In one of the coldest cases ever to come to trial in Texas, opening arguments are set for Thursday in the trial of a retired Catholic priest in connection with the murder of a woman whose body was found near his church in the Rio Grande Valley, across the river from Mexico, in April of 1960, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
John Bernard Feit, 84, is charged with murder in the death of Irene Garza, 25, who vanished after telling relatives she was going to Holy Spirit Catholic Church, where Feit was a visiting priest, to attend Holy Week confession. Her body was found five days later in a canal near the church. She had been beaten and suffocated.
Feit was questioned at the time, but the case went cold for decades, until a Texas Rangers unit formed to solve cold cases was told by a fellow priest that he saw Feit with scratches on his hands after Garza, a schoolteacher and former beauty queen, vanished, and he said later, Feit confessed to him that he had murdered the woman.
Feit has denied all involvement.
He was indicted last year and extradited from Arizona, where he was living in a retirement home, to stand trial.
Rob Ammons, a prominent Texas trial lawyer who is not involved in this case, says prosecutors will face a major challenge winning a murder conviction.
"Many of the relevant witnesses who would have information are either dead or their memories have faded with time, and that will allow the defense to challenge their testimony," he said. "Also, there will be no forensic evidence, because back in 1960, we didn't have the forensic methodology that exists today, collection of trace evidence, DNA, all the things that prosecutors rely on in the 21st century didn't exist then."
The legend of the 'reina de la belleza muerta,' or 'dead beauty queen' is stamped deeply in the lore of the tightly knit communities that hug the Rio Grande at the southern tip of Texas.
The frozen nature of this case, and its participants, has also attracted international attention, and has been examined by TV programs like '48 Hours.'
The trial is expected to attract so much media attention that State District Judge Luis Singletary, who will preside over the trial, today released an eight page order that all media agencies covering the trial must sign covering everything from what types of equipment can be used, to when reporters can enter and leave the courtroom.
Ammons says another hurdle that Hidalgo County District Attorney Ricardo Rodriguez, who won election to that post in 2014 largely on the promise of 'justice for Irene,' will face is dealing with the deeply held Catholic culture of the overwhelmingly Mexican-American region.
"It is not unlike in Boston, where the Roman Catholic church was on trial for some of the cases involving priests and young men," he said. "It is a challenge. It can be dealt with in jury selection, but I don't think it can ever be really handled."
A Hidalgo County spokeswoman said the trial is expected to take ten days.