is selena quintanilla has been called one of the most influential and iconic artists in all of latin american music people loved her here in texas and throughout the southwest and she was right on the cusp of becoming a huge international star when suddenly her life was cut short so tragically [Music] those iconic bustiers the purple dress and that voice still bringing chills to so many of her fans selena the vibrant mexican-american force that dominated latin music charts in the 90s but then suddenly it all came to a tragic end selena was on the verge of a major english crossover when she was murdered by one of her employees a close friend it's hard to believe that it's been 25 years what's the impact of that kind of tragedy on this family death is a very painful thing especially if it's your child and it's a it's a pain that that will be there till we pass away why do you think she remains so popular to this very day i've always said that in selena's case it was not just the artist but the person to start this video off properly we have to go back to march 31st 1995 to a small motel off the highway in corpus christi texas now back in 1995 it was a day's end then after that it was a night's inn and at the time of recording this in 2022 it's the red roofing now what you're looking at right now just beyond these palm trees is the lobby where after selena was shot she made her way here to the lobby and she collapsed on the floor i'm at a loss for words right now there's a whole bunch of construction happening a lot of renovations so i can't take you guys inside the main lobby they have it blocked off but i can take you up to the glass and show you the little memorial they have on the counter as well as the the floor in the lobby where she collapsed now even though you can stay here you can rent out rooms you cannot rent out the room where she was shot i wouldn't want to do that but i did ask because you have to know these things so keep that in mind if you do decide to come down here and visit they do allow you on property you can't run out the room now we can't get into the lobby it's closed off to the public right now but if you look over there towards that red wall they have a little almost i wouldn't say a shrine but they have a little set up for selena but this is the lobby where she collapsed where she came asking for help march 31st 1995 selena comes to this motel because yolanda her best friend for many years remember she started off as a fan who ended up running the the fan club as well as managing some of selena's boutiques the family believed that she was embezzling like thirty thousand dollars and just keeping a bunch of money and not holding up the promises to her fans so selena comes here to this motel room right here it's number 150 but back then it was 158 the the motel changed it so she comes here to confront her i guess she also had some documents that selena and the family needed and nobody really knows what happened inside the motel room now witnesses people around the area say that they heard yelling like a scuffle and as selena was leaving that's whenever yolanda pulled a 38 caliber gun and shot her once in the back right below the right shoulder [Music] and the fighter that selena is or was bleeding she runs right out that door right across this yard that we're standing in right past the pool to the lobby screaming help eyewitnesses say that they heard a woman screaming with with loose flowing hair and she was wearing a jumpsuit and they saw her running down the corridor and there was a woman holding a gun chasing after her but she wasn't chasing after she was walking pretty calmly and as selena got to the lobby she gets inside and she tells people the lady in 158 shot me please help me they see yolanda stop this cold look in her face and she turns and she walks calmly back to the room here there's a couple photos that were taken the crime scene photos and you can see some of selena's belongings out here on the grass as she ran she dropped them to me one of the most haunting photos was the salinas purse which was found right over here in this parking spot right where the the curve happens in the curb almost right where jessica's standing it's probably to your to your right a little bit pretty crazy [Music] thank you man that's right we are standing by live in corpus christi right across the street from the days in where this shooting did occur earlier today if you look behind me you can see the tail end of a red pickup truck this is also where police officers and swat team members are still trying to negotiate with the alleged killer the assistant police chief ken bung tells us that they have provided the suspect with a telephone and have been in constant contact with her trying to get her to give herself up however as you can see there is still their efforts are still fruitless now we they have been able to tell us they have identified this woman however her name will not be released until they manage to get her out when she gives herself up or however the situation ends in the meantime we have people that are coming by hundreds and hundreds of people fans of selena quintanilla better known in the tejano industry as la pincesa de la tejana they are coming by waiting to see how this is going to turn out the police chief tells us assistant police chief tells us that they are going to wait it out all they want is to get her out safe and they don't want her to hurt herself or anybody else that's all we have for now we will have more for you later tonight the police are called and whenever they get here they find yolanda has locked herself in her pickup truck and for nine hours she stays in there until the police convince her to come out and she confesses pretty much right away they give her life in prison with the possibility of parole in like 30 years before we even turned on the camera we walked into the lobby and told them what we were doing and asked for permission they were kind enough to let us back here to do this and we were talking with the receptionist and she was saying how when she first started here she had no idea that this was the hotel the motel that selena died in and when she found that out i think it was her dad who told her and then we started talking about how she could have lived if the bullet was just a little bit one way or the next you know with the way she was shot the bullet hit