Investigators kept turning to one person – Father John Feit, then 27, who admitted hearing Garza's last confession in the church rectory. Investigators grew more suspicious when they learned that three weeks before Irene's murder, another young woman had been attacked in a nearby church. That woman later identified Feit as her attacker.
Dale Tacheny: Yes, sir. In his letter to police in 2002, Tacheny said the murder happened in 1962 or 1963 in San Antonio, several years after and more than 200 miles from where Irene Garza's body was found. Mike Garza [in court]: Why did you think it was in San Antonio?
Irene Garza was born on November 15, 1934. Growing up in McAllen, Texas, she was known as being an elegant, likeable and loving person who would do anything for her loved ones. Irene was the first in her family to attend college and graduate school.
Mike Garza [in court]: It was a time when this man wasn't walking in a walker, when this man wasn't sitting here weak. It was a time when this man was strong. Prosecutor Mike Garza pulled out the photo of Irene he carried close to his heart through the entire trial.
A Dedicated Investigator. Noemi Ponce Sigler. The Irene Garza case eventually grew cold. Noemi Ponce Sigler says her father, Milo Ponce, pictured, never got over the case. Ponce Sigler fought for justice for more than 30 years in honor of her father.
Maria America Guerra Attacked. Investigators'' interest in Father John Feit deepened when they learned of an attack on another woman three weeks before Irene Garza's murder. Maria America Guerra, pictured here, fought off an attack from a man she thought looked like a priest inside a church in Edinburg, Texas.
In 1961, Father Feit stood trial in Austin charged with assault with intent to rape Maria America Guerra, but the jury deadlocked. Rather than face another trial, he later pleaded no contest to a lesser charge of aggravated assault and was fined $500.
Garza's Friends Testify. Nathan Lambrecht/The Monitor/Pool. Ana Maria Hollingsworth testified that Irene Garza had told her that Father Feit had previously pulled Irene out of the church confessional and had insisted she give her confession in the rectory.
Darrell Davis, seated, a former reporter, testified about an off-the-record meeting between reporters and the D.A. in 1962. According to Davis, the D.A..said that they knew Feit had murdered Irene Garza and that he would be sent to a monastery.
Irene Garza's cousin, Lynda de la Viña, recalls Rene Guerra confronting her in the courthouse and telling her that she would never get an indictment in the case.
Beatrice Garcia testified that in 1960 Father John Feit stopped her as she was walking and asked if he could take pictures of her dressed in black by the cemetery.
The case was reopened in 2002 when the McAllen Police Department asked the Texas Rangers' cold case unit to re-examine the murder. The investigation took a turn when a former monk, Dale Tacheny, told police that back in 1963 when he was counseling novice monks at a monastery, Feit had admitted to killing a young woman on Easter weekend. Another priest also came forward saying Feit had made a similar admission to him as well. Yet the former district attorney at the time, Rene Guerra, didn't find the new witnesses credible and the case would go nowhere. Irene Garza's family felt they had been denied justice again. In 2014, when confronted by "48Hours" about the allegations, Feit told "48 Hours" correspondent Richard Schlesinger he didn't kill Garza and did not know who did.
What angers Mike Garza is that he says the Church had warning signs about Feit. Just three weeks before Irene was killed, a woman named Maria America Guerra had been attacked in a nearby church.
She says at first, everyone tried to hold onto hope. But then Irene's purse was found near a dirt road.
At first, there were few leads at the crime scene. There was an imprint of Irene's petticoat found on the banks of the canal and a partial heel print from a man's shoe. But, two weeks later, police discovered a curious clue. They drained the canal and on the bottom they found a photo slide viewer.
Five days later, her body was found dumped in a canal. Police say she was beaten, sexually assaulted and suffocated. Investigators kept turning to one person – Father John Feit, then 27, who admitted hearing Garza's last confession in the church rectory.
Rene Guerra, who had been D.A. for 32 years, was defeated by Ricardo Rodriguez, who promised to look into the case. And in February 2016, Feit was arrested and brought back to Texas to stand trial.
Parishioners had spotted Irene earlier that night -- putting on a lace veil, kneeling in a pew and in a confession line -- but no one ever said they saw her leaving the church grounds.
Andrew Metrick is quick to point out that he and his brother Jamie "live and breathe what they do."
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Irene Garza was born on November 15, 1934. Growing up in McAllen, Texas, she was known as being an elegant, likeable and loving person who would do anything for her loved ones. Irene was the first in her family to attend college and graduate school. During her time in post-secondary education, she was crowned Homecoming Queen ...
While they kept their suspicions about him under wraps, they brought him in for questioning, where he offered up varying stories before admitting Irene had given her confession to him in the rectory next to church . This struck investigators as a very unusual thing to do, as confession was normally held in the church.
Feit was proven wrong when, in 1961, he was indicted for attempting to rape the 20-year-old woman. The trial ended in a deadlocked jury.
Feit’s trial saw five days of testimony. Prosecutors had subpoenaed records from The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate, Feit’s former order. They also presented evidence that showed both elected and church officials hadn’t wanted to prosecute Feit for the murder in the 1960s in order to protect their reputations.
After both sides had settled, the jury took six and a half hours to deliberate before returning a guilty verdict for murder with malice afterthought. At his sentencing on December 8, 2017 , Feit was sentenced to life in prison.
Her blouse had been unbuttoned. A lone footprint was discovered near the canal, but police were never able to match it to anyone. An autopsy was done on Irene’s body and it was revealed she had been rendered unconscious by a blunt object, sexually assaulted and suffocated to death.
DISAPPEARANCE: April 16 fell on Easter weekend in 1960. As with every Saturday, Irene informed her family she would be attending confession and would be back later in the day. She borrowed the family car and made her way to Sacred Heart Church. She was noticed by many upon her arrival.
There was a recent episode of one of my favorite podcasts, My Favorite Murder episode 99: “Shin Kick,” which discussed the murder and case of Irene Garza, and instantly I thought, I need to write about this, but how? Well, life finds a way.
Princess (she/her-bisexual) is a Brooklyn born Megan Fox truther, who loves Sailor Moon, mythology, and diversity within sci-fi/fantasy. Still lives in Brooklyn with her over 500 Pokémon that she has Eevee trained into a mighty army. Team Zutara forever.