A North Texas real estate agent is behind bars after investigators tied her to a killing that had gone unsolved for fourteen years.
Mayra Velasquez, 42, was arrested on July 16 and booked into the Tarrant County Jail the following day, where she is being held without bond on a capital murder charge.
The case dates back to January 20, 2012, when 32-year-old Irasema Chavez was found stabbed to death in her apartment at the Aspenwood complex on South Collins Street in Arlington.
Investigators said Chavez was stabbed nearly one hundred times and that there were no signs of forced entry, which led detectives early on to suspect she likely knew her killer.
For years the case sat cold. Police released surveillance footage of a person entering the apartment complex the night before the killing, but no suspect was ever identified through that footage.
Detectives also worked with Parabon NanoLabs, a Virginia-based DNA phenotyping company, to build a composite image of a possible suspect from crime scene evidence, though that effort also failed to produce a breakthrough.
How Genetic Genealogy Cracked the Case
The turning point came when Arlington police partnered with the FBI’s Dallas Field Office.
In November 2024, homicide detectives approached the bureau about using its Investigative Genetic Genealogy program, which compares DNA collected from a crime scene against genetic databases in search of a familial match. The FBI agreed to help.
By early 2026, that collaboration produced a significant lead. Police have not released details about what the new evidence actually was, only that it was strong enough for detectives to secure an arrest warrant for Velasquez.
Authorities say more information will be shared at a joint press conference with Arlington police and the FBI set for 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 22.
A Familiar Face in the Real Estate Community
Velasquez had built a life and career in North Texas since the killing, working as a realtor with Pure Realtors LLC and, more recently, as a sales representative for a local limo company. Her real estate license remains active, though the brokerage has not responded to media inquiries.
People who knew her professionally say the news came as a shock. A fellow agent who worked alongside Velasquez a few years ago described her as warm and family-oriented, someone who talked about visiting relatives abroad and flipping houses with her husband. Nothing in those interactions hinted at a violent past.
Velasquez is currently represented by attorney Vincent Carrizales, who has not yet publicly commented on the charges. For now, the exact evidence that connected her to Chavez’s death remains under wraps, with investigators expected to fill in more of the picture at Wednesday’s briefing.
