A pH๏τograph that circulated briefly on a local Facebook page in Del Rio, Texas, and was later taken down has become the image many of Caroline “Caro” Peña’s friends cannot stop seeing. It shows the 32-year-old mother of five standing in the aftermath of a daylight confrontation, blood already soaking through the back of her shirt, while the women police later named as her attackers remain nearby. Friends who saw the picture before it disappeared said it captured an imbalance they found almost unbearable: Peña appearing empty-handed while the others had arrived ready for violence. That image, combined with surveillance video from a residence on the 800 block of East 10th Street and statements in criminal complaints, is now at the center of a murder case that has shaken a border city of about 35,000 people. On the afternoon of Thursday, June 25, 2026, Peña arrived at the home of Kyandra Renee Faz in a black Dodge pickup.

Shortly afterward a black Chrysler 300 pulled up and Amaya “Cookie” Diaz, 19, and her sister Kitty Mia Diaz, 21, got out and confronted her. Court paperwork describes Amaya exiting the front pᴀssenger seat with an object investigators believed was a knife in her right hand, then striking Peña in the back as blood became visible on her shirt. Kitty and Faz then joined the ᴀssault, according to the same documents. After the women separated and left, Peña was driven to Val Verde Regional Medical Center by her nephew, then transferred to San Antonio because of the severity of her wounds. Investigators were notified around 9 p.m. that she had died.

Police later wrote that when they spoke with Kitty and Amaya, the sisters were no longer wearing the clothes seen in the attack video and appeared to have showered, their hair still wet. Kitty had changed from a pink top and blue jeans into a revealing black romper printed with hands cupping her breasts. Arrest video recorded outside a home showed the sisters smiling and, in Amaya’s case, smirking and telling someone to stop recording as officers led them away. Faz was taken into custody a short time later.

All three were charged with murder after Peña’s death was confirmed, and a justice of the peace set bonds of $5 million each, a combined $15 million. Faz told officers that Peña had come to the house looking to start a fight; police have said the three accused and the victim knew one another in a town where families overlap. Peña’s uncle told reporters he had worked for decades with a relative of the Diaz family and that the closeness made the killing harder to absorb. Friends including Zelina Ochoa and Christina Salinas described a woman who fought to stay standing after she was already bleeding, who tried to reach a best friend minutes before the confrontation, and who left five children and a community searching for a motive authorities have not yet publicly established. The investigation remains open, additional charges have not been ruled out, and the three women are being held at a GEO correctional facility while the case moves through the courts.

Source: NY Post