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Previously on darkness.

Nobody saw her leave.

So she goes missing.

Her parents drive by about midnight,

and they see her car there.

Oh, she must be at the vigil mass.

And so she, they go home and she doesn't come home.

And that's really uncharacteristic of her.

And girls back then didn't stay out past, you know,

midnight and certainly not Irene.

He had taken her, he had taken control of her and taken to the basement until he could take her out of the directory.

When he comes back on Sunday, she, you know, she was dead.

She was dead.

This podcast contains strong language, references and descriptions of domestic abuse, violence, suicide, and rape.

It also has graphic descriptions of death and abuse in the Catholic Church.

Please take care while listening.

Nearly a month before Irene Garza was found dead, on March 23rd, 1960, another young woman was attacked. She was visiting another Catholic church in a nearby town called Edinburgh, Texas.

Anyone from this part of Texas knows Edinburgh is often lumped together with McAllen.

Both towns are painted with suburbs, and if you get out far enough in Edinburgh,

you find yourself staring at fields of rural homes and their acres of land, just like some parts of McAllen. After that, you get hours of empty land until you reach what feels like modern civilization again,

like Corpus Christi or San Antonio.

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