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Former Priest Charged with Murder; He Allegedly Confessed Years Ago to Fellow Monk in Ava

By Steve Pokin
The News-Leader
February 11, 2016

http://www.news-leader.com/story/news/local/ozarks/2016/02/10/former-priest-charged-murder-abbey-rape-ava-/80192294/

John Feit

A former priest who reportedly confessed decades ago to a monk at the Assumption Abbey in Ava has been arrested in Arizona in connection with the 1960 slaying of a 25-year-old Texas schoolteacher.

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Department (in Arizona) on Tuesday arrested 83-year-old John Feit. He faces a murder charge in the death of Irene Garza in McAllen, Texas. He is awaiting extradition to that state, according to the Associated Press.

For more than 50 years, police in McAllen, Texas, have suspected the former priest in the killing. The case was the subject of a 2014 "48 Hours" episode on CBS.

Authorities say Garza visited Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen, where Feit was a 27-year-old priest, on April 16, 1960, the day before Easter. Garza was Miss All South Texas Sweetheart in 1958 and was the first college graduate in her family.

She had planned to go to confession that evening but never returned home. Her body was found days later in an irrigation canal.

She was raped and died from a head injury.

Assumption Abbey in Ava (Photo: News-Leader file photo)

The case 14 years ago was reopened after Dale Tachney, a monk at the Assumption Abbey, came forward in 2002 and said Feit had confessed to him. A grand jury in Texas in 2004 failed to return a true bill, meaning Feit was not charged.

The News-Leader left a message at the abbey to determine when the two priests lived there. No one returned the call by deadline.

Monks at the abbey are now known for selling fruitcakes at Christmas. The abbey is in a rugged and wooded area. It is home to a community of the Cisterian Order of the Strict Observance. They are commonly known as Trappist monks. They first came to Ava in 1950 from New Melleray, Iowa.

According to a 2007 CNN report, Tachney said he was told by the head of the monastery that it was his job to counsel Feit. CNN also reported that — according to Tachney — Feit confessed in 1963 he had suffocated Garza and disposed of her body.

Tachney told CNN that after about six months of treatment, church authorities believed it was safe for Feit to leave the monastery. That was the last time Tachney saw Feit.

Tachney did not reveal Feit's alleged confession until 2002. At the time, he was no longer a monk. He said he felt guilty keeping the secret so long.

According to CNN, Tachney said, "I was part of the cover-up all these years."

At some point, Feit left the priesthood. He married and is now an 83-year-old grandfather.

He was never arrested or charged in the case until this week.

The News-Leader tried unsuccessfully to reach Ricardo Rodriguez, the current Hidalgo County (Texas) district attorney, to try to determine what role, if any, Tachney's story of Feit's confession played in the grand jury probe and subsequent murder charge.

According to published reports, Rodriquez promised to take another look at the case while campaigning. Garza's family over the decades has pushed for another investigation and has claimed that Feit was protected from prosecution because he was a priest at a time — 1960 — when many considered priests incapable of criminal behavior.

Assumption Abbey in Ava (Photo: News-Leader file photo)

Rodriguez said he presented the case to a grand jury last week, according to the Associated Press.

The death certificate states Garza was raped, beaten on the head and suffocated.

A 1950s vintage Kodak slide viewer and its cord were linked to Feit was found near the body, according to CNN.

Back in 1960, interest in Feit as a suspect intensified when police discovered that a few weeks before the slaying, Feit had been accused of attacking a woman in a church in a nearby city, according to CNN.

The 20-year-old victim said she was leaning on the communion rail in the empty church when she was assaulted by Feit. He was arrested, charged and brought to trial.

A mistrial was declared. There was no second trial. Feit pleaded no contest and was fined $500; he was given no prison time.

The Monitor, the newspaper in McAllen, Texas, reported that Feit stood before an Arizona judge on Wednesday and said: "My instinct is to fight extradition. This whole thing makes no sense because the crime in question took place in 1960."

 

 

 

 

 




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