The beautiful 25-year-old schoolteacher Irene Garza went to confession at her church, Sacred Heart in McAllen, Texas, during Holy Week in 1960. She was never seen leaving the church. Five days after she disappeared, her body was found in a nearby canal. She was sexually assaulted, physically assaulted, and she had died of suffocation. The prime suspect was John Feit, the 27-year-old priest who heard Garza’s last confession, but he was never indicted…until now.
[In 2005, when a Texas Monthly reporter asked Father Feit for an interview, before denying the request he told her, “the speculation intrigues me.”]
In 2002 a new witness had stepped forward. Former priest Dale Tacheny says he covered up the evidence out of religious obligation. “I’m sorry for what I did,” he tells 48 Hours. Tacheny was sent to Sacred Heart to counsel Feit who confessed to everything. It took another 14 years to get an indictment. A relative of Garza tells 48 Hours, “The people who are going to feel sorry for him [Feit] do not know the facts of the case. I guarantee you, once they find out there will be absolutely no pity there.” 48 Hours airs Saturdays at 10pm on CBS.
