missing. so, immediately my dad and others were wondering, you know, what had happened, and what did this guy know. traumatized, irene s family retreated into their home, surrounded by their closest relatives. i remember being in the house and the lady sitting on the bed just crying her heart out. as painful as the memories are, cousin noemi wanted us to see the family home today to better understand what happened that horrible time more than 50 years ago. we knocked, and a young woman named sarah came to the door. we re doing a story about who lived in this house in 1960. oh, yes, uh-huh. do you know about this person? irene garza? irene garza. you knew that? yeah. this is irene garza s cousin. sarah had learned about irene s murder when she was in high school.
the autopsy states that irene showed evidence of recent trauma, sexual intercourse, and trauma to the head. evidence of strangulation could not be found, but suffocation could have been carried out by placing a cloth over the mouth and nose, especially if irene was unconscious. the subject was dead when placed into the canal. i believe he killed her, and i believed that then. i had no doubt about it because he said he did. so you have no doubt at all that john feit killed irene garza? correct. but dale tacheny did not come forward with any of this until four decades later when he said the guilt became too much to keep quiet. john feit left the priesthood.
and she smelled like flowers. reporter: in 1960, irene garza was raped and murdered in mcallen, texas. one thing i remember is just screams. there was a suspect. who do you believe killed irene garza? father john bernard feit. father john feit. back then, a catholic priest. no evidence in this case right now points us in any other direction. so why is he still a free man? by all accounts, irene garza was a remarkable young woman. she kind of broke the mold. irene s younger cousin, noemi sigler. at that time, hispanics stayed on one side of town, anglos lived on another side,
he put something over her head and put her in the bathtub. this is what he told you? yes. and as he was leaving, she was saying, i can t breathe, i can t breathe. later on that day, he came back and she was dead in the bathtub. with father o brien and dale tacheny, the former monk, finally coming forward, the police were ready to make an arrest, but one man in mcallen, texas, had other ideas. the problem with the irene garza case is that you have no credible person that you could put on the stand beyond a reasonable doubt say, this man killed irene garza. how could the d.a. say that? and why?
parochial school for the elementary grades offered both. we were told, don t get mad, pray. the catholic school, don t get mad, pray. so we d say we have to pray for so-and-so, we start praying. later, at the public high school, where girls often aspired to be baton twirlers with the marching band, irene and josie were reluctant. it was the 1940s. was it unusual for mexican-american teenagers to do twirling? it was. my mom says, you go ahead and try out. they have a new music director, and we ll see if he ll get you in. and he was impressed with the two of us, and he let us in. irene went on to become mcallen high s first mexican-american drum majorette, an inspiration to her younger cousins. in essence, it really did not matter what race she was. she was just irene.