Three Women Charged With Murder After Texas Mom of Five Stabbed to Death in Broad Daylight

A Senseless Attack on a Busy Street

Caroline "Caro" Peña died on the evening of June 25, 2026, after being stabbed multiple times near a Sonic drive-in on East 10th Street in Del Rio, a border city of roughly 35,000 in southwest Texas. She was 32 years old and the mother of five children. What made the crime especially shocking wasn't just its brutality — it was where it happened.

"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," childhood friend Zelina Ochoa told KENS 5. According to a press release issued by the Del Rio Police Department, the attack happened at approximately 2:10 p.m. local time. In the middle of the afternoon, on one of the city's most traveled roads, a young mother was fighting for her life.

The Victims, the Wounds, and a Race Against Time

Officers responded to Val Verde Regional Medical Center after receiving a report of a woman "suffering from multiple stab wounds," the Del Rio Police Department said in a news release. Peña had been stabbed twice in the back and once in the abdomen, wounds serious enough to puncture her lungs, according to her best friend of eight years, Christina Salinas. Her nephew rushed her to the hospital, and she was airlifted to San Antonio, but she did not survive. The loss has devastated her family.

Salinas said she missed a phone call from Peña less than 40 minutes before the attack. "I feel like if I would have answered that call, honestly I would have been there with her," she said. "It wouldn't have gotten like that." Salinas later recognized Peña in a photo showing her suffering from wounds, which was circulating on a community page. Salinas rushed to the hospital and was able to say goodbye before Peña was flown to San Antonio. "That girl, she was a fighter: She was still standing her ground," Salinas said.

Swift Arrests, Shocking Behavior

Detectives moved quickly. Within roughly two hours of the hospital call, they had pulled surveillance footage, collected physical evidence and spoken with witnesses — work that pointed them toward three suspects. The two sisters were taken into custody around 4 p.m. without resistance, and Faz was arrested soon afterward. Kitty Mia Diaz, 21, Amaya "Cookie" Diaz, 19, and Kyandra Renee Faz, 21, were each charged with murder in the death of Caroline Peña, according to a press release from the Del Rio Police Department. The two Diaz women are sisters, and Faz was described as their friend.

KENS 5 obtained video showing one of the Diaz sisters smiling at the camera before being placed in a patrol car. All three suspects were booked at the Del Rio Police Department before being transported to the GEO Correctional Facility, where police said they remained pending court hearings. A motive for the stabbing is not known at this time.

A Community Left Grieving

"She was one of those people that she was born to be a mom," Peña's childhood friend Zelina Ochoa told KENS 5, fighting back tears. Friends described a generous woman who turned up for the people around her, and they noted that her death leaves behind five children, the eldest a teenage son, along with a twin sister. "If you needed something and she had it, even if it was her last, she'd give it to you," Ochoa said.

A GoFundMe was set up to support Peña's family, describing how she was "stabbed multiple times in broad daylight." The investigation remains active, and police said additional charges could be filed as detectives continue gathering evidence. For a small border city that rarely sees violence of this magnitude play out so publicly, the case has forced an uncomfortable reckoning — and for five children now without their mother, the legal process is only the beginning of a long road ahead.