Thigpen-Zavala El

What made them love her was what she did with her life after the ceremonies ended.

Irene became a second-grade teacher at Thigpen Elementary, a school on McAllen's south side that served the city's most disadvantaged children.

Her students came from the colonias, the unincorporated settlements along the Texas-Mexico border where running water and paved roads were luxuries.

Some of these children walked to school barefoot.

A passerby named P.W. Miller spotted a single beige high-heeled shoe near the curb.

It was a left shoe, a fiancé's brand pump.

A fellow teacher from Thigpen Elementary, Alfredo Peewee Barrera, found Irene's black patent leather purse lying in a field a short distance away.

Her driver's license was still inside.