North Texas real estate agent Mayra Velasquez was released on $450,000 bond after her DNA led investigators to a breakthrough in a 2012 cold case.
Velasquez, 42, was arrested on July 20 and charged with capital murder in the fatal stabbing of 32-year-old Irasema Chavez 14 years ago.
A judge initially ordered Velasquez held in jail without bond because she is a flight risk.
But her attorneys filed a writ of habeas corpus motion, arguing the denial of bond violated Velazquez’s constitutional rights.
The lawyers said she has no criminal record, is not a threat to the community and that while she traveled internationally, she is not a flight risk
Velasquez posted bond on Tuesday, July 28, and walked out of jail carrying her belongings in a paper bag. The tearful real estate agent was confronted by a reporter outside the courthouse.
“Mayra, did you did this? Did you kill your friend?” the reporter asked her. But Velasquez didn’t answer.
Velasquez’s defense said police have the wrong woman, despite DNA evidence linking her to the cold case.
In 2011, Chavez installed a video surveillance system after someone slashed the tires on her car at her apartment complex.
On January 19, 2012, the security camera captured a person wearing baggy pants and a grey hoodie climbing the stairs to Chavez’s second-floor apartment on South Collins Street in Arlington.
Security footage shows Chavez let the person inside her apartment.
The next day, Chavez was found dead in her apartment by a worried relative who went to check on her.
The medical examiner said Chavez was stabbed more than 100 times.
A police forensics team discovered a single drop of blood on a TV stand in the bedroom of Chavez’s apartment.
Police took a sample of that DNA to the FBI Field Office in Dallas, which used its Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) program to develop an image of what the suspect might look like.
Ancestry DNA testing led police to a close female relative of the unknown Hispanic female suspect. Further investigation into the relative’s family tree narrowed down the suspects to Velasquez.
A team of detectives placed Velasquez under 24-hour surveillance.
Velasquez, who was 27 at the time of the murder, gave birth to her first child a year after the murder. By 2025, she was a successful real estate agent, living her best life and traveling the world.
Velasquez and her husband flipped houses and owned several businesses. She was a pillar of society and well-liked by friends and clients.
On May 13, 2026, detectives conducting surveillance tracked Velasquez to a restaurant where she dined with friends. After they left the restaurant, investigators collected two plastic forks, a plate and a cup they said she used during dinner.
A state crime lab determined DNA recovered from one of the forks matched the DNA profile of the female suspect.
Velasquez was arrested in the nearby city of Hurst and transferred to the Tarrant County Jail.
In an arrest warrant affidavit obtained by KERA News, police allege Velasquez’s husband was “jealous of the two women’s close relationship” around the time of the murder.
Velasquez’s attorneys said investigators were originally looking for a man and they questioned several male suspects based on surveillance video at the scene.
The warrant affidavit described bloody shoe prints, belonging to a woman or a “small male.”
Her attorneys also noted the way investigators described the blood drop found at the scene as being “fresh” and “glistening”, nearly 10 hours after Chavez was killed.