102, September Term 1995, "Baltimore Archdiocese Pays Settlements to a Dozen People Alleging Abuse by Late Priest", "Netflix's 'The Keepers' generates interest in other Md. 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. - May 30, 2017 05:42 pm EDT. 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. As the next morning rolled around, Catherine Cesnik still hadn't returned to the apartment, and her roommate became very concerned. So the case couldn't go forward. May 11, 2017 at 2:54 pm. According to Crime Museum, a hunter and his son found Catherine Cesnik's body at an informal garbage dump in Landsowne, Md. Or does White know more than hes telling his audience? The green 1970 Maverick had been parked illegally near the apartment. The Baltimore police has since reopened its investigation. An autopsy soon revealed the victim was Sister Cathy Cesnik, a beloved 26-year-old nun who taught English and drama at Archbishop Keough High School and had vanished two months earlier during a Friday night shopping trip. Jean Wehner also added that, one day, Cesnik took her aside, just to ask if the priests were hurting her. Her life had been threatened and she had allegedly been abused by the priest. Soon they were linking that abuse to Sister Cathy's murder, and speculation that she was going to blow the whistle and tell all. May 19, 2017. It was apparently a fixation for Maskell, who would then perform his own mock "exams" on the girls, flaunting his authority and power. Joseph Maskell knew that the victims of his abuse would want to talk (and that they were talking to Catherine Cesnik, at least), so he had to shut that down with violent threats. Rather, people actually trusted him a lot, reportsHuffpost. The only evidence that she had been out, were the buns she had bought at the bakery. Eluding police questioning, Maskell eventually ran off to Ireland in 1994 to work as a priest. A young, conspicuously attractive woman, 1 she connected with her students. Just a few days before she vanished, the priest reportedly called her and, once again expressing his love, had asked her to marry him. All Rights Reserved. Gerard Koob it depends on the report) found her car unlocked around 4:40 a.m. on the day after her disappearance. This is huge news regarding Sister Cathy's case. November 1969: Sister Cathy Cesnik disappears. Sharon May states firmly and rudely in her interview that she had absolutely no involvement in any sort of cover-up. If the Archdiocese is willing to blatantly lie about this, what else are they lying about? Sister Cathy was left in a remote area of Lansdowne, near a garbage dump. 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. As it turned out, he had close ties to the police: his brother was a lieutenant, and Maskell was chaplain for the Baltimore County force, along with the state police and the Maryland National Guard. But that charming faade was shattered in 1992. (Aside from reports that Maskell invited uniformed officers to assault the girls). No matter how wrong it seems, it's happened too many times, and the case of Sister Catherine Cesnik is one of those examples. It's one of those terrible truths of the world that bad things happen to good people. All six murders are still unsolved, so technically, the similarities could just be coincidence, but despite the lack of evidence, experience tells investigators that there's some connection. However, the Catholic Church is completely unwilling to share these documents, even though White says he would love for them to be transparent and show the world what they have.. The exhumation of a Catholic priests body by Baltimore County Police could hold the key to solving the 47-year-old cold case of a murdered nun. We are no longer accepting comments on this article. The plaintiffs suits are thus barred by the statute of limitation. , updated Even after Cesnik left her job at Keough and took a position at Western, she still gave the girls a safe space to talk. The next time the young nun was seen, it was by a female student from Cesnik's school, Archbishop Keough High School. A Warner Bros. But, on top of that, she had a natural gift for teaching. > Licensing inquiries: Email tim.thomas@baltsun.com. The mutilated body of the 26-year-old teacher was found on January 3, 1970. 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. Though White says he included absolutely all the information he knew in the documentary, he did contradict himself later by saying, The project was heavily vetted by lawyers there were times when I believed we knew somebody that was involved in the abuse, but we couldn't include a name for legal reasons. True crime buffs will know that this often happens, that the law tangles everything up in red tape so details like names and dates will be removed from stories. The student let herself out right away but could tell that Maskell knew what was happening. Cesnik was 26 and on a sabbatical from the Roman Catholic Church. Unless some brave sleuths or particularly inspired detectives go digging, Keough High School is now, for better or worse, closed to a continuing story. It started with a freelance journalist, Tom Nugent. [13][14] Police spokeswoman Elise Armacost announced that this discovery does not exclude Maskell from being a suspect in the case. 9:08 PM EDT, Tue May 9, 2017, Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik; Rev. An undated photo of Sister Cathy Cesnik, whose body was found at a dumping area Jan . The news shook a lot of people, to put it lightly. And she has not stopped looking into the murder of her former teacher. In his late 20s at the time and described as pretty charismatic, he was easy to like, working as a counselor with a psychology degree from Johns Hopkins. For all the press and notoriety that this case would get in the long run, it started out exceedingly normal. "The Keepers" premieres on Netflix May 19. 