Man Known for Compassion Arrested in Half-Century Old Murder Case

Left: This undated photo provided by the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office shows John Feit. The former priest has been arrested Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, in Arizona in the 1960 slaying of a 25-year-old Texas schoolteacher and beauty queen, Irene Garza. (Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office via AP) Right: This photo taken on March 11, 2004, shows a portrait of Irene Garza displayed at the home of her aunt Herlynda De La Vina in Edinburg, Texas. A former priest was arrested Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, in Arizona in the 1960 slaying of the 25-year-old Texas schoolteacher and beauty queen. Delcia Lopez /The San Antonio Express-News via AP

PHOENIX—For nearly 20 years, John Feit was known around the St. Vincent de Paul nonprofit agency as one its most compassionate employees.

The former priest worked in downtown Phoenix with food-pantry volunteers and even raised money to buy a house for a needy family. His desire to help others was apparent at his church and whenever he showed up on the doorsteps of the poor with donated food or furniture. He also mediated disagreements when local agencies were first planning a campus to house multiple services for the homeless.

Feit was able to do all this charity work despite public knowledge that he had long been a suspect in the 1960 rape and killing of a Texas schoolteacher and beauty queen.

Now 83, he was arrested Tuesday for the murder of 25-year-old Irene Garza in McAllen, Texas. She was last seen at the church where Feit was a priest. Her bludgeoned body was discovered in a canal days later.

In this April 24, 2003, photo, Herlinda de la Vina holds a portrait of her niece, Irene Garza, the 25-year-old Texas schoolteacher and beauty queen in Edinburg, Texas, who was murdered in McAllen, Texas in 1960. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Department arrested 83-year-old John Feit, former priest, on Tuesday, Feb. 9, 2016, in the slaying of Garza. Brad Doherty/The Dallas Morning News via AP