The images that have burned themselves into public memory are not only those of a young mother bleeding on a busy Texas street but of two sisters grinning, sticking out their tongues and laughing as police led them away in handcuffs only hours after the attack that ended her life. On the afternoon of June 25, 2026, 32-year-old Caroline “Caro” Peña was stabbed multiple times near a Sonic drive-in on East 10th Street in Del Rio, a border city of about 35,000 people in southwest Texas. According to the Del Rio Police Department, the ᴀssault occurred around 2:10 p.m.

Peña was rushed to Val Verde Regional Medical Center and later airlifted to a trauma center in San Antonio, where she was pronounced ᴅᴇᴀᴅ near 9 p.m. Three women now stand charged with her murder: sisters Kitty Mia Diaz, 21, and Amaya “Cookie” Diaz, 19, together with their friend Kyandra Renee Faz, 21. What turned a local tragedy into a national flashpoint of outrage was the behavior captured on video during the sisters’ arrests. Kitty Diaz smiled as officers escorted her to a patrol car. Independent journalist Michael Elizondo, who filmed the scene, told the New York Post that one of the young women was “all smiling, goofing off like nothing happened.” He watched as a car window rolled down and a face appeared, tongue stuck out, still acting casually. Cookie Diaz giggled and shouted at the person recording, “Stop recording.” Both sisters smiled again in their official mug sH๏τs. The footage and pH๏τographs spread rapidly online and intensified the fury surrounding the case. Elizondo later discovered that Peña was a distant relative, a revelation he said “hit me hard,” adding that the suspects “didn’t care” and that the mental picture of their demeanor refused to leave him. Police Chief Frank Ramirez called the sisters’ atтιтudes “callous,” remarking that greater remorse would have been expected under the circumstances.

The violence itself took place in full public view on one of Del Rio’s busiest roads. Officers first answered a call about a woman with multiple stab wounds at the local hospital before being directed to the 800 block of East 10th Street. Detectives examined surveillance video, collected physical evidence and interviewed witnesses. Court documents describe Peña arriving at a residence linked to Faz in her black Dodge pickup. Minutes later the Diaz sisters arrived in a black Chrysler 300. Amaya “Cookie” Diaz got out of the car holding an object investigators believed to be a knife, confronted Peña and struck her in the back, blood soaking through the pink shirt she was wearing. Kitty Diaz and Kyandra Renee Faz then allegedly joined the ᴀssault, beating Peña before all three fled. The fight spilled into a neighboring yard where blood remained visible on a walkway and on a truck Peña had leaned against. According to her longtime best friend Christina Salinas, Peña suffered two stab wounds to the back and one to the abdomen, injuries severe enough to puncture her lungs. Salinas missed a phone call from Peña at 1:35 p.m., less than forty minutes before the attack. “I feel like if I would have answered that call, honestly I would have been there with her,” she told KENS 5. “It wouldn’t have gotten like that.” When a pH๏τo of the victim circulated on a community page, Salinas recognized her immediately by the bun in her hair. Childhood friend Zelina Ochoa stressed the public nature of the crime: “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.” Images of the confrontation, including one showing Peña in a bloodstained pink shirt surrounded by three young women, briefly appeared on social media before being taken down. Peña’s nephew drove her to the hospital in the critical minutes after the stabbing. Investigators have stated that the four women knew one another and that the attack was not random. Faz told police that Peña had come to the residence “looking to start a fight.” Chief Ramirez confirmed that Peña had a reason to go to the house where the argument began, while making clear that this fact did not shift responsibility for the violence onto the victim. Authorities have not released a public motive and continue to describe the investigation as active.

Kitty and Cookie Diaz were taken into custody without resistance around 4 p.m. in the 300 block of West Strickland. Faz was arrested shortly afterward. All three were processed at the Del Rio Police Department and transferred to the GEO Correctional Facility. Each faces a murder charge. Bonds were initially set at five million dollars apiece; at least one was later reduced. The surveillance footage and other evidence form the core of the case now before the Val Verde County district attorney. In a тιԍнт-knit community where residents often share overlapping social and family connections, the contrast between the loss of a young mother of five and the smiling, lighthearted behavior of two of the accused has left many residents deeply unsettled. Family accounts and a fundraising page created to support her children note that two of Peña’s five children, who range in age from early childhood to late teens, have special needs. Friends remember her as a devoted parent whose sudden death has left a permanent absence. City communications director Peter Ojeda has said the rapid arrests by Del Rio officers were intended to offer the community some measure of reᴀssurance while investigators continue their work. As the three women remain in custody and the case moves forward, the video of the Diaz sisters laughing, sticking out their tongues and telling a bystander to stop recording continues to circulate, serving as a lasting emblem of the public’s anger over a daylight killing that took a mother from her five children on a busy Texas street and was followed by smiles instead of sorrow.

Source: https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/texas-mother-stabbed-daylight-suspects-smiling-1805799