Caroline Peña’s best friend has spoken with a rawness that has stayed with everyone who heard it. On the morning of the day Peña was killed she made her usual call. No one answered. Later that afternoon the 32-year-old mother of five was stabbed multiple times on a public street in Del Rio and died hours later in a San Antonio hospital. Three women who knew her—Amaya “Cookie” Diaz, 19, Kitty Mia Diaz, 21, and Kyandra Renee Faz, 21—were arrested the same day and charged with murder. Court papers name Cookie as the person who used the knife.

The friend has said the unanswered call replays constantly and that she cannot stop thinking about what might have been different if she had picked up. Friends of Peña have described her as a devoted mother whose children ranged from 17 down to 3, two of them with special needs, and as someone who routinely helped others even when she had little to spare. The emotional weight of that single missed connection, combined with the later images of the suspects smiling during their arrest, has turned the personal regret into one of the most widely shared aspects of the case. People who have read the friend’s account say it is the detail that makes the tragedy feel immediate and almost unbearably close.

Surveillance cameras on East 10th Street in Del Rio recorded the afternoon of June 25 2026 in clear detail. Thirty-two-year-old Caroline Peña arrived in the area of a busy Sonic. Moments later 19-year-old Amaya “Cookie” Diaz approached her. Court documents and police statements describe Cookie holding an object believed to be a knife and delivering multiple stab wounds. Blood became visible on Peña’s clothing as she tried to move away. Two other women, Kitty Mia Diaz and Kyandra Renee Faz, were also present according to investigators.

Peña was taken to the local hospital and then flown to San Antonio, where she died later that night. The three women were arrested that same afternoon. Video of the arrests shows Cookie and Kitty smiling, with Kitty at one point sticking out her tongue and Cookie yelling for the recording to stop while laughing. Police have stated the women knew the victim and that the violence followed an argument rather than a random encounter. The combination of the street surveillance and the arrest footage has made the case unusually visual. Viewers describe the rapid shift from ordinary afternoon activity to irreversible violence as the element that stays with them longest. The cameras captured both the attack and the suspects’ demeanor afterward, leaving little room for ambiguity about how the events unfolded in public view.

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