Stay updated with breaking news from John bernard feit. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
In year marked by more homicides, Hidalgo County saw police deaths and domestic violence cases turn deadly themonitor.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from themonitor.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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,
be love, a gentle quietness. that's where we felt safe. >> did you and your sister regard the priests as godly men, close to god? >> we thought they were, yes. we believed they were and respected that, respected their calling. >> one of those priests was john feit. living and studying in the south texas pastoral house, members of his order, the oblates of mary immaculate, take vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. but at a church in nearby edinburgh, father feit would be accused of sexually assaulting this young woman, maria america guerra. the 20-year-old woman told police she came into the church, which was empty at the time, to pray. the communion rail used to be right up here near the chairs.
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.
them about the murder. they certainly would have been the star witnesses, but the district attorney never called for them. instead, the grand jury only had a transcript of what tacheny and o'brien told police. and the main suspect, john feit, he was never subpoenaed to testify. eventually, the jury voted not to indict john feit. irene's family was crushed. >> they're supposed to be representing the people of the state of texas. they're supposed to be representing the victims. >> all we wanted was a grand jury to hear the facts. if they don't build it on their own, then so be it, but it just seemed like he was hampering the evidence to be presented because the texas rangers were there, the mcallen pd, police chief and the investigators were there waiting outside to go in, and they were never called, week after week after week after week.
here is that i'm not going to allow you to use me as a stepping stone. >> coming up -- >> mr. feit, i'm gary tuchman with cnn. i want to talk to you about irene garza. >> good for you. we live in a world of mobile technology, but it is not the device that is mobile, it is you. real madrid have about 450 million fans. we're trying to give them all the feeling of being at the stadium. the microsoft cloud gives us the scalability to communicate exactly the content that people want to see. it will help people connect to their passion of living real madrid.
i have no idea, but protect him, they did. >> in 2002, 42 years after the murder of irene garza, the cold case heated up. two witnesses came forward, independently, both men of the church, saying they knew, without a doubt that father john feit murdered irene garza. for the police, it was a bombshell. rudy jaramillo was a lieutenant with the texas rangers. before retiring in 2012, he worked cold cases. >> it was just incredible. i just couldn't believe that we had been looking for something that could help us in this case and all of a sudden, here it is. >> one of the new witnesses, father joseph o'brien, the lead priest from irene's church, admitted being part of a cover-up. >> he said he was following direction. >> victor rodriguez is the mcallen police chief.