A little more digging brought with it the fact that neighbors had seen the car parked there since 10:30 p.m., though it had been in her assigned parking spot behind the building just two hours earlier (via Baltimore Sun). Inside, a bakery box filled with buns sat on the front seat (probably from Edmondson Village), along with some leaves and twigs. With twigs and branches found in the car, police thought that they might have a pretty good lead, as the Baltimore Sun explained. Another woman, Teresa Lancaster, also came forward. No one really knows exactly what happened to Cesnik. She may have made a purchase at Muhly's Bakery in Edmondson Village, since a box of buns from that bakery was found in the front seat of her car. May 19, 2017. So it probably wasn't the result of some random act of violence. Rather, people actually trusted him a lot, reportsHuffpost. In the decades since the nuns killing and as DNA testing has become a vital investigative tool, Baltimore County police have compared the DNA of several other people as part of their investigation into the never-closed case, according to Armacost, but those tests did not match the DNA profile from 1970. . Something was clearly wrong, and so, according to the Baltimore Sun, Helen Russell Phillips called on the help of a few friends revs. On February 28, police opened the grave of Rev. Her account was brought into question by scientific evidence showing that it would have been impossible for maggots to be alive at that time of year. Police dropped him as a target before he died. The Keepers: Pieces Of Evidence The Show Leaves Out, 16 TV Shows Too Disturbing To Binge-Watch, 10 Exciting New Netflix Originals Still Coming In 2019, Netflixs Tiger King: 15 Best Joe Exotic Quotes, Everything Available At Launch On HBO Max, 10 Creepy Documentaries To Watch If You Loved The Keepers, Wesley Crusher Is Now A Big Star Trek Picard Season 3 Question, Last Of Us Episode 6's Joel Ending Change From Game Defended By Director, How I Met Your Mother Stars Hold Mini-Reunion In New Image. Hoskins says at a minimum she wants to see records on Father Maskell. Beyond just being a generically good teacher, she even let her students drop by her apartment on weekends for a chat or a bit of music. If the Archdiocese is willing to blatantly lie about this, what else are they lying about? At some point probably the first thing on her trip Cesnik stopped by a Catonsville bank and cashed a check for $255, part of a pretty regular routine. She joined the School Sisters of Notre Dame when she was 18. Discovery Company. The week prior, Sister Cathy Cesnik, a popular young nun who taught English and drama at Keough, had vanished while on a Friday-night shopping trip. But now, because of witness testimony, and a multi-part documentary about the Cesnik murder to be aired on Netflix beginning on May 19, there is hope that her killer may be identified and the case finally be put to rest. Catherine Anne Cesnik SSND (born November 17, 1942; disappeared November 7, 1969) was an American Catholic religious sister who taught English and drama at Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore, Maryland. The case made against Joseph Maskell in the 1990s didn't actually last. He died in 2001, police said. Students, parents and the local media buzzed about the 26-year-old's disappearance. But she wasn't fully happy there, and by 1969, at the age of 26, Cesnik knew she had potential that her order was stifling, knew she could become so much more, and moved out to take a job at Western High School. He'd even leave his position as a priest and marry her, if only she would agree. Detectives revealed on Wednesday that after weeks of testing, Maskell's DNA did not match evidence found from the murder scene nearly 50 years ago. And to end. "The Keepers" premieres on Netflix May 19. The Baltimore Sun reported in late 2016 that since 2011 the archdiocese has paid out settlements to Maskell's alleged victims. One of those calls went to a retired Baltimore County teacher, Gemma Hoskins. They scared the living hell out of us.'. Many believe a quiet cover-up orchestrated by the Catholic Church and . They encourage everyone reading this to question everything, stay hydrated, and treat others with kindness. Father Maskell was a counselor and chaplain at Archbishop Keough from 1967 to 1975. ', He theorized that because there had been no signs of a struggle, 'it looked too clean. As one of the Baltimore detectives who initially worked on the case, Nick Giangrasso, told a reporter for Huffington Post: 'The Catholic Church had a lot of input into the police department. May 19, 2017. When he was removed from the ministry he fled to Ireland, where he lived for a time before returning to the Baltimore area, according to police. Father A. Joseph Maskell was a person of interest for a reason, it seemed. It's been almost five decades since 26-year-old nun and teacher Sister Cathy