Siblings Kitty Mia Diaz, 21, and Amaya Cookie Diaz, 19, along with their 21-year-old friend Kyandra Renee Faz, are being held on combined $15 million bail murder charges after police say they repeatedly stabbed 32-year-old Caroline âCaroâ Peña at around 2 p.m. Thursday in the small border city of Del Rio.
As Peña was rushed to a local hospital, a chilling pHàčÏo allegedly snapped during the attack was posted to a local Facebook page â where it served as the first harrowing indication to Peñaâs longtime friend, Zelina Ochoa, that something terrible had happened.
The now-deleted pHàčÏo showed Peña refusing to back down as blood soaked through the back of her pink shirt â a haunting glimpse of the violence she had allegedly already endured, according to Ochoa and local reports.
Meanwhile, âthe three girls are in front of her â theyâre surrounding her,â the grieving friend said, describing the image of the accused baby-faced attackers closing in on Peña.
The stay-at-home mother â whose kids are age 17 to 3, two of whom have special needs â wasnât going down without a fight, her friend recounted.
âShe had just collapsed and she stood right back up,â Ochoa said. âShe was a fighter.â
âItâs a very powerful picture because it shows, you know, these three girls showed up with their weapons and Caro showed up with nothing but her hands,â she added.
âShe didnât show up there thinking that today is my last day.â
Ochoa, who met Peña when they were both teen moms, said the disturbing pHàčÏo was swiftly scrubbed from social media after Peña succumbed to her injuries at a San Antonio hospital at around 9 p.m. Thursday.
But during the hours it remained online, alleged witnesses flooded the comment section with accounts of the shocking attack, Ochoa said.
âWhere this incident occurred, itâs a very busy intersection. Itâs on the main street of our town, so there were a lot of páŽssersby,â she explained.
Additionally, âThis wasnât something that was done in an alley at 12 a.m. â this was done in broad daylight on the busiest intersection at the corner of Sonic.â
According to comments from self-described witnesses, âthere was really no verbal altercationâ before the violence erupted â instead, âit went from 0 to 100 very quickly,â Ochoa recalled.
âIt confused a lot of people because it happened so quick and everybody was like, âWait, hold on, what did we just witness?ââ she added.
Police have not yet released a motive for the fatal attack â an element of the case that continues to draw blanks from people who knew Peña.
âCaro was not the type to go to the clubs or be involved in any type of altercation or drama or anything like that â thatâs just not who she was,â Ochoa said.
âShe was that one friend that tried to bring peace among everyone, so itâs just so confusing how this even happened.â
âI donât know if it was just an unlucky day and she happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time â I donât know. I really donât know,â she lamented.
Ochoa ripped Kitty, whose social media pages show she has her own young son, for allegedly taking Peña away from her five children â the youngest of whom is only a toddler, she said.
âItâs very unclear as to why a mother would do this to another mother and why she herself wouldnât consider her own son,â she said, referring to the alleged killer.
âSheâs still gonna see her son grow up through the gláŽss and Caroâs kids are only gonna have a tombstone.â
A GoFundMe created to help support Peñaâs children â who of whom are autistic, according to the fundraiser bio â had raised $680 of its $7,500 goal within hours..
But money and even justice for Peñaâs death will never be able to fill the gaping hole that will now exist in her childrenâs lives forever, according to her friend.
âShe was one of those people that were born to be a momâŠshe made it look so easy,â Ochoa said.
âEveryone says your kids love you, but her kids really love her. She wasnât just their mom â she was their friendâŠher life was her children.â
Kitty, Cookie and Faz were being held in a local jail as of Friday, according to the City of Del Rio Police Department.
The department did not respond to the Postâs inquiries.






