to noemi, the unexpected gift was a sign from irene, a pointed reminder that the murder case is still open and that irene s cousins still have work to do. i want to give her a voice from the grave. she is here. she is here, and she wants justice.
i don t know if it s just the right word, elegant? after graduating from college, both irene and her sister became elementary school teachers in mcallen. it was both a mission and a joy to be with the children. she taught second grade. we had hilarious stories to tell each other, and she d say, oh, i just love him! and she d say, he has these little cheeks, and i just go over there and do this to him. he says, stop it, miss garza! friends and relatives say irene s good looks never went to her head because her heart was so big. she would go every saturday to the convalescent homes and do their nails or do their hair, whatever they wanted, so they would look nice when their families would come to see them on sunday. irene s good deeds grew out of her deep faith. sacred heart church in mcallen felt like an extension of home. i would say the feeling would
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?
he knew the complicity of john feit in this particular case and his own complicity in this case. was he emotional when he talked to you? yes. it was obvious that he was parting ways with a heavy burden that he had carried for a long time. father o brien died in 2005, but before his death noemi, this is father o brien. i ll call you later. he spoke with irene s cousin about what he knew, and she recorded the conversation. so he told you also, sir, that he had killed her? yes. oh, my god. well, i suspected from the very beginning. we searched the attic and searched the basement looking for her. that s how suspicious we were. and father o brien told noemi that the church sent feit away for a reason. we knew he was dangerous. yeah? so, they shipped him off to a
sarah had learned about irene s murder when she was in high school. how old are you now? i m 25. 25 years old, the same age as irene when she died. and like irene, sarah lives with her parents. in fact, irene s old bedroom is now sarah s bedroom. sarah even bears an eerie resemblance to irene. you almost have the same hair, i must say. she had long, dark hair. noemi asked if she could go in the house. see what it triggers back because i was here as a child. the day that she went missing, i was here. oh, you were here. wow. sarah welcomed her inside where the past came back in a way noemi never imagined. inside, sarah gave something to noemi. after all these years, a high school yearbook from 1949 had remained in the house through