April 21, 1960: Manhunt Launched for Girl’s Slayer; Irene Garza’s Battered Body Found in Canal

The Monitor
February 12, 2016

http://www.themonitor.com/news/local/archive-manhunt-launched-for-girl-s-slayer-irene-garza-s/article_4a9a46d4-d1a6-11e5-8b25-7be9a2934f85.html

Editor’s Note: This article about Irene Garza was originally printed in the April 21, 1960, edition of The Monitor.

The badly beaten body of Miss Irene Garza, missing 25-year-old McAllen school teacher was discovered floating in the Second Street canal near the Sears Roebuck Co., store at 7:40 a.m. today.

The body; clad in the clothing Miss Garza was wearing when she disappeared, was floating face downward.

Police chief Clint Mussey announced he was questioning suspects “although we have no strong leads.”

An intensive police manhunt for the abductor and slayer of the attractive, dark-haired woman was spurred by a $1,000 reward offered by Whalen’s for “information leading to the arrest and conviction” of the person of persons responsible for the crime.

Later in the morning, O. Terry, local department store owner, announced he was offering an additional $500 reward.

Autopsy Being Held

At noon today pathologists were still working on the body at the Kreidler Funeral home to determine the immediate cause of death and police said the autopsy report would not be released until afternoon.

Justice of the Peace Harley Jackson said he had been ordered to report his death verdict only to the police.

Although police refused to confirm reports that the body was mutilated, an observer at the autopsy said the face was badly beaten and that there were other severe beating marks over the body. The autopsy was expected to show if the victim had been criminally assaulted.

The body was discovered almost simultaneously by Mrs. W. Arnold. 206 First Street, and George Pearson, 200 Peking Avenue. They were passing by the canal when they saw the sack floating in the water only a few yards away from the busy intersection of U.S. Highway 83 and South Second Street opposite the Sears store.

The body was floating face downward. It was removed to the Kreidler Funeral Home where positive identification was made by members of the family. According to police, she was wearing the clothing which she was wearing when she left her home on North 15th Street at 6:45 p.m. Saturday to attend services at Sacred Heart Catholic Church

Was College Queen

Miss Garza, a Pan American College Queen in her college days and “Miss South Texas” in 1958, was never seen alive by her family after that.

One of her shoes and her purse with her driver’s license in it were found Tuesday on the northwest side of McAllen. The body was found in the southeast section of McAllen about three miles away.

Miss Garza taught second grade at Thigpen Elementary School in McAllen about three miles away.

Miss Garza taught second grade at Thigpen Elementary School in McAllen. The search of her -her relatives posted a $1,000 reward Wednesday - was one of the biggest in the history of the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

Airplanes, skin divers, National Guardsmen, a sheriff’s posse and civilian, volunteers dragged the canals that criss-cross the McAllen area and searched through the mesquite thickets and orange groves for her.

Members of her family, a priest and a deputy sheriff identified the body.

A rosary service will be said for Miss Garza at 8 o’clock tonight at the Kreidler Funeral Home. A funeral mass will be said at 7 a.m. tomorrow in the Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Funeral services will be held at 3:30 p.m. tomorrow at the Kreidler chapel and burial will be in Valley Memorial Gardens. Besides her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Nicolas Garza, she is survived by a sister, Mrs. Gilbert Cavazos of Pharr.