A Texas real estate agent has been arrested for the 2012 murder of a woman who was stabbed roughly 100 times in her apartment.<\/p>\n
Mayra Velasquez, 42, faces charges of capital murder in connection with the killing of Irasema Chavez and was booked into Tarrant County Corrections Center on July 17, according to county jail records<\/a> viewed by The Post.<\/p>\n Velasquez was busted more than a decade after Chavez, 32, was found dead inside her second-floor Arlington apartment with around 100 stab wounds on Jan. 20, 2012, CBS News reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n Mayra Velasquez, 42, has been charged with murder in the 2012 killing of 32-year-old Irasema Chavez. FOX News<\/p>\n During the initial murder investigation, Arlington police found no obvious signs of forced entry \u2014 suggesting Chavez may have known her killer, or willingly let them enter.<\/p>\n At the time, the only key piece of evidence pointing toward a suspect was surveillance footage from the night before the killing of an unknown individual seen entering the apartment.<\/p>\n Footage obtained by KDFW-TV<\/a> appeared to show a person in baggy clothing and a hoodie climbing the stairs to Chavez\u2019s unit, knocking on the door and exchanging words with someone before being allowed inside.<\/p>\n Despite multiple leads \u2014 including the surveillance footage and blood found at the scene that didn\u2019t belong to Chavez \u2014 DNA evidence failed to match anyone in the databases at the time, witnesses provided only limited information, and the case eventually went cold.<\/p>\n Irasema Chavez was murdered inside her Arlington apartment on Jan. 20, 2012. FOX News<\/p>\n Chavez was found with roughly 100 knife wounds inside her apartment. FOX News<\/p>\n Footage appeared to show a person in baggy clothing and a hoodie climbing the stairs to Chavez\u2019s unit, knocking on the door and exchanging words with someone before being allowed inside the night she was murdered. FOX News<\/p>\n Investigators sent a blood sample to Parabon NanoLabs in 2016, where scientists used DNA markers linked to ancestry, eye color, hair color and skin tone to generate a predicted composite of what the suspect might look like, CBS News reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n Still, the killer remained unidentified.<\/p>\n In 2024, the Arlington Police Department partnered with the FBI Dallas Field Office, using the agency\u2019s Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG) \u2014 an advanced investigative program that combines crime-scene DNA analysis with public genealogy databases and family tree research \u2014 to reexamine the murder, according to the outlet.<\/p>\n After two years, the IGG program produced a significant lead that detectives used to develop additional evidence.<\/p>\n Velasquez had worked locally as a real estate agent for years, often promoting property listings on her social media accounts. FOX News<\/p>\n Investigators didn\u2019t reveal what the new evidence was, or whether it was a direct DNA match with Velasquez, but said it was enough to secure an arrest warrant, the outlet reported.<\/p>\n It\u2019s also unclear if Velasquez and Chavez knew each other.<\/p>\n Velasquez\u2019s social media accounts showed the real estate agent traveling with family and friends in the years following the alleged murder, with photos depicting her on trips to Peru, Mexico, Paris, London, Disney World and New York City. <\/p>\n Velasquez is currently working as an affiliate manager for JC Limo. Mayra Velasquez \/ Facebook<\/p>\n Velasquez\u2019s social media accounts showed the real estate agent traveling with family and friends in the years following the alleged murder, with photos depicting her on trips to Peru, Mexico, Paris, London, Disney World and New York City. Mayra Velasquez \/ Facebook<\/p>\n It was revealed that she has an active real estate license and had worked for Pure Realtors, LLC, according to her Facebook<\/a>.<\/p>\n