Police report that Abigail Saldana was the twenty-two-year-old woman who was murdered last week allegedly by a customer who visited her place of employment. The investigators say that she was “threatened with blackmail.”
Detective L. Dickerson of Fort Worth described in an affidavit the situation by saying, “a caller reported seeing a car speeding before driving off an exit ramp and into a grassy area. The caller stopped, approached the car, and noticed bullet holes on the passenger side.”
According to Fox 4, there were items in her car when investigators searched it, leaving them to find out she worked at Rick’s Cabaret DFW as an exotic dancer. Managers of Rick’s Cabaret shared with police that “recently, she’d been worried about a particular patron named Stan.”
Managers at Rick’s Cabaret describe Stanley Szeliga as being a fifty-six-year-old man known for being a military veteran. He is “accused of fatally shooting Saldana on October 26 as she was behind the wheel of her car about to enter Hwy 183 near Amon Carter Boulevard in Fort Worth,” Fox 4 reports.
According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, a manager of Rick’s Cabaret stated that Saldana was not working the night of her murder. On the arrest warrant affidavit, it says, “The manager indicated that Abigail was frightened of Stan because he was stalking and harassing her.”
Included in the affidavit is an Instagram post that Saldana shared days before the incident. The post showed her hand on a tracking device that she said was discovered underneath her car. Jessica Contreras, Saldana’s mother, spoke with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and shared that her daughter wrote down a license plate number last week, believing it was her stalker.
Contreras said, “I don’t know where she was going that night,” and added, “We got a text about 6:30 pm that night and the shooting happened about two hours later.”
Fox 4 reports that investigators believe Szeliga may have followed the victim on the day of her murder due to a video from a traffic camera close to her Farmers Branch apartment.
The footage reveals Saldana’s car passing the camera, followed within seconds by Szeliga’s vehicle. Fox 4 continues, “the same intersection surveillance recorded Szeliga’s pick-up on five separate occasions before the shooting.”
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram shared that the medical examiner’s website reports Saldana’s hometown as Wichita Falls. Contreras said that Saldana and her five-year-old son moved to Dallas around two years ago.
Szeliga is from Irving and “was angry after claiming to have paid her thousands of dollars,” the warrant explains. According to the affidavit, hours after Saldana was found, Szeliga left an Instagram post about how he was threatening her with blackmail. The Instagram post he wrote said that he was “going to report the victim on allegations of prostitution.”
The warrant states that they found another Instagram post from Szeliga that was dated before the shooting. The post says, “I never thought I’d be one of those guys taken advantage of. Sharing for awareness. Abigail S. and I, since July 2021, we have been enjoying each other’s company. She’s so beautiful and personable that I envisioned a future with her. But dealing with all the lies is overwhelming, I realize that’s part of your primary job as an adult entertainer.”
Detectives called Szeliga the day after the shooting occurred, and he agreed that he would meet them at their office, as reported by Fox 4. Later, Szeliga called them back to say “that there had been a death in his family, but he would still meet with Fort Worth detectives.” He never made an appearance at the police station.
Fox 4 stated, “Police say Szeliga was arrested the next day at his Las Colinas apartment after refusing to comply with a search warrant. A SWAT team found him on the balcony with what police describe as self-inflicted wounds to his face and neck.”
As of Monday, Szeliga is facing a murder charge. He is currently being held in Tarrant County Jail with a bond set at $250,000.
