When she didnt come home, her roommate reported her missing the next day. Her body was left out in the open on a slight rise. The service at the at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Pinehurst, North Carolina lasted 1 hour. Now, WJZ has learned Baltimore County Police may be closer than ever to solving the murder of 26-year-old Sister Cathy Cesnik. One of the initial persons of interest was a Jesuit priest who had been romantically involved with the pretty nun, and had once asked her to marry him, before she took her vows. I always felt like there was some reason for me to be here and I didn't know what it was. 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 . But that charming faade was shattered in 1992. 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? But, again, that didn't go anywhere, with Maskell always conveniently too busy to talk. Its important to take this confession from Koob with a grain of salt, as he is proven in the show to be less than the most reliable of witnesses, but, as White says, I dont know where the truth lies.. 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 . The women have since been more vocal about the abuses they suffered at Joseph Maskell's hands, and all the stories are universally awful (via Huffpost). Almost 50 years ago, a Baltimore nun named Sister Catherine Cesnik was found choked and beaten to death . However, the material was never entered into evidence. Hoskins says at a minimum she wants to see records on Father Maskell. Cesnik attended St. Mary's School on 57th Street and St. Augustine High School, both in Lawrenceville. The current team of cold case detectives, assigned the Cesnik case in 2016, began discussing the exhumation of Maskell almost immediately, but it took time to get proper authorization. Sister Cathy Cesnik was reported missing after she failed to return home from a shopping trip in November 1969. The green 1970 Maverick had been parked illegally near the apartment. 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. The filmmakers said they were not trying to solve the murder of Sister Cathy, or the murder of Joyce Malecki, which is also featured in the series. In 2013, Facebook page was started by an alum of the school, and more women told of their abuse at the hands of Maskell and others. Cesnik was 26 and on a sabbatical from the Roman Catholic Church. 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. More than 40 years after her death, the case of Sister Cathy Cesnik's murder is still unsolved September 2, 2018 / nickvdl. On November 7, 1969, Cesnik disappeared. And I can hear Cathy saying 'I told you I'd take care of this' and I said, I didn't think you meant 20 years later. Just a few days before she vanished, the priest reportedly called her and, once again expressing his love, had asked her to marry him. ', 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. The body was in poor condition but an autopsy revealed that Sister Cesnick died from a blow to her left temple by a blunt . A headline in a Baltimore newspaper blared: 'City Police Fail To Find Missing Nun.'. Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik was 26 when she disappeared in 1969; her body was found weeks later. Joyce Maleckis murder is explored as much as it can be as being potentially connected to the murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik, but theres still so much that Abbie, Gemma, and audiences dont know. 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? Copyright 2023 PopCulture.com. It's just a theory one that makes sense, but also one that the police actually can't prove. It was a name he kept hearing in interviews with other priests, and the man had worked with Cesnik while she taught at Keough. 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. Rather conveniently, they also couldn't find any other corroborating statements regarding Joseph Maskell's abuse (Jean Wehner's lawyers had no trouble). Gerard Koob was an initial person of interest. by Caralynn Lippo. A few more branches were caught on the radio antenna, while another twig was found stuck to the turn signal lever on the steering wheel, a piece of yellow thread caught onto it. 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. According to police, Joyce Helen Malecki, 20, disappeared from a shopping mall only days after Cesnik on November 11, 1969, in Glen Burnie, a suburb of Baltimore. 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. [12] After obtaining permission from the state's attorney's office, the BCPD exhumed the body of Maskell, who died of a major stroke in 2001, but did not find a DNA match to evidence from the crime scene. He later became a Methodist minister, but before that (and before Cesnik had taken her final vows as a nun), he'd asked her to marry him. The scandals were always covered up by reassigning the offending priests to new parishes or just saying they were "on sick leave.". The student let herself out right away but could tell that Maskell knew what was happening. They were all young, attractive women, police said, who looked similar. It had to be somebody who knew her.'. However, White did still get to talk to them he even got to talk to the anonymous student he mentions in the series. It didn't take long for him to lose his position as a pastor, spending some time in a psychiatric hospital (though he was released shortly after, apparently perfectly fit to work at another church). appreciated. And you know it really just began as us with our camera, taking these trips to Baltimore not knowing that it would ever even become anything.. Sister Catherine Cesnik is pictured with her father, Joseph Cesnik. The murder of Sister Catherine Cesnik remains unsolved to this day. 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. Both . Detective Nick Giangrasso still thought it was someone tied to the church, though, and began to look into Father A. Joseph Maskell. The Catholic Church seems to know how to clean up its messes in general, withThe Guardian uncovering a much wider scandal in Boston (which led to worldwide concerns). More than 40 years after her death, the case of Sister Cathy Cesnik's murder is still unsolved. Her body was found a few months later, discarded unceremoniously in a garbage dump. Either she or Phillips would always make to stop on every second Friday to cash their paychecks. Not two decades. A lot of power. All Rights Reserved. Sister Catherine Cesnik is pictured with her father, Joseph Cesnik. By Nearly 10 years ago the filmmakers started to meet with her; this was long before Netflix got involved. As for filmmakers Ryan White and Jessica Hargrave, after The Keepers they produced a documentary with Dr. Ruth, and then another one about the two women who assassinated North Korean leader Kim Jong Un's brother. 