A Daylight Attack That Shook a Border City
The Del Rio stabbing case began on the afternoon of June 25, 2026, when Del Rio Police Department officers responded to Val Verde Regional Medical Center. A woman had arrived with multiple stab wounds. That woman was Caroline “Caro” Peña, a 32-year-old mother of five.
Peña was later transferred to a specialized trauma facility in San Antonio. Despite emergency treatment, she died from her injuries. Within hours, three women — sisters Kitty Mia Diaz, 21, and Amaya “Cookie” Diaz, 19, along with their friend Kyandra Renee Faz, 21 — were in police custody, each charged with murder.
What separates the Del Rio stabbing case from countless other violent crime stories is not only the brutality of the attack itself. It is the video that followed it. Footage circulating online and obtained by multiple outlets appeared to show the Diaz sisters smiling, laughing, and mugging for cameras as officers walked them to patrol cars.
That contrast — a mother of five bleeding out on a residential street while her accused killers appeared to treat the moment as entertainment — is what pushed this case out of local Del Rio news and onto national platforms within days. As of this writing, all three women remain in pretrial custody. No trial date has been set, and Texas prosecutors have not yet laid out their full theory of the case in open court.
The Victim: Remembering Caroline “Caro” Peña
Caroline Peña was known to friends simply as Caro. She was a mother of five children, the oldest reportedly a 17-year-old son, and she is also survived by a twin sister. Friends who spoke to local reporters in the days after her death described a woman defined less by any single event than by decades of quiet consistency in the lives around her.
Childhood friend Zelina Ochoa told a San Antonio television station that Peña had always seemed destined for motherhood. Ochoa said the two met years earlier through a program for teenage parents, where they navigated school and child-rearing together. She recalled Peña as someone who gave away her own belongings, from baby clothes to a television set, whenever a friend was starting out with nothing.
Another friend, Christina Salinas, said she had missed a call from Peña shortly before the stabbing occurred. Salinas later recognized Peña in a photograph that had begun circulating on a local community page, showing her injured and bloodied. She told reporters she rushed to the hospital and was able to say goodbye before Peña was flown to San Antonio for emergency care.
“She really loved being a mom.”
That single line, offered by Ochoa through tears to a local news crew, has become one of the more widely cited descriptions of Peña in the days since her death. Friends have pushed back against narratives that reduce her to the manner of her death, insisting instead that her decades of quiet generosity toward struggling young parents in Del Rio deserve equal attention.
The Incident: Broad Daylight Ambush on East 10th Street
According to a probable cause affidavit reviewed by multiple news organizations, the confrontation that ended Peña’s life took place outside a residence in the 800 block of East 10th Street in Del Rio. Surveillance video from the home reportedly captured the encounter from beginning to end, giving investigators an unusually complete record of how the violence unfolded.
The footage is said to show Peña arriving at the home, identified as Kyandra Faz’s residence, driving a black pickup truck. Shortly afterward, the Diaz sisters arrived separately in a black Chrysler. According to the affidavit, the sisters exited the vehicle and approached Peña directly.
Investigators allege that Amaya “Cookie” Diaz approached Peña holding an object believed to be a knife and struck her in the back. Kitty Diaz is then alleged to have joined the assault, with Faz allegedly participating as well. Police say blood was visible on the back of Peña’s shirt in the footage as the attack continued.
The entire confrontation, from arrival to the suspects fleeing the scene, unfolded in a matter of minutes on a public residential street. Del Rio Police Chief Frank Ramirez has since said the four women knew one another, and that Peña appeared to have a specific reason for going to the Faz residence that afternoon. Faz reportedly told investigators that Peña had come to her home looking to start a confrontation, though police have cautioned that their working theory remains subject to change as evidence is reviewed.
Peña’s nephew ultimately drove her to receive medical care, according to reporting from the New York Post. She was pronounced dead a short time after arriving at the San Antonio trauma facility. Del Rio investigators have not disclosed a definitive motive, and the underlying dispute between the women remains one of the central unresolved questions in the Del Rio stabbing case.
The Apprehension & a Booking Video That Went Viral
Del Rio detectives moved quickly once Peña arrived at the hospital. Investigators reviewed surveillance footage, processed physical evidence from the scene, and interviewed multiple witnesses before identifying Kitty Diaz, Cookie Diaz, and Kyandra Faz as suspects, all within the same day.
When officers located the Diaz sisters at a home where Kitty Diaz’s child was also present, the women had reportedly already changed clothes and showered. A search of the residence turned up clothing matching what Kitty Diaz had been seen wearing in the surveillance footage, allegedly discovered inside a washing machine. Investigators have pointed to this detail as a potential indicator of consciousness of guilt, though no court has yet ruled on its significance.
Kitty Diaz and Cookie Diaz were taken into custody without incident around 4 p.m. that same day. Faz was located and arrested a short time later. All three were booked at the Del Rio Police Department before being transferred to the GEO Correctional Facility to await further court proceedings.
It was this booking process that transformed a tragic local crime story into a national talking point. Body camera and bystander footage, later obtained by the New York Post and other outlets, appeared to show Cookie and Kitty Diaz smiling and laughing as they were escorted to a patrol vehicle. One witness described watching a window roll down and one of the suspects sticking out her tongue toward a nearby camera.
Del Rio’s police chief addressed the demeanor directly in comments to TMZ, saying the situation did not look good and that more remorse would typically be expected under the circumstances. The footage spread rapidly across social media and true-crime commentary accounts, drawing sustained public anger that, in the eyes of many observers, seemed to rival the outrage over the killing itself.
All three women were formally charged with murder and are each being held on $5 million bail, according to court filings. None had posted bond as of the most recent reporting on the Del Rio stabbing case, meaning all three remain in custody at the GEO Correctional Facility pending further hearings.
Current Investigation Status & What Happens Next
As of this writing, the Del Rio stabbing case remains firmly in its pretrial phase. No arraignment date, trial date, or plea agreement has been publicly reported. Val Verde County prosecutors have not yet filed formal charging documents beyond the initial murder complaints used to justify the arrests, and no defense attorneys have been publicly identified as representing any of the three suspects.
Chief Ramirez has been candid that the investigation is ongoing and that the department’s understanding of events could still shift as more evidence is reviewed. Police have confirmed that Peña and her three accused attackers knew each other, moving the case away from early speculation about a random or purely gang-related assault. What remains unclear is the specific dispute that brought Peña to the Faz residence that afternoon, and whether prosecutors will ultimately argue the killing was planned or the result of a confrontation that escalated unexpectedly.
Texas murder statutes will require prosecutors to establish that the killing was committed intentionally or knowingly, or that it occurred during the commission of a dangerous felony act. Because all three women were allegedly present and participating in the assault, prosecutors may also need to address questions of individual versus shared criminal responsibility for each defendant separately. Available court records do not yet clarify whether any of the three will be offered a plea arrangement or whether the case will proceed to a jury trial.
Additional charges remain possible as detectives continue gathering evidence, according to statements from the Del Rio Police Department. Investigators have not ruled out further arrests connected to the incident, though no additional suspects have been named. For now, the case sits in the procedural window between arrest and indictment, a stage where much of the public narrative — including the viral booking footage — has outpaced the formal legal record.
For a border community of roughly 35,000 residents, the Del Rio stabbing case has left a visible mark. Friends of Peña have said the loss has rippled through a tight social network built over years of shared parenting struggles and mutual support. As the case moves toward its next formal hearings, that community, along with much of the national audience that discovered the story through the booking footage, will be watching to see how Val Verde County prosecutors translate video evidence and a probable cause affidavit into a formal path toward trial.