CORPUS CHRISTI — Selena Quintanilla Perez just loved fancy eggs.
Painted, covered in jewel-like crystals — it didn’t matter. She collected anything egg-shaped and decorative.
So it came as no surprise that her fan club president, Yolanda Saldivar, presented Selena with a custom-made, 14-karat gold and diamond ring with an egg on top.
The ring was to be a sign of friendship. It ended as a symbol of friendship betrayed.
On March 31, 1995 — a day that would prove to be the last day of Selena’s young life — the singer went to see Saldivar at the Days Inn on Navigation Boulevard to get some financial records. Selena had been trying to get the papers for almost a month, but Saldivar kept making excuses, according to the court testimony of Selena’s husband, Chris Perez.
"Selena and I didn’t trust her," he told the court. "A lot of things were not accounted for…"
He testified they could not get Saldivar to explain money that was missing from the fan club account, either.
When Saldivar was either unable or unwilling to surrender the paperwork that day, Selena took off the egg ring and tried to give it back to Saldivar.
She would never have the chance to return it. The ring would stay clutched in Selena’s hand as Saldivar shot her, and as she ran more than 100 yards from room 158 to the hotel lobby, bleeding profusely and screaming for help.
A paramedic named Richard Fredrickson responded to the emergency call of a shooting at a Days Inn on Navigation Boulevard. He arrived to find Selena on the floor on her stomach, covered in blood.
According to his court testimony, he was trying to establish an I.V. in one of Selena’s veins, which was difficult because the veins had collapsed.
"There was no blood in either the arteries or veins," Fredrickson testified. "There was a twitching. Her hands were moving a little bit ... we never felt a pulse."
Fredrickson said his priority was to get Selena to the hospital as quickly as possible, a procedure known as "load and go."
"I was covered in blood, and when I pulled her arm over, the hand fell open and a ring fell out," Fredrickson testified. "I placed it on the shelf of the ambulance."
Fredrickson also told the court that after Selena was inside the emergency room of Memorial Medical Center, he retrieved the ring, wrapped it in a towel, put it inside a plastic bag and gave it to authorities.
Paul Rivera, who was an investigator with the Corpus Christi Police Department and now is now a captain with the Nueces County Sheriff’s Department, said the egg ring was returned to Selena’s family.
"Selena dropped a lot of things while she was running from the hotel room to the lobby," Rivera said. "Everything she dropped — a cell phone, keys, her passport, there were over 100 items — they were all given back to the Quintanilla family.
"After the trial, the ring and money she had in her purse, anything used as an exhibit in the trial, all of that was given to the family," Rivera said. "Abraham Quintanilla personally came by to claim all of that."
THE EGG COLLECTION
After Selena’s death, the Quintanilla family preserved her egg collection in a sealed glass case and placed it inside the Selena Museum.
Just a few feet away, outside her sister Suzette’s office, is another glass case holding Selena’s microphone and stand. The microphone has been left untouched, still stained with Selena’s pink lipstick. Her red Porsche convertible is forever parked in another corner.
Among those precious belongings, one egg is conspicuously absent: the ring from Saldivar, which often appears on Selena’s right hand in photographs.
Nueces County District Attorney Carlos Valdez, who won the conviction that sent Saldivar to jail for Selena’s murder, theorizes the ring was more than just a friendship ring to Saldivar. Both Valdez and Rivera, the investigator, said Saldivar was obsessed with Selena and wanted to control her.
"The ring symbolized one of Yolanda’s motives — it symbolized control," Valdez said. "They argued over the financial papers Selena had been trying to get ahold of for weeks, and Selena had had enough.
"When Selena took the ring off her finger to return it to Yolanda — the representation of the bond between them — Yolanda wasn’t going to take it," Valdez said. "Yolanda had lost control of Selena, and that’s when she knew she had to kill her.
"It’s always the last act of a manipulator. If you can’t control them, you kill them."
Saldivar did not respond to a letter requesting an interview for this story. She also declined the same request five years ago. She remains in a women’s prison in Gatesville and will be eligible for parole in 2025.
