WATCH: Suspect in Arlington cold case stabbing says she’s innocent of friend’s murder

Mayra Velasquez, the woman accused of fatally stabbing Irasema Chavez in Arlington the night of Jan. 19, 2012, says she is innocent of her friend’s murder. “God and all the people who know me, they know that I couldn’t ever do something like this to anyone,” Velasquez said Friday morning at a news conference in her attorneys’ office in Fort Worth. Velasquez was arrested July 16 and is charged with capital murder. Investigators said in the suspect’s arrest warrant affidavit that DNA extracted from a drop of “fresh and still glistening” blood found on the bottom shelf of the TV stand in Chavez’s bedroom helped link the 42-year-old real estate agent to the crime. Velasquez was held for several days in the Tarrant County Jail without bond, but was finally released on bail Wednesday.

Missing media or need the complete publisher report? Open Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Scoop News DeskArlington · Published Friday, July 31, 2026 at 8:14 PM UTCUpdated Saturday, August 1, 2026 at 4:16 AM UTC

Scoop News reporting summary

The text below was supplied by the Scoop Newsroom app. Third-party reporting is attributed in the source panel.

Police said at a July 22 news conference that they are confident they arrested the right person. Defense attorney Frank Sellers said at the news conference that he wanted reporters to hear directly from the defendant. “There’s a certain type of personality, there’s a certain type of person who’s capable of even being involved with stabbing somebody 100 times,” Sellers said. “That type of person is not Mayra Velasquez.” A family member found Chavez dead inside her Arlington apartment the morning of Jan.

Breaking news moves fast. Follow @Will466513 on X for breaking news alerts. Follow on X →

Story timeline