The pair first became friends after Yolanda started up a fanclub for Selena (Picture: Oxygen / GETTY)

Nearly three decades have passed since Selena Quintanilla-Pérez was shot dead in a Texas motel room.

Queen of Tejano Music, she was one of the most celebrated Mexican-American entertainers of the late 20th century. The grammy award-winning singer, who was likened to Madonna and Gloria Estefan, was universally adored, so her murder at the age of just 23 sent shockwaves through fans and industry peers alike.

Especially as it was at the hand of her close friend and assistant Yolanda Saldívar.

On the day of her funeral in Corpus Christi, Texas, 50,000 fans turned up and the heartbreaking service was broadcast live by a local radio station.

It’s a true crime story that has been told on screen through the movie Selena, starring Jennifer Lopez, as well as a Netflix documentary produced by the singer’s father and manager, Abraham Quintanilla

Now, as Yolanda prepares for parole eligibility in 2025, the shocking incident is being examined again as part of Oxygen True Crime’s Selena & Yolanda: The Secrets Between Them, as the pair had been friends for years and Saldívar was closely involved in Selena’s business.

While who pulled the trigger has never been in question, the circumstances surrounding why, still are.

For a seemingly clear cut case with a body, a weapon and a killer, 29 years on there are still many questions left unanswered.

The friendship

The pair met when former nurse Saldívar set up Selena’s fan club. She had been a massive fan of the singer and was said to have asked Selena’s father for permission to start the club, of which she became president.

Soon the pair became so close that Selena asked her friend to help her to run her fashion and beauty line.

As Saldívar’s niece Tina tells the documentary makers: ‘They were really good friends. Beyond being a friend and employee, Yolanda was her companion and confidant. Yolanda was protecting some of Selena’s secrets. And not just secrets that the family didn’t want out, but secrets from the family.’

Specifically, she adds, from Selena’s own father, Abraham Quintanilla.

Yolanda’s niece Tina claims that Selena was keeping secrets from her father and manager Abraham Quintanilla (Photo by Danny Bollinger/WireImage)

That Saldívar bought a gun three weeks before she shot Selena is undeniable. But the documentary explores the many question marks which have since arisen around the circumstances.

Saldívar was said to be scared for her life, and spoke about someone following her around Monterey in a blue car – but why and who was driving? And, as Tina also mentions, what were the secrets she had been keeping from Selena’s family?

As one prosecutor told the documentary: ‘Most juries want to know why it happened, how it happened. Your job as a prosecutor is to assimilate everything that’s been given to you and put it in such a way that it makes sense. And it’s got to be a complete story. It can’t just be the day of the murder. This is how a murder starts, how it’s prepared and how it’s committed. We call that the anatomy of a murder. Sometimes you can go back two or three years before.’

However, he goes on to say: ‘In the case of Yolanda Saldívar we only went back a few months.’

That fateful day

On the day of the murder Selena arrived at Saldívar’s hotel room early in the morning. A gun shot rang out and a maid later claimed to have heard Saldívar call Selena a ‘bitch’, a testimony that has since been questioned.

Selena staggered out of the room with a bullet in her back and ran into the lobby, leaving a trail of blood and calling for help.

When asked who had shot her in the back, she said ‘Yolanda Saldívar. Room 158.’ Those were to be her last words. Selena died in hospital at 1.05pm, just over an hour after she had been gunned down.

Follwing the shooting, Saldívar ran to her truck and was surrounded by a SWAT team. Hostage negotiator Larry Young was with her within 15 minutes and spent more than nine hours trying to calm her down as she sat in the driver’s seat with her gun to her head.

Saldívar’s haunting wails, which are heard in the film, are difficult to listen to.

‘I can’t believe it ended like this. I can’t ever forgive myself, I just want to die. I don’t have anybody to live for. I don’t have anybody’, she cries.

Choked up, negotiator Larry tells the documentary: ‘You really are starting a conversation with someone who is at their worst. You’re trying to gain a rapport with them and you hope it’s effective. Because if it’s not, bad things are gonna happen.’

After Larry finally coaxed the weapon from the killer, officers pushed Saldívar to the ground, handcuffed her and took her downtown to be interviewed by CID where she signed a confession that was later contested.

Meanwhile, Abraham quickly called a press conference, telling the world’s media that Selena was killed by a disgruntled employee – before the police had released that information – speculating that the shooting was about some missing money.