Irene Garza was a 25-year-old second-grade schoolteacher and former beauty queen — she had been crowned 1958 Miss All South Texas Sweetheart and was a homecoming queen at Pan American College — who taught indigent students at an elementary school on the south side of McAllen, Texas. She was the daughter of Nicolas and Josefina Garza, who owned a McAllen dry cleaning business. Garza was an active member of the Legion of Mary and attended daily Mass and Communion.
On the evening of Saturday, April 16, 1960, Garza told her parents she was going to confession at Sacred Heart Church in McAllen. Several parishioners recalled seeing her at the church that night, but she never returned home. When she had not come back by 3 a.m., her parents reported her missing to the McAllen Police Department.
On April 18, searchers found a trail of Garza's belongings — her purse, a shoe, and a lace veil — scattered along a McAllen road. Authorities and volunteers mounted what was, at the time, the largest search in Rio Grande Valley history. On April 21, Garza's body was recovered from a canal several miles from where her belongings had been found. An autopsy determined that she had been raped while unconscious, beaten, and killed by suffocation; any physical evidence that might have identified her attacker had been washed away during the time her body spent in the water.
Investigators questioned about 500 people and conducted nearly fifty polygraph examinations. Suspicion quickly centered on Father John Bernard Feit, the 27-year-old priest who had heard Garza's confession that night; witnesses said his confession line moved unusually slowly, and fellow priests noticed fresh scratches on his hands afterward. Feit gave shifting accounts of his movements that evening and was not charged in Garza's death at the time. He was later charged with the rape of another woman, Maria America Guerra, in a separate assault near McAllen weeks before Garza's death; that trial ended in a hung jury, and in 1962 Feit pleaded no contest to a reduced misdemeanor charge and paid a $500 fine.
The case stagnated for decades. In 2002, two clergymen, Dale Tacheny and Joseph O'Brien, told investigators that Feit had confessed to killing Garza shortly after her death, and the case was reopened. Hidalgo County's district attorney brought the case to a grand jury in 2004, but jurors declined to indict Feit. The investigation was reopened again in 2015 under newly elected District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez. In February 2016, Feit — then 83 — was arrested in Scottsdale, Arizona, and extradited to Texas the following month.
Feit's trial began in Hidalgo County in late November 2017. On December 7, 2017, a jury convicted him of murder with malice, and the next day he was sentenced to life in prison. Feit died of natural causes on February 12, 2020, at a Texas state prison unit near Huntsville.
Garza is last seen alive leaving for confession at Sacred Heart Church in McAllen; she does not return home that night.
1960-04-17
Garza's parents report her missing to the McAllen Police Department after she fails to return by 3 a.m.
1960-04-18
Searchers find Garza's purse, a shoe, and her lace veil scattered along a McAllen road.
1960-04-21
Garza's body is recovered from a canal; an autopsy finds she was raped while unconscious, beaten, and killed by suffocation.
1962
Father John Feit pleads no contest to a reduced misdemeanor aggravated assault charge and pays a $500 fine, after a rape trial in a separate 1960 assault case ended in a hung jury.
2002
Clergymen Dale Tacheny and Joseph O'Brien tell investigators that Feit confessed to killing Garza shortly after her death, and the case is reopened.
2004
A Hidalgo County grand jury declines to indict Feit after hearing the case.
2015-04
Newly elected Hidalgo County District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez announces the Garza case is reopened.
2016-02
Feit, 83, is arrested in Scottsdale, Arizona, in connection with Garza's death.
2016-03
Feit is extradited to Texas and incarcerated in Hidalgo County.
2017-11
Feit's murder trial begins in Hidalgo County, Texas.
2017-12-07
A jury finds Feit guilty of murder with malice.
2017-12-08
Feit is sentenced to life imprisonment.
2020-02-12
Feit dies of natural causes at the W. J. Estelle Unit near Huntsville, Texas.
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Titles and descriptions are the creators’ own and may not reflect current legal status; see the dossier above for sourced case facts.
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Former priest: "I am not the man who killed Irene Garza"
People
Irene Garza
VICTIM
Second-grade schoolteacher and 1958 Miss All South Texas Sweetheart; raped and killed by suffocation at age 25 after last being seen going to confession in McAllen, Texas, on April 16, 1960.
John Bernard Feit
CONVICTED
Catholic priest who heard Garza's last confession and was the only identified suspect in her death; convicted of murder with malice on December 7, 2017, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Also pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor aggravated assault charge in 1962 after a separate rape trial ended in a hung jury. Died in February 2020.
Roles reflect public records and court outcomes at the time of writing — supporting citations are on file under Sources.
Irene Garza, a McAllen, Texas schoolteacher and former beauty queen, was raped and killed by suffocation in April 1960 after going to confession. The priest who heard that confession, John Feit, was convicted of her murder in December 2017 — nearly 58 years later.
Where did the murder happen?
McAllen, Texas.
Who was convicted?
John Bernard Feit (Catholic priest who heard Garza's last confession and was the only identified suspect in her death; convicted of murder with malice on December 7, 2017, and sentenced to life imprisonment. Also pleaded no contest to a misdemeanor aggravated assault charge in 1962 after a separate rape trial ended in a hung jury. Died in February 2020.).