Cesnik was senselessly murdered back in 1969 and to this day, those closest to her are still looking for answers . A search of the park turned up nothing, and there was no lead on her whereabouts for almost two months. No one, not even fellow Keough graduates, knew that Jean Hargadon-Wehner was the so-called "Jane Doe" who came forward in the early 1990's and accused the Archdiocese of Baltimore of allowing the abuse to continue. Joyce Helen Malecki (born June 12, 1949; disappeared November 11, 1969) was a 20-year-old American office worker from Baltimore, Maryland, who was employed at a liquor distributor.She disappeared on November 11, 1969, and was found dead two days later at the Soldier Park training area of Fort Meade.Malecki's murder remains unsolved; the Netflix documentary series The Keepers, released in May . Another time, he pressed his gun to the side of Jean Wehner's head, actually pulling the trigger only for her to realize it was unloaded. Today, almost a half-century later, the murder of Sister Cathy who was once compared to Julie Andrews' character in 'The Sound of Music' because of her beauty and bubbly personality is still one of law enforcement's most mysterious cold cases. An autopsy found Cesnik died from blunt force trauma to the head, according to police. But beyond that, all of them had ties of some kind to Maskell, either working with him or attending churches where he was a priest. Like a scene out of a horror movie, the high school junior was driven to a garbage dump by the school's 30-year-old spiritual counselor, Father Joseph Maskell - who died in 2001 - and reportedly told the 16-year-old student: 'You see what happens when you say bad things about people?'. Copyright 2023 PopCulture.com. The investigation into her disappearance and death revealed rampant abuse at her place of employment, Keough High School, a prominent Catholic school in Baltimore, Maryland. Her life had been threatened and she had allegedly been abused by the priest. The sisters were incredibly close, even after Cesnik felt that God had called out to her to become a nun. Investigators didn't really buy that, thinking that he knew more than he let on, but the church forced them to stop searching. White is unconvinced that the DNA found at the scene on a cigarette butt would match A. Joseph Maskells DNA, but he remains positive that, eventually, someone will catch whoever murdered Sister Cathy and theyll finally figure out why. She'd said no, but they still kept writing love letters and spending time together. While the case remains open, allegations of sexual abuse by Father Maskell, and Sister's Cathy's plan to blow the whistle along with a possible cover up by the Catholic Church with close ties to law enforcement are at the heart of the horrendous case. She taught English and ran the drama club. Even after Cesnik left her job at Keough and took a position at Western, she still gave the girls a safe space to talk. More than 40 years after her death, the case of Sister Cathy Cesnik's murder is still unsolved Following her disappearance, investigators plotted her movements and determined she had cashed her $255 paycheck at a bank before heading to a small shopping center where she bought some baked goods. Investigators dug up Maskell's grav to compare the DNA of Maskell, to evidence from the crime scene. The theory that she was killed because she knew something about abuse that was going on by priests within the church continues to be a theory, but is not the only theory. On the evening she disappeared, Sister Cathy was reportedly counseling one of the abused girls when Maskell unexpectedly showed up. Her body was found a few months later, discarded unceremoniously in a garbage dump. Part 1 - Victim Featured in The Keepers Tells Story of Survival in New Book, Part 2 - Attorney Believes Criminal Charges A Possibility in Sex Abuse Investigation. [5] On November 7, 1969, she left the apartment she shared with Helen Russell Phillips at the Carriage House Apartments, at 131 North Bend Road in Catonsville, en route to the Edmondson Village Shopping Center to purchase a gift for her sister's engagement at Hecht's jewelry store. The most terrifying though? Sister Catherine Cesnik is pictured with her father, Joseph Cesnik. Sister Cathy Cesnik was reported missing after she failed to return home from a shopping trip in November 1969. This family evidence of anger problems, assaults on others, using a position of power over others to avoid punishment, and the assault on a young woman much like Sister Cathy all point towards a potential pre-existing rage in A. Joseph Maskell that nobody has ever explored. 