Ex-priest, 83, charged with murder of beauty queen more than half a century ago

A retired Catholic priest who heard the last confession of a beauty queen has been arrested for her murder 56 years ago.

John Feit, now 83, is accused of raping, beating and suffocating Irene Garza, 25, who was last seen at the Sacred Heart Church in McAllen, Texas in 1960.

The former cleric, who has long been a suspect, now lives in Arizona where he is being detained in a state prison on £517,000 bail ahead of attempts to extradite him to Texas.

“My instinct is to fight extradition,”Mr Feit told the judge. “This whole thing makes no sense because the crime in question took place in 1960.”

He is expected to appear in court again on February 24.

On April 21, 1960, the partially-clothed body of teacher Irene Garza, was found floating in an irrigation canal in McAllen.

She had been missing for six days and was last seen alive the day before Easter in 1960, when she went to the Catholic church for what would be her final confession.

The police had no eyewitnesses to the crime, and any DNA evidence that might have existed had been washed away in the canal.

Detectives were also lacking a clear motive. According to media reports from the time of the murder, Irene was “deeply religious and had no known enemies”.

She had been a frequent entrant in local beauty contests and had been crowned Miss South Texas in 1958.

Irene’s car had been found the day after her disappearance, parked not far from the church. The following day her left shoe was found a few miles away.

The day after her purse was discovered lying in the middle of a field. Her driver`s licence was still inside, but the police found no distinguishable fingerprints on the purse.

“We just don`t have a strong lead to go on right now,” McAllen police chief Clint Mussey admitted to The Ocala Star-Banner on April 22, 1960.

Questioned by police, Mr Feit, then a 27-year-old priest, told authorities he had heard a confession by Irene the night she disappeared.

Detectives later drained a section of the canal where her body was discovered and found an Eastman Kodaslide viewer that belonged to the priest, Texas Monthly reported.

Interest in him intensified when the police were contacted by a 20-year-old college student who claimed Mr Feit attacked her roughly three weeks before Irene was killed.

The woman, according to a statement she gave to detectives, said she was attacked by Mr Feit while she “knelt to pray” at the Sacred Heart Church in Edinburg, which is about 10 miles from McAllen.

She said that the priest accosted her from behind and placed a handkerchief or a towel over her mouth. The woman said she bit one of his fingers during the attack, which caused him to release his grip and flee the scene.

When police questioned the priest about the incident, he reportedly denied any involvement. However, detectives did observe an injury to one of his fingers – a wound he attributed to receiving while operating a mimeograph machine.

The case went to trial the following year and Mr Feit ultimately pleaded guilty to a reduced charge of aggravated assault. He was fined $500 for the offence, The Dallas Morning News reported.

In the early 1960s, Mr Feit stayed at a Trappist monastery in southwestern Missouri, and later at a religious order in New Mexico where he reportedly helped counsel child molesters.

But in the 1970s, he left the priesthood, married and became a father – settling in Arizona, where he worked for several years as an administrator and spokesperson for a Catholic charity.

In 2002, a former priest came forward with new evidence in the case. The witness – an ex-colleague – told police Mr Feit had confessed to killing Irene in the years following the murder.

The witness reportedly told police Mr Feit acknowledged he had heard Irene`s confession on April 16, 1960, and afterwards restrained her and fondled her breasts.

Mr Feit allegedly told the witness he kept her in the rectory basement. She remained there until Easter Sunday, when Mr Feit allegedly claimed he put a bag over her he