Beauty and the Priest: Former priest going on trial for 1960 cold case

EDINBURG (TX)
CW39

November 28, 2017

By Tammy Feldstein

EDINBURG, Texas – After 57 years, the murder of a south Texas beauty queen may finally be solved.

The accused? The priest who heard her last confession.

Jury selection will begin for the trial of former Priest John Feit, 85.

Fifty Seven years ago Feit was a visiting member of the clergy at Sacred Heart Church in Mc Allen, where 25-year-old Irene Garza was last seen alive.

The young school teacher was well-known in the Lower Rio Grande Valley and lived down the street from Sacred Heart with her parents where she went to confession every Saturday.

On Easter weekend in 1960, Garza went to church and never came home. More than 500 members of the community helped police search for Garza. First, they found her shoe, then her purse and days later they found her body floating in a canal. Garza’s autopsy revealed had been raped and beaten.

Police also found a clue; a small slide projector near her body that belonged to Feit.

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