15:36 EST 18 May 2017 However, this is a small step towards justice. The girl left but the next day, she later claimed, Maskell waved a gun at her, warning he'd kill her and her family if she revealed the abuse. After the complaints were made to the archdiocese, Maskell was temporarily removed from his post at the school for psychological evaluation. It's one of those terrible truths of the world that bad things happen to good people. According to Armacost, in 1994 one of the students who claimed abuse by Maskell when she was in high school said that he took her to a remote dumping area and showed her Cesniks decaying body as a warning of what would happen if she told anyone about him. Without getting into a bunch of complicated legal jargon, victims of abuse would've had three years to come forward. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. Despite the fact that Father Maskell's DNA does not match the DNA found at the crime scene, Armacost notes that the results don't necessarily clear him as a suspect. So we didn't want to set that as our bar, Hargrave said. Nicole Mello is an author of horrors, romances, and comedies. An autopsy revealed a skull fracture caused by a blow to Sister Catherine's left temple by a blunt instrument. [15] The series features interviews with women who were Cesnik's students, with some who say they were sexually abused by Maskell and others.[16]. This begs the question, though, that if White says he included everything he knew, and we know he had to remove names for legal reasons where in the documentary does he reveal these hidden suspects? Whats worse than considering the fact that A. Joseph Maskell terrorized one community? Not every story that Ryan White heard gets told in The Keepers. The only evidence that she had been out, were the buns she had bought at the bakery. She also talked about what happened after Sister Cathy found out about it. Authorities said results will take up to six more weeks. But I can whole-heartedly say, Cathy has been very much a part of all this.. On November 7, 1969, Cesnik disappeared. They have internal records on everyone including A. Joseph Maskell. Her case has remained open ever since, Armacost said. And that often involved stripping them of their clothes, touching them in his "godly manner," or forcing them to pose for nude photos while he and the school's religious director watched with, wellunrestrained pleasure. Sharon Mays husband, V. Eric W. May, Sr., was a state cop while Sharon was a prosecutor, providing the two of them even more opportunity to participate in a cover-up. An autopsy attributed her death to a skull fracture caused by a blow to her left temple with a blunt instrument. . [2] Her paternal grandparents, John (Jan) and Johanna Tomec esnik, were Slovenians who emigrated from Yugoslavia,[3] while her maternal grandfather, Joseph Omulac, came from Yugoslavia and maternal grandmother, Martha Hudok, came from Austria. Detectives investigating her death believe she may have encountered her murderer outside her apartment since her car was found parked in the complex the day after her disappearance. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Unless some brave sleuths or particularly inspired detectives go digging, Keough High School is now, for better or worse, closed to a continuing story. Though the documentary includes much of the story, director Ryan White doesnt include every piece of evidence, and some of the most crucial information gets left out. Wehner says she remembers trying repeatedly to brush off the maggots crawling on Cesnik's face while frantically repeating the words, "Help me, help me." Baltimore Detective Lt. Sam Bowerman always believed Sister Cathy was killed by a man who either lived in, or was familiar with, the area around the Carriage House Apartments, knew the location off Monument Avenue where her body was dumped, and that the murder was unplanned. Prior to the funeral, the city of Frederick put purple ribbons [Shan'ann's favorite color] all over the city. As police proceeded with their investigation, Father Maskell who was said to have taken a female student to the site where she claimed she saw Sister Cathy's lifeless body came under suspicion. Every bit of it, vividly. Detective Nick Giangrasso still thought it was someone tied to the church, though, and began to look into Father A. Joseph Maskell. Updated True crime is only getting more popular, and Netflix never misses an opportunity to contribute to the zeitgeist, giving us The Keepers. The call led Hoskins and Keough graduate, Abbie Schaub, to start their own research into Sister Cathy's murder. They did stuff. Cesnik's murder is still unsolved in 2021, although Maskell was suspected to be involved in Cesnik's murder at the time f his death in 2001, his DNA didn't match the evidence from the . ", Up Next: Netflix Hidden Gems For Sci-Fi And Fantasy Lovers. Teresa Lancaster also mentioned times when he would take them to a gynecologist Dr. Christian Richter for check-ups, during which he would occasionally assault them on the table (Richter would later deny being a part of the abuse). Viewers of The Keepers do not fondly reflect on Sharon May, the prosecutor in charge of the