Medic tells how he found Selena's ring
By PATTY REINERT Copyright 1995 Houston Chronicle
9:15 PM 10/13/1995
In the frantic but futile attempt to save Selena Quintanilla Perez's life, no one noticed it. And the paramedic who eventually found it almost forgot it.
As he washed the slain Tejano singer's blood from his ambulance, Richard Fredrickson remembered and retrieved the bloody ring from a bench in the vehicle. He wrapped it in gauze and took it into the hospital, where he handed it to a security guard, who turned it over to a policeman.
Friday, as Fredrickson testified in the murder trial of former Selena Fan Club president Yolanda Saldivar, he identified the ring, still caked with blood and wrapped in gauze.
"We were in the back of the ambulance and I was trying to start an IV, but I couldn't get a vein,"Fredrickson said. "I pulled her right arm over to see if I could find a vein there.
When I did that, I opened her hand and the ring fell out." Nueces County District Attorney Carlos Valdez declined Friday to discuss the significance of the ring to the case, noting only that prosecutors may develop the matter further as the trial progresses.
The 14-carat gold and diamond ring topped with a white-gold egg, was a custom-made gift to Selena from Saldivar and other employees at Selena Etc., the singer's boutique and salon.
Selena, who collected decorative eggs, was killed March 31.
