just a very sweet and simple person to us as children. but in 1960, the body of this inspiring woman was found face down in this canal. she was 25, the age for thinking about getting married and raising a family. she didn t have a life. irene never had that chance. irene garza lived in this house in what was a very nice neighborhood near downtown mcallen and remains so today. she lived here with her sister and parents. on the saturday before easter, she hopped in her car for a short, five-minute ride to her church. irene went to confession every saturday. she was highly religious. it was very, very important to her. on that april day in 1960, irene met with father john feit,
manage service appointments and find answers to your questions. you can even check your connection status on your phone. now it s easier than ever to manage your account. get started at xfinity.com/myaccount who do you believe killed irene garza? father john bernard feit. nothing in this case has ever pointed differently.
feit said that he patted her on her breasts, she was in the back seat, and was saying to her, irene, everything will be okay, everything will be okay, irene. even though john feit knew she was dead? yeah, yeah. while it was not unusual at the time for the church to deal with criminal priests internally, tacheny says he asked feit about the secular authorities. but why was he sent to the monastery, in your opinion, and not to the police? i asked, why are you here and not in prison, and he said, simply the church protected me. the autopsy states that irene showed evidence of recent trauma, sexual intercourse, and trauma to the head. evidence of strangulation could
he says you told him you committed the murder. i think he s demented. what about the priest, father o brien. he says you committed the murder too and he knew you very well. [ speaking latin ] what does that mean, sir? look it up. he was speaking latin with a reference to the late father o brien. it means do not speak ill of the dead. now 80 years old, feit has done volunteer work at this local catholic food bank. i don t care what type of person he s become nowadays. he s helping the poor, he s doing this, but deep down inside, there s john b. feit there, and he cannot deny that. he knows it and i know it. and i don t care how old he is. my view is he should spend his last years where he should have been all this time, in jail. during our recent interview attempt, john feit did have one message for irene s family. we caught up with him just a few days before the anniversary of irene s murder.
on saturday before easter. we re going to have the typical easter egg hunt. she had gotten us baskets. late that evening, my parents got a phone call that said that irene had gone to church, and she hadn t come back, and she was missing. another cousin, noemi sigler, was at irene s house that day waiting for the easter egg hunt. what i remember is the grown-ups talking, whispering, crying. we were wondering what in the world was happening, but we knew something really bad had happened. irene was missing, but her car was still parked outside the church. family, friends and neighbors formed search parties and looked frantically. everybody was hoping that there was just, you know, some misunderstanding or that she had