívar first attended Kennedy High School, then transferred to Holmes, followed by Jay High School, before graduating in 1979 from McCollom High School. While at McCollum, Saldívar belonged to the Junior ROTC. Few classmates recall Saldívar, who was a classmate of Ram Herrera, who graduated in 1978, and Emilio Navaira, who graduated in 1980.
Saldívar was accepted at the University of Texas in 1985, then transferred to Palo Alto College. She studied to be a registered nurse, and on December 10, 1990, received a Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Texas A&M International University. At this time, she became obsessed with losing weight. She also began work as a graduate nurse at Medical Center Hospital. In March 1991, she received her license as a registered nurse from the Texas Board of Nurse Examiners and earned $60,000 a year. Saldívar, who married, had to work part time after adopting three children, one of them her niece.
Saldívar's employer, Dr. Faustino Gomez, a dermatologist, sued her for $9,200 that he said she stole from him starting in 1983. The lawsuit was eventually settled out of court. Within two months, Saldívar was back in court again when the Texas Guaranteed Student Loan Corporation obtained a Travis county court judgement in Austin against her for failing to repay a student loan of $7,361. At that time, Saldívar had switched jobs and was working as a nurse at St. Luke's Lutheran Hospital.
Selena fan club
Saldívar, a former nurse, was a fan of country music. After attending one of Selena's concerts, she began repeatedly calling Selena's father, Abraham Quintanilla, about starting a fan club in San Antonio. Quintanilla eventually gave in to Saldívar's requests and she immediately became the club's president. By 1993, the fan club had reached 1,500 members in less than four years, and eventually grew to over 5,000. It became one of the largest fan clubs in the San Antonio area. to retrieve financial records Saldívar had been refusing to turn over. Saldívar delayed the handover by claiming she had been raped in Mexico. Selena drove Saldívar to a local hospital, where they were told that the gynecological exam was to be done elsewhere, because the assault had allegedly happened in another country.
They returned to the motel, where Selena once more demanded the records.
Following the shooting, Selena was rushed to the Corpus Christi Memorial Hospital and was pronounced dead at 1:05pm. Saldívar was arrested that evening after a 9½ hour standoff with Corpus Christi police officers.
Jurors deliberated for less than three hours on October23, 1995, before finding Saldívar guilty of murder. Three days later, on October26, she was sentenced to 30 years to life; this was the maximum prison term allowed in Texas at the time. On November 22, 1995,<!--November 23, 1995 was a Thursday--> she arrived at the Gatesville Unit (now the Christina Melton Crain Unit) in Gatesville, Texas, to be processed.
Saldívar was eventually transferred to the Mountain View Unit (now the Patrick O'Daniel Unit), also in Gatesville.
After the conviction
The revolver used to kill Selena disappeared after the trial. It was later found in a box of office supplies at the home of court reporter Sandra Oballe, who has said she did not realize she had the weapon. Despite objections from some historical groups, it was dismantled and the pieces were thrown into Corpus Christi Bay in 2002.
Saldívar has asked the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals to accept a petition that challenges her conviction. She claims the petition was filed in 2000 with the 214th District Court, but was never sent to the higher court. Her request was received on March31, 2008, the 13th anniversary of Selena's death.
Saldívar first became eligible for parole in 2025 after serving 30 years in prison. Her first petition filed in January 2025 was denied on March 27, 2025, with March 2030 set as the next date for her parole review. by Damayanti Quintanar in Selena's Secret, a series based on the book of the same name, and by Natasha Perez in the Netflix original series, Selena: The Series. In 2017, Saldívar was portrayed by E. A. Castillo in the television documentary Murder Made Me Famous.