A woman accused of killing another woman by stabbing her over 100 times over a decade ago left the Tarrant County jail this week — and she now faces a capital murder charge in the once-cold case.
Mayra Velasquez, 42, posted a $450,000 bond on Wednesday, according to court filings. She was arrested July 16 and faces a capital murder charge in the death of Irasema Chavez, who was found stabbed over 100 times in Arlington in 2012.
Velasquez was found in Hurst and taken into custody on July 16 by the Arlington police fugitive, violent crime and covert investigations units. Arlington police made the arrest in the cold case after receiving help searching for new investigative leads from the FBI’s genealogy program.
Chavez was found dead by a family member in her apartment in the 2700 block of S. Collins Street on Jan. 20, 2012. Detectives pursued many leads but struggled to definitively identify a suspect, according to a police statement.
The Tarrant County medical examiner’s office determined she was stabbed over 100 times, Arlington police Chief Al Jones said during a July 22 news conference. The weapon was never recovered, said Tracey Dixon, the case’s lead homicide detective.
Police asked the FBI’s Dallas Field Office for help in 2024 when a drop of blood found on Chavez’s TV in 2012 produced no matches in the Combined DNA Index System, a national law enforcement database used to compare DNA profiles in criminal investigations.
FBI officials helped police create a family tree using the blood and compared the unidentified DNA with publicly accessible genealogy and historical records, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Dallas Joseph Rothrock said.
Velasquez was initially booked into jail with no bail set. Ryan Hill, the presiding Tarrant County judge, later set the bail to $450,000 on July 28. No hearings have been set for this case.
Dustin Hoffman, an attorney representing Velasquez, declined to comment about his client but said a news conference will be held to discuss his client in more detail Friday morning.