Maryland State Attorneys Office Sex Abuse Unit. By 1994, over a dozen allegations had been filed against Maskell by different women, some of whom had been abused, and others who had managed to fend off Maskell's advances. Determining whether Maskells DNA matches the evidence remaining from the crime scene is a box that must be checked, said Armacost. Maskell denied involvement in any form of abuse. By 1994, they and several other students had filed a lawsuit alleging physical and sexual abuse by Maskell through the 1960s and 1970s, according to Armacost. On November 7, 1969, 26-year-old Sister Catherine Cesnik vanished. But, again, that didn't go anywhere, with Maskell always conveniently too busy to talk. On January 3, 1970, her body was found by a hunter and his son in an informal landfill located on the 2100 block of Monumental Road, in a remote area of Lansdowne. Ryan White says hes seen a lot of people doubt whether the story is true at all, and insists that Koob is absolutely certain this happened, while the police are absolutely certain it did not. The scandals were always covered up by reassigning the offending priests to new parishes or just saying they were "on sick leave.". White can only say this about it: Her story is chilling.. "[9], Wehner said that Cesnik once came to her and said gently, "Are the priests hurting you?" ', While the murder of Sister Cathy is in the forefront of the series, White noted that there were other crimes 'happening before and after, and still filter down to today and may be linked to her murder. There is even more to this than meets the eye; White said there are about thirty-five other survivors just like her, and more reaching out all the time. A 1994 story in the Baltimore Sun, revealed that she had information about Cesnik's murdered condition, such as the maggots on her face, known only to the cops. The exact area couldn't actually be reached by car, meaning that she would've been forced to walk there, or possibly carried. Her body was left out in the open on a slight rise. Maybe that was why a homicide detective was told to drop the case in the 1970s, blocked from investigating because higher-ups were "protecting someone." Crime Museumadds that the car itself was newly caked in mud. One of the major theories that The Keepers hypothesizes is that Maskell either killed Sister Cathy or had her killed. "Our best hope for solving this case at this point lies with the people who are still alive. In general, he exploited 1960s counterculture, offering a relaxed environment and a willing ear regarding sex, drugs, alcohol, and the like all things that the students' strictly religious parents detested. Netflix's latest true-crime documentary The Keepers is a hit and everyone who has watched the series has only one question: who killed Sister Cathy Cesnik? Other times, he would arrange full pseudo brothels. However, with each day that passes, internet sleuths and hard-boiled detectives alike unveil a new connection or a potential piece of evidence that had been overlooked before in the case. There were actually six different murders that might all be connected with each other three teenage girls, a teenage boy, Cesnik, and Joyce Malecki. Except for that day, she said. The Baltimore Sun is republishing archived coverage of the unsolved 1969 murder of Sister Catherine Cesnik, which is the subject of a Netflix documentary series set to debut May 19. Many people first met Gemma Hoskins through her appearance on "The Keepers," a 2017 Emmy-nominated Netflix docuseries, that focused on the death of Sister Cathy Cesnik and cases of sexual abuse at . The Boston Archdiocese had been regularly making private settlements, paying for silence when it came to reports of abuse by priests. At the time of her disappearance, Sister Cesnik was on a sabbatical from the Roman Catholic Church and was teaching at Western High School in Baltimore City. While she was still working at Keough, she definitely had some idea of what Maskell was doing, and when he called one of the students in for "therapy," she did what she could. In a school where a number of the teachers seemed to know Joseph Maskell was "weird" but sent students to him at his request, Catherine Cesnik offered a light in a very dark, twisted place. They are waiting to learn if those results link Maskell to the death of a nun who, according to an attorney, was a confidant to young women who had been assaulted by the priest. She had moved to an apartment outside the convent with another nun and began teaching at Western High School in Baltimore on November 7, 1969, when she left her apartment to run an errand at Edmondson Village Shopping Center in Baltimore, according to Armacost. Koob had an alibi for the night he'd been out at a movie with another priest and claimed not to know anything. [8], In 1995, Teresa Lancaster and Jean Wehner (ne Hargadon), former students at Keough who say they were sexually