Chilling Smile: The eerie grin of the suspect accused of fat@lly st@bbing a Texas mother is drawing renewed attention as a heartbreaking new detail emerges
Amaya Cookie Diaz — the youngest of three women charged with butchering a mother of five in Texas — was the one who wielded the knife during the horrific, broad-daylight attack, court documents obtained by The Post reveal.
Cookie, 19, along with her sister Kitty Mia Diaz, 21, and their 21-year-old friend Kyandra Renee Faz, were each slapped with $5 million bonds on first-degree murder charges by a Texas judge Friday — after police say Cookie repeatedly stabbed 32-year-old Caroline “Caro” Peña during an argument in the small border city of Del Rio on Thursday afternoon.
Faz told police that Peña had “arrived at her residence looking to start a fight,” the complaint states.
According to court documents, Amaya Cookie Diaz was the one who actually used the knife to stab Peña (above).Facebook/Caro Peña
Surveillance footage later obtained by investigators showed Peña’s black Dodge pickup truck driving up to Faz’s house, where Cookie and Kitty arrived shortly thereafter.
The video shows Cookie fly out of the passenger seat of the black Chrysler 300 and confront Peña — while holding an object believed by cops to be a knife in her right hand, the complaint states.
Cookie is seen in the clip striking the mother in the back, where blood begins soaking her shirt, according to cops.
Amaya Diaz, Kyandra Renee Fax and Kitty Mia Diaz were arrested in connection to the grisly murder.City of Del Rio Police Department
The area where the fight started on the day Caroline “Caro” Peña was allegedly killed by sisters Kitty Mia Diaz, Amaya Cookie Diaz, and another woman, Kyandra Renee Faz, in San Antonio, Texas, on June 25, 2026.Michael Elizondo for NY Post
That’s when Kitty and Faz jumped in — allegedly beating Peña before running away, the complaint states.
Peña was reportedly driven to a local hospital by her nephew. She succumbed to the stab wounds about seven hours later, around 9 p.m., at a hospital in San Antonio.
The three accused attackers each requested court-appointed attorneys during their court appearance Friday.
