Justice was delayed, but prevailed 57 years later, for the family of Irene Garza as her murderer has been found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment.
Garza, a 25 year-Old Catholic, had decided to go for confession on the Eve of Easter, during the Holy Week; the most sacred time of the year for Catholics.
She drove to the Sacred Heart Catholic Church in McAllen, Texas, but never returned home or seen afterward until two days later when her beige, high-heeled shoe was found near the Church and days later, her body was finally found floating, in an irrigation canal.
Autopsy revealed she had been beaten, suffocated and raped while unconscious. Clues gathered by authorities point at Reverend John Feit; a young priest in the Church who was among the last to see her.
Twenty-seven year old Feit, had initially said he had listened to Garza’s confession that night but denied killing the young lady.
Evidences pointed to the fact that he was responsible as a Photo-slide viewer with an hand written note belonging to Feit was found in the same canal and he also had cuts in his hand that looked like fingernails scratches, as a colleague confirmed.
He was able to avoid criminal charges and as days turned to years, witnesses died, investigation was stalled and detectives were transferred or changed.
In April 2002, 42 years later, San Antonio Police Department received a call from Dale Tacheny; a former Priest in Oklahoma City, who revealed that he had once served as a spiritual father to Feit during his days at a Trappist monastery in Missouri.
Tacheny was reported to have said Feit told him he attacked a young woman in a parish on Easter weekend. He also wrote in a letter that Feit had confessed to him that after hearing her confession, he assaulted, bound and gagged her.
He said placed her in a bathtub after putting something over her head as she had difficulty in breathing and eventually died.
The Police Officer who received the call was sceptical about the confession, saying it was nearly impossible for priests to give information about other priests but the Oklahoma Priest said he kept the secret to himself due to religious obligations but later changed his mind and decided to speak out.
Another witness, Rev. Joseph O’Brien, an assistant pastor, who worked with Feit at his retirement home said when a group gathered to drink coffee after midnight mass, he noticed that Feit had scratches on his hands, also revealed that he (Feit) had confessed to him of a murder he committed.
The case was re-opened in 2004, but then Hidalgo County District Attorney Rene Guerra refused to take the evidence to a grand jury, saying it is insufficient and lacked DNA.
He was later coaxed into it and a jury heard the case but the two witnesses were not called upon to testify and therefore, no indictment was handed.
The following year, Rev O’Brien died.
Investigations carried out by detectives further revealed that three weeks before Garza’s death, a young woman, Maria America Guerra, in a nearby neighbouring Church had accused Feit of attacking her.
She narrated that while she was kneeling at the Communion rail, a man matching Feit’s description grabbed her from behind and tried to put a rag over her mouth.
When asked to pick her assailant out of a police lineup, Guerra chose Feit. When he took a polygraph test and denied that he had harmed either Garza or Guerra, the examiner concluded that he was lying.
He later pleaded no contest to lesser charge of aggravated assault and was fined $500.
In February 2016, 83-year-old Feit, who was no longer a priest was arrested in connection to Garza’s death at Phoenix, where he lived with his family.
On Thursday, after a six-day trial, he was convicted for murdering the young woman.
After his conviction, question were raised on why it took so long for justice to prevail.
In 2013, Tacheny told CNN that Feit said the church protected him from prosecution.
“The church protected me, the people in my church, my superiors, protected me.”
During his trial, prosecutors also presented evidences that revealed elected law officials and Church officers were convinced that Feit murdered Garza but connived to stop investigation to protect the Church’s reputation.
Feit confirmed this when he was asked by Tacheny how he escaped jail.
“So I asked Father Feit, why are you here and not in prison? He said there were three things.
“Number one, the church helped me, primarily through a priest. Law enforcement helped him. Finally, the seal of confession helped him.”
It was also revealed that then Senator John F. Kennedy who was running for Presidency that year was a Catholic from Massachusetts and if a Priest was charged for Garza’s death, it would dent his Presidential ambition and also the local Catholic Sheriff who was seeking re-election.
There were also reports of a letter sent between clergy officials in October 1960 expressing concerns over a Priest being charged for murder.
These were what led to the case being delayed for decades.
“I just feel like justice has been served,” she said. “I’m sorry, I’m so tired. It’s been such a long, long, long journey,” Noemi Sigler, a relative of the victim who spoke to reporters in tears stated.