a main artery and we also talked about how she was such a fighter and when she left here she ran for help which ultimately was probably what what caused her her death to happen so quickly yeah you know you get shot or you nick a main artery the adrenaline and running right your blood's pumping and it's a good 50 yards from here to the lobby she made it and sadly she ended up passing i mean we know the story there's an amazing netflix documentary if you haven't seen that as well or if you're like me and group on the one with jlo right yeah well one of the things i like to do here with the grimlife collective is to walk history even if it's just for a moment so right now i'm standing with my back to room 150 which would have been 158 when selena was here and this is the route or the direction she would have run dropping her belongings now i'm not going to walk all the way to the lobby but i'm just i'm going to point it out again right here in this area around the corner is where her purse was found and she ran right down this road to that building that's in the center of your screen that's where the lobby is [Music] thousands of people are there to say goodbye to the young woman they admired and loved the public's farewell to selena that's our top story tonight april 2nd 1995. good evening everyone thank you so much for being with us never in the history of corpus christi has someone's death had this much impact thousands of people not only from texas but from all over the country are here to pay their last respects to selena felix cortez has been at bay front plaza it used to be that fans of selena would wait in line for hours just for a chance to see the tejano star perform in concert she's an original and if anybody tries to imitate her you know they won't be there won't be anybody she was the best she was the princess of tohono music her fans are still lining up to see her but today it's for a much different reason the fans that have come to bay from paz are paying their final respects to the one time rising star [Music] the expressions show how many feel about the passing of selena others tried to put it in words as they walked by her casket i said for her to keep her wing over us because she's an angel now when she died she became an angel thank you for all the beautiful songs that you left us and thank you for just being yourself and really leaving us all this beautiful things and teaching us how to really succeed in life these people are just part of the reason for selena's success she knew that and she never turned her back on them i think that was real special i think that you know it showed that she wasn't all for her stardom that she wanted to keep some of her roots many here say selena was one of a kind a kind of hometown hero that one never forgets felix cortez 6 news we now find ourselves on the corner of ashland drive and gaines street right across the street from the seaside memorial park and funeral home the final resting place of selena i usually whenever we visit these places i really try to keep my own thoughts out of the videos and just try to let the location speak for themselves but when it comes to selena there's something i really wanted to talk about every time that i've seen a photo of selena's grave it always seemed like it was very regal or very queen like goddess-like if you will like it was in the most beautiful garden known to man and she was really just a human being she's buried in a cemetery just like everybody else in a town where people like you and i live in and i think that speaks a lot to how selena touched so many people like she was amazing and yet she was right there with the people like people loved her and she loved them i see this is really nice a little walkway that goes out into the plot here it's got the wrought iron fence it's peaceful there's a little hole right here so you can actually stick your camera through take some pictures see it back there it says selena with the single rose the white and purple flowers are just breathtaking look at that this is beyond beautiful definitely one of the most beautiful graves i have ever seen across the country without you know without the architect or anything like that but just well thought out and you can just feel the love here the plaque right below the sculpt of selena has a single rose as well as a seashell above her name and it says selena kentania perez april 16 1971 to march 31 1985 and there's a bible verse both in english and spanish it says he will actually swallow up death forever and the sovereign lord jehovah will certainly wipe the tears from all faces isaiah 25 8. as jessica and i were driving over here to the cemetery we're talking about how we were kind of at a loss for words visiting these locations i mean selena amazing musician and she was the first person to really successfully bridge the gap between latin music like tejano music and into the american audience and of course i believe i found selena after her death and so for me personally in some sort of weird way complete respect for me as much as i love her music her story surrounding her death eclipses the music for me like it's so sad it's it's so tragic that to me she's more than just a musician she's almost like a god or a goddess you should say so driving the streets here in corpus christi and visiting these locations just doesn't seem real but it is now baby goal every time that we're in the road when we do these long road trips we very rarely listen to music occasionally we do and a few different times that we've been on the road i've put on selena and you and i would sing to it and i'm not gonna lie i still get teary-eyed whenever i hear her voice yeah i can only enjoy her music for a little while before i'm overcome with emotion because it still makes me so angry that she was taken from the world the way that she was she really was someone that a lot of young girls looked up to when she was singing um it's like following the career of a musketeer you know she was that big or um nirvana because i was about the same age when they both passed i would have been about 13 when she passed so i knew her music and it was it was massive it was traumatizing when we heard about it like like movie stars they were both movie stars you know rock gods or however you want to say it but i thought like without knowing her story i just knew her music i thought she was