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. 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. It was no wonder that in the wake of the news, the students were all quietly shocked, worried that the police might stop looking for her. 16:14 EST 18 May 2017, A New York Times bestselling author Jerry Oppenheimer latest book, 'The Kardashians: An American Drama,' will be published in September. Netflix's documentary series "The Keepers" dives into the case and uncovers a web of abuse that may . 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. It just means that there's no link between Maskell and the crime scene. 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. They filed a $40 million civil lawsuit against him, the Baltimore Archdiocese, the sisters who ran the school, and a local gynecologist. The autopsy concluded her cause of death . In 1994, two women identified only as 'Jane Doe' and 'Jane Roe' alleged that Maskell had raped them when they were students at Sister Cathy's school. 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. - May 30, 2017 05:42 pm EDT. 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. More than 40 years after her death, the case of Sister Cathy Cesnik's murder is still unsolved. Despite the time, speculation, and later surge of interest in the case, Catherine Cesnik's murder has still gone unsolved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The trial court dismissed the action as time-barred by the statute of limitations. She was "Jane Roe" in that ultimately unsuccessful lawsuit. And why should they? 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. She still spends at least part of every day trying to find those people. So the case couldn't go forward. Stuff being crimes, and they're walking around.. Then there was a Baltimore gravedigger who told the police Maskell had ordered him to dig a hole in 1991 to bury files. For this week, I sailed through a second viewing of the entire seven-part series about the link between Sister Cathy Cesnik's 1969 murder and sexual abuse at a girls parochial school in Baltimore. [7], In 2017, CBS Baltimore reported allegations from three women that during Cesnik's tenure at Archbishop Keough High School, two of the priests, Joseph Maskell and E. Neil Magnus, were sexually abusing the girls at the school in addition to trafficking them to others. After the series premiered, messages started to arrive from around the world with new information. [deleted] 6 yr. ago. Sister Cathy was left in a remote area of Lansdowne, near a garbage dump. According to Armacost, Baltimore County police in 1994 took the alleged victims statement seriously and interviewed Maskell, himself once the chaplain for the Baltimore County Police and other area law enforcement agencies. The series also renewed the investigations into the murders of two women, Sister Cathy Cesnik and Joyce Malecki. As the next morning rolled around, Catherine Cesnik still hadn't returned to the apartment, and her roommate became very concerned. . She'd said no, but they still kept writing love letters and spending time together. 2. Leads dried up quickly and no one came forward with information about Cathy's whereabouts, and the search dragged on for months. They have internal records on everyone including A. Joseph Maskell. When Wehner could only nod in reply, Cesnik promised that she would take care of it (though Maskell did continue to abuse students after that, too). Her former students believe that Sister Cathy was murdered as part of a cover-up to protect a priest at the school, A. Joseph Maskell, who Cesnik suspected was guilty of sexual abuse of students. In only seven episodes, The Keepers covers a lot of ground, retreading the 1969 murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik and the gruesome allegations that shadowed it. So we didn't want to set that as our bar, Hargrave said. 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 . Maskell denied involvement in any form of abuse. However, they say theres nothing, even though Jean Wehner found many victims willing to come forward simply by sending out letters in the mail. By William Cannon Prior to the funeral, the city of Frederick put purple ribbons [Shan'ann's favorite color] all over the city. She taught English and ran the drama club. (Handout photo courtesy of Netflix), Catherine Cesnik, a 26-year-old nun, disappeared after leaving her Southwest Baltimore apartment to go shopping in November 1969. Rather, people actually trusted him a lot, reportsHuffpost. 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. This seven-episode docuseries explores the still-unsolved murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik, a teacher at Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore, Maryland. The only evidence that she had been out, were the buns she had bought at the bakery. Your effort and contribution in providing this feedback is much She believes they might contain the names of people who were complicit in his crimes, or in covering them up. On January 3, 1970, the body of Catherine Cesnik was found by two hunters. In 2016, the Baltimore County Police Department (BCPD) reassigned the case due to retiring officers, prompting new interviews and further investigation into the alleged sexual abuse at Keough. 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. There is no word on whether the Attorney General's investigators will gain access to those records. There might have been more going on here than just bad luck. In Keeping On, Gemma takes readers on a journey of her life, from her childhood and her time as Sister Cathy's student at Archbishop Keough High . Much like the government, the Catholic Church has their own internal system for keeping track of the people who make up their organization. They were last known to have been at shopping centers in the area, the same as Cesnik. May 11, 2017 at 2:54 pm. And after almost 50 years, Sister Cathy's murder has remained unsolved. She was the eldest child of Joseph and Anna Omulac Cesnik. Might have been more going on here than just bad luck get to talk to them he even to. 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