A chilling arrest video has drawn widespread attention after two sisters were seen smiling, laughing, and joking with authorities while being taken into custody on murder charges in connection with the death of a 32-year-old mother of five in Del Rio, Texas.

Kitty Mia Diaz, 21, and her younger sister Amaya “Cookie” Diaz, 19, along with co-defendant Kyandra Renee Faz, 21, face murder charges following the June 25 attack on Caroline “Caro” Peña. Authorities say Peña was ᴀssaulted with a knife in broad daylight near the Mexico border. She was first taken to a local hospital and then transferred urgently to a medical facility in San Antonio for surgery, but she did not survive and died that same evening.

Video footage of the arrests has fueled public discussion. Kitty is shown walking barefoot and smiling as officers escorted her to a police vehicle. Her sister Cookie appears even more animated—laughing loudly, sticking her tongue out through the patrol car window, and taunting the person recording by saying, “Stop recording!” Independent journalist Michael Elizondo, who happened to capture the scene, later described his reaction. He said he initially paid little attention when the first woman was placed in a car, but was stunned by the second woman’s demeanor. “She was laughing and acting like nothing serious had happened,” Elizondo recalled. After Cookie was secured in the vehicle, she reportedly lowered the window, leaned out, stuck out her tongue, and continued joking.

A neighbor reported seeing the sisters driving at high speed and appearing out of control on the road shortly before their arrests. At least five police vehicles were observed outside the home when officers took them into custody.

Surveillance footage from the area is said to show Peña, already seriously injured, confronting the three suspects outside a Sonic fast-food restaurant before she collapsed. The motive for the attack has not been publicly released by authorities.

Friends of the victim have spoken about the woman they knew. Zelina Ochoa, a childhood friend, described Peña as generous and always willing to help others. “If you needed something and she had it—even if it was the last of it—she would give it to you,” Ochoa said. Another close friend, Christina Salinas, said she had seen Peña the evening before the incident. The next afternoon, Peña called her at 1:35 p.m., but Salinas missed the call. “I keep thinking that if I had answered, maybe I would have been there and things might have been different,” Salinas said. When she later saw a pH๏τo circulating online of a woman in a blood-stained shirt, she immediately recognized her friend by her familiar bun hairstyle. “I only needed to see the back of that shirt to know it was Caroline. She was a fighter—right to the end she was still standing up and resisting,” Salinas added.

Social media records indicate that Kitty Mia Diaz is the mother of a young boy who is nearly four years old.

The case remains under investigation. All three defendants have been charged with murder. Del Rio police and local prosecutors have not yet released further details about a possible motive or the precise sequence of events leading to the confrontation.

The contrast between the seriousness of the charges and the casual, lighthearted behavior captured on video during the arrests has left many observers unsettled. While the legal process will determine the full facts in court, the images of the sisters smiling and joking as they were handcuffed have already become a focal point of public conversation surrounding the death of a young mother of five.