Pictured: The 81-year-old grandfather who was once a priest before being exiled after he was accused of murder of beauty queen 53 years ago - and the victim's family still claim he did i

More than 50 years after the murder of 25-year-old Texas beauty queen Irene Garza, her family continue the fight to bring her suspected killer, a former Catholic priest, to justice before the 81-year-old retiree outruns the clock.
In April 1960, the young school teacher and former Miss South Texas was found lying in a canal in her hometown of McAllen after having disappeared the day before Easter.
A devout Catholic, she had gone to Sacred Heart Catholic Church to give confession to Father John Feit, a bespectacled 27-year-old visiting priest.

Shocking crime: Irene Garza, who was Miss South Texas, was found dead lying in a canal in her hometown around Easter 1960. A Catholic priest who heard her final confession, Rev. John Feit, has been a person of interest but was never arrested

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2571269/Irene-Garza-murder-The-81-year-old-grandfather-priest-exiled-accused-murder-beauty-queen-53-years-ago-victims-family-claim-did-it.html#ixzz3M1vC9G18 k

Police: Evidence in killing of former beauty queen points to ex-priest

McAllen, Texas (CNN) -- All evidence pointed police to one conclusion: A priest had killed a beautiful 25-year-old schoolteacher.

Searchers had found the lifeless body of former Miss South Texas, Irene Garza, face down in a canal in her hometown of McAllen. She'd disappeared on the day before Easter after going to Sacred Heart Catholic Church for confession.

Crime scene evidence

An autopsy determined Garza had been raped while in a coma, and then had died from suffocation. Near Garza's body investigators found items that belonged to the church, including a candelabra.

One item, a metallic Kodak slide photo viewer, belonged to a 27-year-old priest who was assigned to the church: the Rev. John Feit.

To say the scandal rocked McAllen is an understatement.

Questioned by police, Feit failed lie detector tests. What was also suspicious was that just 24 days before the killing, Feit had been arrested for attacking another young woman at a church in a town about 10 miles from McAllen. Feit pleaded no contest to misdemeanor aggravated assault. A judge found him guilty and fined him $500 with no prison time.

All this took place in 1960.

READ MORE: http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/31/justice/garza-texas-priest-murder-case/