Friend charged after DNA breaks 14-year Texas stabbing case
Arlington police say genetic genealogy tied Mayra Velasquez to blood found in Irasema Chavez’s apartment after her 2012 killing.
By Sal Moretti · Money Reporter
3 min read
A tiny spot of blood on a bedroom TV stand helped crack a 14-year-old Texas murder case, according to Arlington police and the FBI.
Mayra Velasquez, 42, has been arrested on a warrant charging her with capital murder in the 2012 killing of Irasema Chavez, a 32-year-old woman found dead inside her Arlington apartment, authorities said at a Wednesday news conference. The charge is an allegation, and police said the motive remains unclear.
Police said Velasquez and Chavez had once been close friends. Arlington Police Detective Tracey Dixon told reporters that Velasquez had previously been inside Chavez’s apartment and lived a few miles from the scene.
Chavez was found unresponsive and covered in blood on Jan. 20, 2012, police said. She was pronounced dead at the apartment. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that she had been stabbed more than 100 times, according to police.
Investigators also found that a television was missing from the apartment, and they believed the killer had taken it, police said.
The case turned on a droplet of fresh blood recovered from the bedroom television stand, authorities said. A crime lab determined that the DNA did not belong to Chavez and instead came from an unknown Hispanic female, according to police.
Investigators entered the profile into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, a national database used to compare DNA from criminal investigations, but no match came back, police said.
The case sat unsolved for years until Arlington homicide detectives met with the FBI’s Dallas field office in November 2024 to discuss using investigative genetic genealogy, authorities said. The technique combines unknown crime-scene DNA with genealogical research and records to help identify possible matches.
In April, the FBI’s investigative genetic genealogy team identified Velasquez as a possible suspect, police said. The next month, detectives collected a DNA sample from trash discarded by Velasquez and sent it for lab testing, according to authorities.
Police said that sample matched the blood droplet found in Chavez’s apartment.
Dixon said Chavez’s cellphone gave investigators useful information about the relationship between the two women, though she did not provide more details at the news conference.
Velasquez was arrested in Hurst, a nearby city, and later taken to the Tarrant County Jail, according to authorities and online booking records. Jail records show she is being held without bond. It was not immediately clear whether she has an attorney.
Dixon became emotional while describing the moment investigators could tell Chavez’s relatives there had been an arrest. She said the family was grateful after years of waiting.
Joe Rothrock, the special agent in charge of the FBI’s Dallas field office, said the bureau has used investigative genetic genealogy to solve more than 250 cases in 30 states since 2018.
This story draws on original reporting from NBC News.