Overview
- Police arrested Mayra Velasquez, a 42-year-old Dallas–Fort Worth real estate agent, in mid-July 2026 and charged her with capital murder in the 2012 killing of Irasema Chavez.
- Investigators say the case was revived when the FBI’s Investigative Genetic Genealogy program produced a significant lead that detectives developed into direct evidence.
- An affidavit says DNA taken from a used plastic fork that Velasquez allegedly discarded in May matched a DNA profile from a droplet of blood found on Chavez’s bedroom TV stand in 2012.
- Early evidence from the original investigation showed no signs of forced entry and surveillance footage of a hooded person entering the unit, and police say a later review of phone records indicates Chavez and Velasquez were close friends.
- Velasquez is being held in Tarrant County custody without bond on a capital murder charge that the affidavit says rests on a robbery or attempted-robbery predicate, and police and the FBI have promised further details at a joint briefing.