this you know world traveling musician because she was so young and so popular and yeah i mean i really enjoyed her music and it really hurt when she was taken from us we're gonna go back up and say goodbye [Music] oh man [Music] jessica is feeling adventurous is it warm is it nice and warm you're excited it's really really warm i want to go swimming in that i don't know if you're supposed to but no if you do come down here it says caution slippery when wet and obviously there's a lot of water right now we're at swantner park i think i'm saying that correctly s-w-a-n-t-n-e-r park swatner i think that's right the wind is really crazy down here so i'm trying my hardest to shield the microphone as much as possible now in the movie selena where jennifer lopez portrays selena there's a scene where a young selena is learning to dance learning the washing machine dance move with her mom and it was actually filmed right here in corpus christi along these steps so we're trying to find the exact spot that's her dad and i used to dance when we were young we did she used to do the washing machine you want me to show you yeah come here [Applause] wait a minute your father likes to watch him there you go [Music] you see where the pathway curves this this looks like it's the spot the salt the moisture in the air and my hair is going absolutely freaking bonkers and there goes jessica to do the washing machine it's her best version of it now it's a great scene but i think it's right here now let me show you what i mean by lining up the shots all right baby go do the washing machine see some practice he got it it's the grim washing machine now this is awesome because in the movie while her mom is teaching her how to dance you get a zoomed in shot and then you see those buildings way off in the distance more importantly those ones right there you can see that behind them crazy right this is just a small little location when it comes to the story of selena but if you're wondering where this is at of course gps is a wonderful thing but we're about two miles actually less than two miles away from where selena is buried all right here in corpus christi [Music] right now they're fixing to restand the floors these original wooden floors that were in the home as for selena's boutique and salon in corpus christi it was still being worked on when we dropped by the tejano singer wants to explore her talents away from music humanitarian stations you can see them right here where they're going to be doing nails back here in this last room over here is going to be where they going to be giving massage it's crazy how things change over time the building you're looking at right now the business here is prime real estate but back in the day this was celina's boutique the building's still here some time ago it closed whenever she died it was still owned by chris perez her husband and he ended up selling it it still looks aside from a few paint jobs and signs it still looks identical there's even a famous picture of selena standing out front we asked for permission to be here on property to get these shots i just want to walk around the building just so you can see it big parking lot back here now of course if you know the story of selena you know that music was her and her family's life but she had a dream to own her own clothing line to own her own boutique something she felt very strong about you must be pretty excited about everything that's being done here yeah it's um it's taking shape this is just one big paint body shop and they sealed up these huge drawers right here they're going to make a recording studio so we don't have to go out of town to record we'll have a digital studio it's a family operation run by selena her brother sister and her parents her father makes the major decisions aunts and uncles even help out it's great i think a lot of people you know have the tendency to think that families can't work together and you know i'm a firm believer that hispanic families are real tight they seem to stick together believe in real family unity and you can see by our family we work together really well this is where the quintanilla family is creating its base of operations in corpus christi an uncle's auto shop that's still being transformed headquarters for their band and other performers they now manage this is going to be my dance studio i've always wanted one i always wanted to be a ballerina too but i think a little bit too heavy and there's more at this complex which keeps expanding behind this door is where the band practices when we want to learn new songs for recording then there's the room where they make their own promotional t-shirts plus a sewing room clothes for selena's new boutique well when i'm not performing or i don't have to do special tv things i like to be like this relax just like anybody else this is more of a show now this blows my mind just like you see in the movies there's three houses right here and there's a fence that goes around the mall this is where selena's parents lived this house right over here was abs and then selena and chris lived down here on the corner number 705 there's still a fence that goes all the way around all three houses to this day of course there's a sign that says no trespassing please respect our property we wouldn't have it any other way blows my mind the thing that i'm finding it really hard to grasp is all of this like selena's world all took place in your everyday neighborhood this isn't like some rich and glamorous beverly hills neighborhood or houses or anything like that there's a couple of different run down little sketchy areas she was pretty true her family was pretty true to where they grew up like their roots there's a mural a couple blocks down that i want to go and show you guys so let's go check it out and doing research tracking down the locations here in corpus christi i've seen a lot of different photos of selena throughout the neighborhoods but have yet to see a mural until now the goal isn't to live forever but to create something that will that's nice i'm sure there's more we'll find them i haven't seen them yet but there's got to be more now a couple blocks away from the city of corpus christi salina memorial is the water street oyster bar and what's really special about this they have a south texas music walk of fame and it's actually really cool there's even a surf museum