Sandra Onorati Rzucek, Shan'ann's mother, described Shan'ann as a "fireball". This is presumed to be the source of the DNA sample found at the murder scene, but Ryan White knows theres even more that Baltimore County Police arent saying. But when he was questioned by the police, he had an ironclad alibi for the night of Sister Cathy's disappearance. 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). 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. The sisters were incredibly close, even after Cesnik felt that God had called out to her to become a nun. 'The Keepers' Update: New DNA Evidence Found In Sister Cathy Cesniks Murder Case, 'Yellowstone' Fans Shocked at Series' Reported Demise, Jessica Biel Reacts to Elizabeth Olsen's Candy Montgomery Show 'Love & Death', 'True Lies' Stars Steve Howey and Ginger Gonzaga Talk Stunts, Style, and the Iconic Beverly D'Angelo Ahead of New CBS Action Series Premiere (Exclusive), 'The View' Hosts Defend Marjorie Taylor Greene: 'I Have to Say, I'm on Marjorie's Side', Eugene Levy Gives Hope to Potential 'Schitt's Creek' Revival, 'Today' Show Fans Concerned as Hoda Kotb's Week-long Absence Continues, Tom Selleck and Larry Manetti Reunite for 'Mangum, P.I.' Two women, both with close ties to an unnamed man who may have been . ', Giangrasso also believed Sister Cathy's killing was church-related, telling the Huffington Post: 'I personally thought it was in-house, within her social network the priests and the religious order.'. Malecki's body was even found near Fort Meade, where Maskell was a military chaplain. They did stuff. But Maskell's case was complicated further by his ties to the police force through his work as a military chaplain. On occasion, they will attempt to combine all three, as there really isnt too much to life overall than fear, love, and laughter. It's one of those terrible truths of the world that bad things happen to good people. After the series premiered, messages started to arrive from around the world with new information. This seven-episode docuseries explores the still-unsolved murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik, a teacher at Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore, Maryland. On November 7, 1969, 26-year-old Sister Catherine Cesnik vanished. Father Neil Magnus Is A Possible Suspect On 'The Keepers'. Other times, he would arrange full pseudo brothels. Autoplay. Were not going to let this go, Hoskins said. 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. . 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. 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.. The Boston Archdiocese had been regularly making private settlements, paying for silence when it came to reports of abuse by priests. 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 was apparently a fixation for Maskell, who would then perform his own mock "exams" on the girls, flaunting his authority and power. The weapon that caused it? Expand. RELATED:10 Best True Crime Shows On Netflix. 1 of 40. The Keepers was an intense docu-series on Netflix about an unsolved murder, and here are some bits of evidence the show has left out. The Maryland Attorney Generals office has been investigating sexual abuse in the catholic church for nearly four years. Sister Cathy was a teacher at Archbishop Keough High School and went missing in Baltimore in 1969. There were actually six different murders that might all be connected with each other three teenage girls, a teenage boy, Cesnik, and Joyce Malecki. 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. But I can whole-heartedly say, Cathy has been very much a part of all this.. I think that the impact of The Keepers has far exceeded our expectations, Hargrave said. Their work is featured prominently, in "The Keepers.. 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. Discovery Company. Updated by Nicole Mello on June 14, 2020: Justice still has not been found for Sister Cathy. No one really knows exactly what happened to Cesnik. According to People, Jean Wehner suspected that Cesnik had planned to go to police, finally exposing Maskell for what he was. 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. 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. Leads dried up quickly and no one came forward with information about Cathy's whereabouts, and the search dragged on for months. 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. Father Maskell was a counselor and chaplain at Archbishop Keough from 1967 to 1975. The student let herself out right away but could tell that Maskell knew what was happening. The church was her life and the people important to her were in the church, said Armacost. Really, the whole thing raises a lot of questions, summarized by Huffpost. Hargadon-Wehner's new book "Walking With Aletheia" details her healing process, and what she's learned from - she says - communicating with several different aspects of her personality. Almost 50 years ago, a Baltimore nun named Sister Catherine Cesnik was found choked and beaten to death . A search of the park turned up nothing, and there was no lead on her whereabouts for almost two months. Gerard Koob was an initial person of interest. But that lead didn't go anywhere. Both . As documentary-maker Ryan White asserted: 'What we discovered during the filmmaking process is that everything wasn't as it appeared to be. Maskell denied involvement in any form of abuse. The Huffington Post reported that Maskell told Wehner, "You see what happens when you say bad things about people?"[1]. This photo was not uploaded . 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. She taught English and ran the drama club. [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. - May 30, 2017 05:42 pm EDT. Rather, people actually trusted him a lot, reportsHuffpost. Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik was 26 when she disappeared in 1969; her body was found weeks later, Baltimore County Police exhumed the body of a priest for DNA testing in the case. More than 40 years after her death, the case of Sister Cathy Cesnik's murder is still unsolved. This is huge news regarding Sister Cathy's case. Instead, it made more sense if someone Catherine Cesnik already knew coerced her from the car. Peter McKeon and Gerard J. Koob. In fact, people around the world were so distraught at learning about Sister Cathy's case that they started flooding the Baltimore County Police with calls. It was a name he kept hearing in interviews with other priests, and the man had worked with Cesnik while she taught at Keough. Another dead end, apparently. 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. Hoskins and Schaub looked into each of those tips, and the tips have kept coming in for the past five years. 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. 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. 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). 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. 