Arlington PD Makes Arrest in 2012 Murder Case

Published on July 22, 2026

By Arlington Police Department

The Arlington Police Department, in partnership with the FBI Dallas Field Office, has made an arrest in connection to the January 2012 murder of Irasema Chavez.

Following a thorough investigation, APD Homicide detectives obtained a warrant for the arrest of 42-year-old Mayra Velasquez on one count of Capital Murder. On July 16, 2026, members of the APD Fugitive Unit, Violent Crime Unit, and Covert Investigations Unit located Ms. Velasquez in Hurst and took her into custody without incident.

On January 20, 2012, at approximately 8:51 a.m., officers responded to Ms. Chavez’s apartment in the 2700 block of S. Collins Street after a family member reported finding her unresponsive and covered in blood inside. Ms. Chavez was pronounced deceased at the scene. The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office determined she had been stabbed more than 100 times.

Officers learned a TV was missing from inside the apartment. Investigators believe it was taken by the suspect during the incident.

While processing the scene, APD Crime Scene Investigators located and collected a droplet of fresh blood that was on a bedroom television stand. The blood sample was sent to a crime lab for DNA analysis. The lab determined it did not belong to Ms. Chavez, but came from an unknown Hispanic female.

The DNA profile of this unknown individual was uploaded to the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), which is a national law enforcement database used to compare DNA profiles in criminal investigations. The profile did not generate any matches at the time.

Detectives continued to follow up on leads from 2012-2024, but could not definitively identify Ms. Chavez’s killer. In November 2024, the APD Homicide Unit met with the FBI Dallas Field Office to discuss whether the case would be a good candidate for their Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) program. IGG is process that uses unidentified crime scene DNA, intensive genealogy research, and publicly available historical records to develop new leads for law enforcement agencies. The FBI’s IGG team agreed to assist with the case.

In April 2026, the IGG team notified detectives that their work had identified a potential suspect, Mayra Velasquez. Ms. Velasquez was at one time a close friend of Ms. Chavez and lived just a few miles away from the crime scene.

In May 2026, detectives obtained a sample of Ms. Velasquez’s DNA from discarded trash and sent it to a crime lab for further analysis. The lab determined her DNA was a match to the blood droplet recovered from the bedroom television stand. Detectives note it is common during stabbing attacks for an assailant to inadvertently cut themselves, which is how they believe Ms. Velasquez’s blood was left at the crime scene.

The motive for the stabbing is unclear.

Ms. Velasquez was booked into the Arlington City Jail and has since been transferred to the Tarrant County Jail.

Anyone with additional information about this case is asked to call Detective Dixon at (817) 459-5579.