A newly released autopsy report confirms that Selena Quintanilla died from a single gunshot that caused massive internal bleeding, 30 years after the Tejano music superstar was shot by her friend and business associate.
The Nueces County, Texas, Medical Examiner’s Office officially ruled the 23-year-old singer’s 1995 death at the hands of Yolanda Saldívar a homicide.
“It is my opinion that Selena Quintanilla Pérez, a 23-year-old woman, came to her death as a result of an exsanguinating internal and external hemorrhage, in other words massive bleeding, due to a perforating gunshot wound of the thorax (chest),” coroner Lloyd White wrote in the autopsy, which was obtained by Us Weekly.
Quintanilla was fatally shot at a Days Inn motel in Corpus Christi, Texas, on March 31, 1995.
The singer’s death is gaining renewed attention this week as Netflix released a documentary on Monday titled “Selena y Los Dinos: A Family’s Legacy” to coincide with the 30th anniversary of her murder.
The documentary features never-before-seen footage and interviews with the Grammy-winner’s family three decades after she was gunned down.
Saldívar, a former nurse and business associate who had embezzled money while running the singer’s fan club, fired a .38-caliber revolver at Quintanilla during a confrontation over missing financial records.
The bullet entered the “Dreaming of You” singer’s back, traveled through her ribs and upper lung, then exited through the upper right chest, according to the autopsy report cited by Us Weekly.
The coroner wrote that the bullet severed Quintanilla’s subclavian artery, causing massive internal bleeding.
The medical report noted that blood was “present over many areas of the clothes” Quintanilla wore that day.
Saldívar had started as a fan before convincing Quintanilla’s father to let her run the singer’s fan club in San Antonio.
She later took on management duties at the family’s boutique in Corpus Christi.
That relationship soured in early 1995 when the Quintanilla family discovered thousands of dollars missing from both the fan club and the store. Saldívar was fired from the boutique and removed from her fan club position that March.
In the weeks before the killing, Saldívar bought a Taurus Model 85 revolver from a San Antonio gun range, returned it, then purchased it again shortly before the murder.
On March 30, she checked into the Days Inn and called Quintanilla, claiming she had been raped and needed to hand over business documents.
Quintanilla first met Saldívar at the motel with her husband, Chris Pérez, but Saldívar didn’t hand over the records she had promised.
The following day, Quintanilla went back on her own after telling a business associate she intended to pick up perfume samples and the missing financial paperwork.
She even drove Saldívar to a hospital after Saldívar claimed she’d been raped, though staff told them the exam would need to be done elsewhere.
When they returned to the motel, Quintanilla asked again for the documents. Instead, Saldívar pulled out a revolver and fired.
Wounded, Quintanilla managed to run to the lobby for help as Saldívar chased her.
Paramedics took her to Corpus Christi Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at about 1:05 p.m.
Saldívar then barricaded herself in her truck in the motel parking lot, threatening to harm herself. After nearly 10 hours, she finally surrendered to FBI negotiators.
She was later charged with first-degree murder and pleaded not guilty, claiming the shooting was accidental. A jury convicted her in October 1995 and she was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole.
Now 64, Saldívar is serving her sentence in a women’s prison in Gatesville, Texas. She sought parole in December 2024, but the request was denied three months later. She remains incarcerated.
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