All considered twenty-five-year-old school teacher and beauty queen Irene Garza to be a “devout” Catholic. She attended daily mass at Sacred Heart Church in McAllen. There was nothing pretentious or fake about Irene, and she lived her faith. Being good to others was part of her life’s mantra. She told a friend of hers that she found strength and comfort from her daily communion, so it was only natural that she would go to confession that Saturday evening before Easter. In fact, her family said that Irene attended confession every Saturday, whether she needed to or not.

Irene arrived for confession around 7:00 p.m., entered one of the confessionals, and seemingly disappeared. Five days after she went missing, on April 21st, 1960, the body of Irene Garza was found floating in the 2nd Street irrigation canal, just three miles from the Sacred Heart church where Irene was last seen. 

Police only had one suspect in mind for her murder. He was the last person to see Irene the night she left. In fact, he heard her last confession. His name? Father John Feit.

Join Jen and Cam as they discuss "A Wolf In Priest's Clothing: Irene Garza."

Thank you to YA-MAN USA for sponsoring this week's episode. To experience the future of beauty, you can visit yamanusa.com and use code TCP for a 20% discount.

Thank you to our team:
Written and researched by Lauretta Allen
Listener Discretion by Edward October from OctoberpodVHS
Executive Producer Nico Vitesse of The Inky Paw Print

Sources:
https://www.texasmonthly.com/true-crime/unholy-act/https://www.cbsnews.com/news/irene-garza-murder-john-feit-former-priest-dies/
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2712047-Irene-Garza-Autopsy-Report
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Irene_Garza
https://www.cnn.com/2013/05/31/justice/garza-cold-case-timeline/
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https://www.dps.texas.gov/apps/coldCase/Home/Details/151https://www.podles.org/case-studies/Irene-Garza-Case-Study-page2.htm
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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1FewdmV-7P7eNAkheJ8JlruYfW4nj-5_N/view https://www.cbsnews.com/news/church-officials-shielded-priest-suspected-of-murder-for-decades/
https://www.podles.org/case-studies/files/Murder-of-Irene-Garza.pdf