Scottsdale ex-priest won't fight extradition in Texas murder case

By Megan Cassidy
Arizona Republic
February 24, 2016

http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/scottsdale/2016/02/24/scottsdale-ex-priest-wont-fight-extradition-texas-murder-case/80871806/

John Feit, a former priest, is prime suspect in 1960 murder in McAllen, Texas, of young woman named Irene Garza. She went to him for confession on the night before Easter, vanished and was soon found dead in a canal near the church. The DA in Texas does not want to prosecute him, which enrages police and victim's family. There are now priests and former priests who worked with Mr. Feit who are admitting now that there was a cover up and that Mr. Feit had confessed to them about the murder. Mr. Feit, 72, is pictured outside a building at a Vincent de Paul Center in Phoenix, where he was worked for years. He is married and has grown children. Photo by Michael Ainsworth

In this April 24, 2003, photo, Herlinda de la Vina holds a portrait of her niece, Irene Garza, the 25-year-old Texas schoolteacher and beauty queen in Edinburg, Texas, who was murdered in McAllen, Texas in 1960. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Department arrested 83-year-old John Feit, former priest, on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, in the slaying of Garza. Photo by Brad Doherty

Full frontal shot of John Feit in 1960, who has long been the prime suspect in the murder of Irene Garza, a 25-year-old schoolteacher in McAllen. Feit was 27 at the time and working as a Catholic priest at Ms. Garza's church, Sacred Heart, on the Easter weekend when she disappeared after going to confession.

McAllen, Texas - Irene Garza was last seen giving confession to Father John Feit at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in April of 1960. She was 25. Three days later she was found dead. The murder case has been reopened by McAllen police and the Texas Rangers, and Mr. Feit, no longer a priest, is a suspect Photo by Erich Schlegel

Irene Garza was last seen giving confession to Father John Feit at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in April of 1960. She was 25. Three days she was found dead. The murder case has been reopened by McAllen police and the Texas Rangers, and Mr. Feit, no longer a priest, is a suspect. Her grave is in Valley Memorial Gardens in McAllen. Photo by Erich Schlegel

A Scottsdale man accused of slaying a Texas beauty queen in 1960 will not fight extradition back to Hidalgo County, Texas, where he will face a long-awaited charge of murder.

John Feit, an 83-year-old former priest, was arrested Feb. 9 in Scottsdale. After a brief hearing Wednesday afternoon, a Maricopa County Superior Court judge ordered Feit to be returned to Texas within 30 days.

The proceedings come more than a half century after Feit’s name first found its way to the top of the case’s list of suspects in the murder of schoolteacher Irene Garza.

Over the decades, Feit’s freedom has withstood the glare of suspicion by investigators, media and Garza’s family, all convinced he was the sole suspect responsible in the 25-year-old’s death.

Though he was convicted of another attack at a neighboring parish and other priests have said he confessed to the murder, until now Feit has never been forced to officially answer to the allegations.

Feit, who made a name for himself in Phoenix as a vocal advocate for the homeless in the 1990s, was once a young priest in McAllen, Texas.

Texas authorities said Garza, 25, had visited Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen, where Feit was a priest, on April 16, 1960. Garza, who was Miss All South Texas Sweetheart 1958, had planned to go to confession that evening. She never returned home.

According to an autopsy, Garza died from a head injury.

Few details have been released about the evidence that at last convinced a grand jury to indict Feit.

Ricardo Rodriguez, the Hidalgo County prosecutor, released a brief statement.

“The arrest of John Feit ... is the first step in providing justice for the murder of Ms. Irene Garza,” he said. “After nearly 56 years, Ms. Garza’s family and our community will finally see that justice is served.”

Rodriguez added that officials would provide additional details once the extradition process was completed.

According to local Texas reports, Feit had been arrested weeks before Garza’s murder in connection with an attack on another young woman at a church in a neighboring town.

Feit was tried in the case, but the jury deadlocked. He ended up pleading no contest to misdemeanor aggravated assault. He was fined $500 and received no prison time.