abused by Maskell, filed a lawsuit against him, the school, gynecologist Christian Richter, the School Sisters of Notre Dame, the Archdiocese of Baltimore, and William H. Keeler. I think it's pretty undeniable by the end of The Keepers that they are, and Jean is the nexus of that, White said. While police were never able to bring charges against the priest, Caine said that 16 people who said Maskell abused them have since received money from the archdiocese as part of financial agreements. Four former students also claimed that they were abused by Maskell, and a Baltimore Archdiocese spokesman acknowledged that Maskell was 'credibly accused of sexual abuse of minors. Many of the parents in the area would regularly attend his masses and let him baptize their children. Several days later, on November 13, 1969, the body of Joyce Malecki, a 20-year-old woman who looked like Wehner, was discovered by two hunters in the same wooded location where Maskell had driven Wehner. 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Armacost says the timing of Maskells exhumation has nothing to do with the documentary, and opening the priests grave was simply a step that cold-case investigators felt needed to be taken to leave no stone unturned. Those who knew her at the time said that she wouldn't allow any conversation about Cesnik's death, saying that was her life before, and that she now had a new life. More than a month later, her partly clad body was found near a garbage dump in a Baltimore suburb. Sister Cathy was a teacher at Archbishop Keough High School and went missing in Baltimore in 1969. [11] Cesnik's body was not found until January 3, 1970, and its discovery by two hunters was not in the wooded location near Fort Meade, but on the open hill trash dump of a small business property in Lansdowne. One of them, Jean Wehner, was the student who claimed Maskell had taken her to view Cesnik's body in the dump. Either way, theyre lying and withholding information that would be helpful to the case. Wehner alleged that there was frequent sexual abuse at Sister Cathy's school. Just a few days before she vanished, the priest reportedly called her and, once again expressing his love, had asked her to marry him. Western's principal noted that she was an especially "fine teacher," while others pointed out that she was known for her compassion. But Maskell's case was complicated further by his ties to the police force through his work as a military chaplain. In 2017, Netflix released an original documentary called The Keepers which reignited interest in the unsolved murders of Sister Cathy Cesnik and Joyce Malecki in 1969. There are countless untold stories backing up the accusations made against A. Joseph Maskell and the Catholic Church that the docuseries doesnt even begin to explore. She was found dead two months later. The show is responsible for initiating a deeper look into the case of A. Joseph Maskell and Sister Cathy Cesnik, as Baltimore County Police start investigating again due to a public outcry. He was said to have allowed girls at the school to talk about sex and drugs in his office, and even permitted alcohol and cigarettes during gatherings in his rectory living quarters. Nearly 20 years ago, Nugent had been calling many former students from the now-closed Archbishop Keough High School, for a story on Sister Cesnik, who was murdered in 1969. Because the federal government keeps stalling and refusing to release information under the FOIA regarding Joyce Maleckis murder, there are likely countless pieces of possibly helpful evidence related to the homicides of both Joyce Malecki and Sister Cathy. Her body was found in Lansdowne, south of Baltimore, on January 3, 1970. He ignored the order, only to be forced into an early retirement (via Inside Baltimore). [6] At 4:40am the next morning, Russell's friends, Peter McKeon and Gerard J. Koob, both Catholic priests, found Cesnik's car, in muddy condition, and illegally parked across from her apartment complex. Huffpost added that choke marks colored her neck, and a quarter-sized hole in the back of her skull pointed to her actual cause of death blunt force trauma, leading to a skull fracture and brain hemorrhaging. In fact, people around the world were so distraught at learning about Sister Cathys case that they started flooding the Baltimore County Police with calls. Much like the government, the Catholic Church has their own internal system for keeping track of the people who make up their organization. It started with a freelance journalist, Tom Nugent. Gerard Koob was an initial person of interest. It seems that either the Archdiocese is lying about having investigated the accusations, or the Archdiocese is lying about having internal records on A. Joseph Maskell. Photos hit the internet, many of which have been taken down, that where morbid and graphic of the crash site where Kobe's helicopter went down, killing 9 people.