back here and selena and her husband chris both have a star here so we're gonna go walk back and see if we can find it the sun is really beating down here and there are stars pretty much everywhere haven't come across them yet [Music] find it we've seen pictures of it online this one right here now trust me when i tell you it is so tempting to show all the different famous stars here chris christopherson even has a star here on the walk of fame but we're here because of selena and chris perez this was her husband and he's still making music to this day now a little bird told us that selena is actually her star is actually towards the end of the walk of the fame near the actual surf museum so we have a pretty good idea where that's at but i'm glad we found chris right around this corner should be the surf museum yep texas surf museum supposedly texas is a very big surf community well down here in corpus christi there's even a world famous surf photographer that lives here and inside the museum that has a lot of his his photos up on the walls this is kind of fun what do they call that those are like the old woodies right the woody wagons and obviously it's a fake car but that's what it looks like it's got that wood paneling siding very big in the surf communities like the 60s i do believe there are oyster shells everywhere and right back here at the very end is the surf club now online we found out that selena is back here by the fountain if i'm not mistaken she's over in the right-hand corner this place is beyond beautiful especially with that fountain nice little garden area and that's where you'll find selena's star kind of reminds me of san antonio in some ways like down there by the riverwalk like i said being from hollywood california this is extra special to us we love things like this the walk of fame so hollywood has one st louis has one and now we know corpus christi has one i'm sure there's others across the country and you know what i say we visit them all [Music] the selena museum is actually just around the corner from the motel where selena was shot and her family built the museum around her recording studio but we were told that whenever selena was here recording she actually wasn't here that long she recorded only a couple songs from her english-speaking album this parking lot wasn't here and most of the building wasn't here as well but they did park big bertha the tour bus the family tour bus here now those tour buses that's not big bertha she's not one of those but it's still kind of cool to see tour buses here on property the museum only costs five dollars to get in because it's the fourth of july weekend it's pretty packed there's people everywhere and we were told ahead of time that we can't do any video on the inside so we're gonna be doing some video photos if you will [Music] there's one more salinas spot we want to visit for this video that is unless we come across another mural for her and this one is down here by the water this is just beautiful talk about a day to be here right we pretty much spent the entire day driving around corpus christi visiting the houses and a couple other little places and i found myself wondering why there's no plaques out front of houses or anything like that and then i remember well wait a second there are statues and murals all over corpus christi that commemorate her that remember her and down here by the water is one of the most beautiful statues places that you can come and pay your respects spending the entire day here in corpus christi we've seen a lot and aside from her grave her grave is absolutely beautiful but this is gorgeous look at that white flower and then right over here right by jessica isn't as a statue of her it's pretty life-like i don't know if you're going to see it that well because of the way the sun is right now beautiful here let's tilt this way a little bit selena quintanilla's memory is a live stream there's like this uh recording that's playing and it also plays part of her music one of her songs fans both new and old still come to visit from across this might be a little hard to read but it says the city of corpus christi selena memorial dedicated may 25th 1997 selena cantonia perez selena was referred to as lefleur the flower and identified with la rosa blanca the white rose when you view la rosa blanca you feel her presence nearby selena's stage is now silent yet her persona enriched the lives of those she touched and her music lives on every brick at the base of the statue has something written on it including this pedestal that the statue is actually on but there's a few that i want to point out more than the others i mean they're all great but there's there's a few that you're going to want to see this one right here says we will never forget you love mom and dad this is from her husband chris i will always love you forever chris forever missing your sister suzette and bill i feel like everywhere we look here in corpus christi we discover something new it's one of the things i love about this place first time being here but we were getting ready to walk away and i noticed this this little tile memorial down here let's see paseo de la flor these floral tiles were hand painted by texas children who love selena then down here by the water there's some more white flowers this is really nice i'm really glad that we came down here to finish the video this is gorgeous i don't know about you baby gold but this has been one heck of a day i really enjoyed today it's been hot it's been windy it rained a little bit and we're ending today's video down here by the water with selena's music playing off in the distance how perfect is this i am very happy that corpus christi has kept selena's memory alive like this is this is amazing i did not expect this i just figured we'd come down here and be a few different plaques in her grave but i feel like i'm walking through her life it makes me a little weepy if i'm being honest being down here especially with her statue and the plaques that were painted by the children i i feel a little choked up it's done very beautifully and it really does her memory justice if you do find yourself down here in south texas corpus christi do yourself a favor come on down and just explore it's a wonderful place to do that with that being said thank you for joining us for another adventure until next time happy halloween is