On Wednesday, police officers arrested a former Catholic priest for having been involved in the murder of a beauty queen in south Texas in 1960. 55 years later and the priest is only now facing murder charges against him.
According to authorities, John Feit was arrested in Arizona for being a suspect in the murder of Irene Garza. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office in Arizona shares that the 83-year-old ex-priest is suspected of beating and raping the 25-year-old woman shortly after he took her last confession. The priest is currently held on a $750,000 bond pending his extradition back to Texas. On an initial court appearance held on the same day of his arrest, Feit said he will fight the return to Texas.
The county website posted a court video of the hearing where Feit has been recorded to say that "this whole thing makes no sense" to him since the crime took place in 1960. The ex-priest says that he is "totally puzzled" why it's only now that something has come up.
The Texas Rangers cold case website shares that the beauty queen was seen giving confession during Holy Week on April 16, 1960. The former Miss South Texas had her confession at Sacred Heart Catholic Church. Five days later after this sighting, her body was found in a nearby canal. Autopsy reports show that the second-grade school teacher had been raped while she was in a coma. She died of suffocation.
After sightings of the beauty queen in the church, authorities made a number of discoveries which linked her to the priest. A day after she disappeared, her car was found parked not far from the church. A day later, her shoe was discovered just a few miles from the church. Later, her purse was found in the middle of a field. Police found her driver's license inside the purse but had no distinguishable fingerprints.
When Garza's body was found, his church superiors ordered Feit to leave McAllen. Prior to Garza's disappearance, Feit was implicated in assaulting another woman in the area. The ex-priest pleaded no contest to aggravated assault but did not serve time in prison. Ever since then, Feit was considered to be a suspect but was never indicted. In an interview with CNN in 2013, he denied being involved with the beauty queen's death.
When he was ordered to move, Feit left the priesthood and moved to Arizona. There he started a family of his own.