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. ', One former student, Teresa Lancaster, told WJZ-TV in Baltimore, that Sister Cathy had 'confronted' Maskell 'and she lost her life for it.'. But the autopsy results, which were not . Savvy internet sleuths have found evidence that James Maskell, a former patrolman, got a woman named Sarah Nell sentenced to a year in prison for biting him while he attempted to assault her. "[9], Wehner said that Cesnik once came to her and said gently, "Are the priests hurting you?" The Boston Archdiocese had been regularly making private settlements, paying for silence when it came to reports of abuse by priests. Youtube. [10], Wehner says that, two months before Cesnik's body was discovered, and only a day or two after Cesnik disappeared on November 1969, Maskell drove her to a wooded site near Fort Meade and showed her the body. [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]. An autopsy revealed a skull fracture caused by a blow to Sister Catherine's left temple by a blunt instrument. Some of the women recalled feeling drugged during those events, during which Maskell would basically share them with his friends as he saw fit. Jan. 3, 1970, changed that. And it was the students who really benefited from that, as Huffpost describes. 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 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. BALTIMORE "The Keepers" premiered on Netflix, on May 19th, 2017, bringing worldwide attention to the sexual abuse of children by priests in the Archdiocese of Baltimore. "Our best hope for solving this case at this point lies with the people who are still alive. Whats worse than considering the fact that A. Joseph Maskell terrorized one community? 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. 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. Read on to learn about the victim. ', The comments below have not been moderated, By Sister Cathy was a teacher at Archbishop Keough High School and went missing in Baltimore in 1969. Both . Many have speculated on the identity of this mysterious Brother Bob, with most pointing to Ed (Edgar Davidson) as being the most obvious answer, but some are now speculating that Father Robert Flaherty is Brother Bob. She'd spin stories and excuses, telling Maskell that they were studying or otherwise occupied by something that they couldn't get away from. Two women, both with close ties to an unnamed man who may have been . Detective Nick Giangrasso still thought it was someone tied to the church, though, and began to look into Father A. Joseph Maskell. 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. With that came the ominous warning "You see what happens when you say bad things about people?" Source:https://www.spreaker.com/user/americancrimecast/sister-cathy-cesnik-part-5-if-i-told-i-wThis episode may not be appropriate for all listeners. The plaintiffs appealed. It's just a theory one that makes sense, but also one that the police actually can't prove. 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. The same happened in 1994. Sister Catherine Cesnik is pictured with her father, Joseph Cesnik. . I think it's pretty undeniable by the end of The Keepers that they are, and Jean is the nexus of that, White said. (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. On Nov. 13, 1969, six days after Sister Cathy Cesnik vanished, not to be found murdered for two long months, a second young woman20-year-old Joyce Maleckiwas found strangled and stabbed to death in a small creek located on the U.S. Army's Fort Meade military base in Anne Arundel County, only a few miles from where Cesnik's body would . Around 7:30pm on . 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. This seven-episode docuseries explores the still-unsolved murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik, a teacher at Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore, Maryland. Police dropped him as a target before he died. Two women anonymous at the time but who later came forward as Jean Wehner and Teresa Lancaster came forward with allegations of abuse, saying he (and some of his associates) had assaulted them while they were students at Archbishop Keough (later Seton Keough) High School (via Baltimore Sun). I always felt like there was some reason for me to be here and I didn't know what it was. 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. 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. And this update involves Father Joseph Maskell. 'There were a lot of layers that if you peeled them back went a lot deeper. Hoskins and Schaub looked into each of those tips, and the tips have kept coming in for the past five years. In the 1990s, Jean Wehner came forward and alleged that Father Maskell had sexually abused her and allowed other men to do the same. 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. 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