Man Waives Extradition in 1960 Death of Texas Beauty Queen

NBC DFW
February 24, 2016

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/Man-Waives-Extradition-in-1960-Death-of-Texas-Beauty-Queen-370024211.html

John Feit (left), an 83-year-old former priest, is arrested in Arizona in connection with the 1960 slaying of 25-year-old Texas schoolteacher and beauty queen Irene Garza (right).

An 83-year-old Arizona man accused of murdering a Texas beauty queen when he was a young priest in 1960 waived his right to extradition Wednesday.

John Bernard Feit will be transported to Texas in the next 30 days, Maricopa County Superior Court officials said.

Feit was arrested in the Phoenix suburb of Scottsdale on Feb. 9 after he was indicted in south Texas' Hidalgo County for the killing of Irene Garza, a 25-year-old school teacher.

A grand jury brought the charge based on yet-to-be-disclosed evidence.

Authorities allege the then-27-year-old Feit killed Garza on April 16, 1960, after hearing her confession at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen, where he was a priest.

Her body was found in a canal days later. An autopsy determined Garza, who was named Miss All South Texas Sweetheart 1958, had been raped while unconscious and was beaten and suffocated.

Feit's arrest followed other investigations over the years, including a grand jury probe in 2004 that concluded there was insufficient evidence to charge him.

He had been considered a suspect in the past, and two fellow priests told authorities Feit confessed to them.

Hidalgo County District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez has declined to comment on what evidence was presented to the grand jury, saying in a statement that authorities would not elaborate until after the extradition process.

The Garza case became an issue in the 2014 district attorney's race. Rodriguez promised that if elected, he would re-examine the case.