The mother of five who was hacked to death – allegedly by a pair of twisted sisters and their deranged pal – desperately fought for her life during the vicious, broad-daylight ambush, the victim’s friend revealed.
Siblings Kitty Mia Diaz, 21, and Amaya Cookie Diaz, 19, along with their 21-year-old friend Kyandra Renee Faz, are being held on combined $15 million bail murder charges after police say they repeatedly stabbed 32-year-old Caroline “Caro” Peña at around 2 p.m. Thursday in the small border city of Del Rio.
As Peña was rushed to a local hospital, a chilling photo allegedly snapped during the attack was posted to a local Facebook page – where it served as the first harrowing indication to Peña’s longtime friend, Zelina Ochoa, that something terrible had happened.
The now-deleted photo showed Peña refusing to back down as blood soaked through the back of her pink shirt — a haunting glimpse of the violence she had allegedly already endured, according to Ochoa and local reports.
“It’s a photo of her standing up and you see the back side of her, and her shirt in the back is completely filled with blood,” Ochoa told The Post.
Meanwhile, “the three girls are in front of her – they’re surrounding her,” the grieving friend said, describing the image of the accused baby-faced attackers closing in on Peña.
The stay-at-home mother — whose kids are age 17 to 3, two of whom have special needs — wasn’t going down without a fight, her friend recounted.
“She had just collapsed and she stood right back up,” Ochoa said. “She was a fighter.”
“It’s a very powerful picture because it shows, you know, these three girls showed up with their weapons and Caro showed up with nothing but her hands,” she added.
“She didn’t show up there thinking that today is my last day.”
Ochoa, who met Peña when they were both teen moms, said the disturbing photo was swiftly scrubbed from social media after Peña succumbed to her injuries at a San Antonio hospital at around 9 p.m. Thursday.
But during the hours it remained online, alleged witnesses flooded the comment section with accounts of the shocking attack, Ochoa said.
“Where this incident occurred, it’s a very busy intersection. It’s on the main street of our town, so there were a lot of passersby,” she explained.
Additionally, “This wasn’t something that was done in an alley at 12 a.m. – this was done in broad daylight on the busiest intersection at the corner of Sonic.”
According to comments from self-described witnesses, “there was really no verbal altercation” before the violence erupted – instead, “it went from 0 to 100 very quickly,” Ochoa recalled.
“It confused a lot of people because it happened so quick and everybody was like, ‘Wait, hold on, what did we just witness?’” she added.
Police have not yet released a motive for the fatal attack – an element of the case that continues to draw blanks from people who knew Peña.
“Caro was not the type to go to the clubs or be involved in any type of altercation or drama or anything like that – that’s just not who she was,” Ochoa said.
“She was that one friend that tried to bring peace among everyone, so it’s just so confusing how this even happened.”
“I don’t know if it was just an unlucky day and she happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time — I don’t know. I really don’t know,” she lamented.
Ochoa ripped Kitty, whose social media pages show she has her own young son, for allegedly taking Peña away from her five children – the youngest of whom is only a toddler, she said.
“It’s very unclear as to why a mother would do this to another mother and why she herself wouldn’t consider her own son,” she said, referring to the alleged killer.
“She’s still gonna see her son grow up through the glass and Caro’s kids are only gonna have a tombstone.”
A GoFundMe created to help support Peña’s children – who of whom are autistic, according to the fundraiser bio – had raised $680 of its $7,500 goal within hours..
But money and even justice for Peña’s death will never be able to fill the gaping hole that will now exist in her children’s lives forever, according to her friend.
“She was one of those people that were born to be a mom…she made it look so easy,” Ochoa said.
“Everyone says your kids love you, but her kids really love her. She wasn’t just their mom – she was their friend…her life was her children.”
Kitty, Cookie and Faz were being held in a local jail as of Friday, according to the City of Del Rio Police Department.
The department did not respond to the Post’s inquiries.