On the opposite wall of his bedroom is a colorful mural with a larger-than-life painting of her son. It's all part of a growing memorial throughout Chavez's home.
"I told my daughter, on all my walls I'm going to put pictures of him so that I won't forget my son's face," Chavez said. "Every time I turn around, I will see a picture of him."
Her son, Julian Chavez, was shot and killed on April 8, 2023, in the parking lot of a Missouri City movie theater. Police have not arrested a suspect in the case.
As she waits for that closure, Chavez said she wants to memorialize her son throughout her home.
She said she asked the Missouri City Police Department if she could have her son's belongings that were put into evidence after he was killed.
"I asked for his stuff, and I remember he said, 'Oh, I don't think you're going to be able to get his stuff back.' And I was like, 'But that belongs to me,' and he was like, 'What do you want the stuff for? It's all messed up, bloody.' And I was like, 'Who cares? I just want his stuff back,'" Chavez said.
Now, 13 Investigates has confirmed with police that the jacket her son was wearing the night he was killed was thrown out after a water leak caused mold and destroyed some evidence.
Chavez's case is one of about 100 that were impacted when a dehumidifier leaked in the Missouri City PD's evidence room on Oct. 30, 2024, contaminating some evidence.
A Brady notice filed by the Fort Bend County District Attorney's Office in one of the impacted cases says they weren't notified of the leak until two and a half months later, on Jan. 16.
The DA's office said the police department took it upon themselves to throw evidence away, despite needing a court order to do so.
RELATED: Missouri City PD under investigation for throwing out evidence, Fort Bend County DA says
The DA's office originally said about 100 cases were affected, but days later, the DA's office clarified there were just two cases with pending charges impacted, a misdemeanor theft and an aggravated robbery.
They said there were two more cases in the DA's office that were impacted, but they were resolved.
"The large majority were cases that did not come to us, and the majority of those were inactive/suspended investigations without enough evidence or an identified suspect to proceed. There were some that came to us and that were disposed before this event occurred, so the evidence was either admitted during trial or no longer needed since the case was resolved previously," the DA's office said in a statement.
Missouri City PD did not comment when news of the leak became public earlier this year.
13 Investigates wanted to know more about all of the cases where police tossed some evidence, so we put in a public information request for copies of reports for every affected case.
Missouri City PD did not want to release those reports and asked the Texas Attorney General if they could withhold them. But, the AG sided with 13 Investigates and said police had to release hundreds of pages of reports that showed 90 cases were impacted.
The cases date back to 2002, but more than a third of them happened in the last five years, according to the reports we received. They include theft, arson, aggravated assaults, drug cases, death investigations, and breaking and entering cases, among other alleged crimes.
13 Investigates also sent a public information request in February for any separation agreements with employees related to the leak.
Originally, the city told us there were none, so we requested the same information again last month.
Now, the city is fighting the release of information, saying in a letter to the AG that providing it would mean releasing information about a "former City civil service employee's pending litigation/appeal of his indefinite suspension."
We also learned police conducted an audit of their evidence room, so we requested a copy of that, but they're fighting the release of the audit as well.
We asked Missouri City PD for information on where the impacted cases stand, but they did not respond to our specific questions.
But we know Chavez's murder remains unsolved.
Chavez's mom said she didn't know her son's jacket was disposed of until 13 Investigates called to tell her the case was on our list of cases where evidence was destroyed.
Missouri City PD said the jacket was not a critical piece of evidence in the case.
We asked police why the Chavez family wasn't informed about the leak. They referred us to the city attorney's office, which then referred us to their communications department.
"The city does not comment on pending investigations or personnel matters," the communications department told 13 Investigates.
Chavez said getting her son's belongings back from evidence was never about the condition of them. Like the baby shoes on display in her living room and the mural that watches over his empty room, it was about holding on to a piece of her son from his last day before he was killed.
"I just don't want to forget my son," Chavez said. "I want to keep his memory alive."