SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.–A former priest that once lived at the Assumption Abbey in Ava is now under arrest for murder.
It’s the subject of a CBS 48 hours report with Richard Schlesinger.
Former priest John Feit, was arrested on Tuesday in Scottsdale, Arizona for the murder of Irene Garza, a 25-year-old school teacher and beauty queen in McAllen, Texas.
Feit is 83 years old and said he plans to fight extradition.
“My instinct is to fight extradition.”
Noemi Ponce Sigler – was just a child when Irene Garza went missing in McAllen. She and other family members learned that Irene had gone to confession on Easter weekend and never came home.
Searchers fanned out looking for her – and one of them was Noemi’s father-a Deputy Sheriff.
“That man wouldn’t even sleep trying to find Irene, said Sigler.”
Irene’s shoe was found first…then her purse… and finally, Irene’s body was found floating in a canal.
Also in the canal – a curious clue – a slide viewer with a long black cord. It turned out it belonged to Father John Feit – the priest who heard Irene’s last confession.
“That’s horrible. That’s an insult,” Sigler said.
Father Feit had scratches on his hands and later failed a lie detector test.
But Feit was not arrested and he soon disappeared from McAllen. The case went cold for decades until a man came forward, Dale Tacheny.
“I covered up the evidence. I’m sorry for what I did,” said Tacheny.
Dale Tacheny was once a monk at the Trappist Monastery in Ava, Missouri. He says in 1963, John Feit arrived and in months of counseling sessions told him all about killing a young woman on an Easter weekend.
“He assaulted her, bound her and gagged her,” Dale Tacheny said reading from an account. “As he left – he could hear her saying… I can’t breathe.. I can’t breathe.”
Despite Tachney’s account…John Feit remained a free man for years.
He left the priesthood long ago and CBS News caught up with him in 2014 outside his home in Arizona.
Schlesinger(reporter) asked, “Did you kill Irene Garza?”
Feit replied: “No”
“Do you know who did?”
“No,” Fielt replies again.
Schlesinger presses, ” Dale Tacheny says that you told him that you did …”
“Dale is full of (EXPLETIVE),” Fiet affirms.
Schlesinger follows him to outside his front door: “So you won’t tell me anything?”
Feit slamming door on Richard yells, “Get lost brother!”
John Feit slammed the door on reporters but his past may have finally caught up to him.
55 years after Irene Garza’s murder, John Feit now sits in a jail cell in Arizona being held on a $750,000 bond.
“He didn’t get away with it. He didn’t get away with murder,” says emotionally.
