DEL RIO, TX - Authorities have arrested three women in connection with a homicide investigation. The arrests of 21-year-old Kitty Mia Diaz, 19-year-old Amaya Cookie Diaz, and 21-year-old Kyandra Renee Faz were announced by the Del Rio Police Department (DRPD) on Friday, June 26.
On June 25 at approximately 2:10 p.m., officers responded to Val Verde Regional Medical Center after receiving a report of a female suffering from multiple stab wounds, according to DRPD.
Officers determined that the assault had occurred in the 800 block of East 10th Street. The victim, mother-of-five Caroline "Caro" Peña, was so severely injured that she was transported to a medical facility in San Antonio for emergency treatment. She did not survive.
Investigators gathered surveillance video, processed evidence and conducted numerous witness interviews, identifying the Diaz sisters and Faz as suspects in the brazen incident. All three women were arrested without incident and transported to DRPD for booking and processing.
Following the victim's death, all three women were charged with murder. They were transported to the GEO Correctional Facility, where they remain pending magistration. Video showing one of the Diaz sisters smiling at the camera before being put in a patrol car during her arrest was obtained by KENS 5.
No motive has yet been given by police, according to the New York Post. The victim's family is heartbroken and furious, demanding answers.
"This wasn’t something that happened in a back alley. This happened at the corner near Sonic on one of our busiest roads in broad daylight,” Zelina Ochoa, Peña’s childhood friend, said. Ochoa said she met Peña when they were both teen mothers attending the Cradles in the Classroom program for young parents.
Peña would watch her son while she caught up on schoolwork, and later gave Ochoa baby clothes, a television, a VHS player and videotapes for her first apartment, she said.
"If you needed something and she had it, even if it was her last, she’d give it to you,” Ochoa said. Another close friend, Christina Salinas, said the pair hung out the night before the murder, cooking with Peña's daughter.
The next day, Salinas said she missed a call from Peña at 1:35 p.m., just minutes before the deadly confrontation. "I feel like if I would have answered that call, honestly I would have been there with her. It wouldn’t have gotten like that,” Salinas said.
Salinas later recognized a picture on a community page of a woman in a bloody shirt as her best friend. "Her hair was in the same bun. When I saw that, that’s all I needed to see was the back of her shirt. I knew it was her right off the bat,” Salinas said. "That girl, she was a fighter. She was still standing her ground,” she added.
Salinas said she rushed to the hospital when she learned what had happened, and said goodbye to Peña, who was still talking, kissing her before she was flown to San Antonio.
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