9:08 PM EDT, Tue May 9, 2017, Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik; Rev. [5], In the fall of 1969, Cesnik was teaching drama and English at Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore, Maryland,[6] a school for girls that had opened in 1965. By William Cannon Two months later, her body was found in a frozen field in Baltimore County. ', He claimed that the detectives were told to either charge the priest 'or let him go. She was valedictorian at the graduation of her high school class in 1960, after being the May Queen and the president of the senior class and the student council. And when those kids got older, Maskell would give them rides home or to appointments. She was warm and energetic, always ready to engage with her students, writing musicals for them to perform on stage, or inventing games to encourage them to teach each other new vocabulary. Supposedly, according to White and Jean Wehner, the Archdiocese opened an investigation into A. Joseph Maskell, and so, those records should exist. November 1969: Sister Cathy Cesnik disappears. Unfortunately, Russell is . A. Joseph Maskell after securing an order from the states attorney, according to Elise Armacost, director of public affairs for Baltimore County Police. 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. Eluding police questioning, Maskell eventually ran off to Ireland in 1994 to work as a priest. 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. Ghosts of the past might've followed her, though, punishing her for what she knew and the good she did. They got in touch with the local police, reporting that Cesnik had gone missing. He then left to work as pastor of a church in Baltimore, but later returned to his duties after an archdiocese investigation failed to support the abuse allegations. But some thirty women soon came forward with accounts of sexual abuse at the school. Born in Pittsburgh, Penn., in 1942, reports the Baltimore Sun, Cesnik was described by her younger sister as devoted and rather ambitious. 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. Jean and other former students of Sister Cathy believe that the Archdiocese of Baltimore and the authorities covered up Sister Cathy's murder after she suspected Father Maskell was sexually abusing several young girls at the school. The plaintiffs appealed. It would be two months later, on January 3, 1970, that a couple of hunters came upon Sister Cathy's decomposed, frozen and mutilated body, and notified police. What the show doesnt touch on, however, is Koobs supposed relationship with Sister Cathy. The next time the young nun was seen, it was by a female student from Cesnik's school, Archbishop Keough High School. She "was found strangled and stabbed to death in a small creek . White tells us there is some dogged reporting happening right now in Ireland, digging deeper into the time that A. Joseph Maskell spent there, in addition to his time spent in the United States. ', The cop, who died in 2009, said it was a shame because he was certain the priest 'knew more than he was telling. May 19, 2017. All of them took place in the late 1960s and early 1970s generally around the Baltimore area, with many of the crime scenes and bodies sharing physical characteristics. All Rights Reserved. Frightened and feeling threatened by the strapping, dominating clergyman who was popular with churchgoers for his Sunday masses the girl decided to keep secret her gruesome discovery. On the evening she disappeared, Sister Cathy was reportedly counseling one of the abused girls when Maskell unexpectedly showed up. She'd spin stories and excuses, telling Maskell that they were studying or otherwise occupied by something that they couldn't get away from. In the show, the audience briefly hears about the fact that Ireland has claims on A. Joseph Maskell, as well, that the Catholic Church continues to cover up. Her body was found in Lansdowne, south of Baltimore, on January 3, 1970. [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. . Cesnik attended St. Mary's School on 57th Street and St. Augustine High School, both in Lawrenceville. And we hope that someone will be able to come forward with conclusive information about the murder. 2. 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. Reply. We had no idea that people would still be talking about it five years later, and that people would still be watching it five years later.. There, on the ground, still clad, her face covered with maggots, was the body of Sister Cathy. She still spends at least part of every day trying to find those people. Her body was found January 3, 1970. The green 1970 Maverick had been parked illegally near the apartment. Netflix's documentary series "The Keepers" dives into the case and uncovers a web of abuse that may . 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. 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. An undated photo of Sister Cathy Cesnik, whose body was found at a dumping area Jan . Hoskins did write about her theory on the killer in her book "Keeping On: How I came To Know Why I Was Born.. Hoskins says at a minimum she wants to see records on Father Maskell. The news shook a lot of people, to put it lightly. Catherine (Cathy) Cesnik was a Catholic sister and taught English and drama at Archbishop Keough (later renamed Seton Keough), an all-girls Catholic high school in Baltimore. 15:36 EST 18 May 2017 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 . 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. 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). They were all young, attractive women, police said, who looked similar. If the Archdiocese is willing to blatantly lie about this, what else are they lying about? Ryan White's aunt attended Archbishop Keough High School, and had stayed in touch with Jean Hargadon-Wehner. There might have been more going on here than just bad luck. In 1992, two female former students came forward to say Maskell abused them. ', One former student, Teresa Lancaster, told WJZ-TV in Baltimore, that Sister Cathy had 'confronted' Maskell 'and she lost her life for it.'. 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. Jean claims that Father Maskell took her to Sister Cathy's body and said to her, "See what happens when you say bad things about people.". Sean Caine, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, said the archdiocese removed Maskell from his post as soon as they learned of the allegations in 1992, in order to conduct their own investigation. I've talked to the hunter that found Cathy, and he said that since the day he found her the police have never talked to him. 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. 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. 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). Police have also looked into whether Cesniks death is related to the deaths of three other young women in the Baltimore area around the same time. Grace Elizabeth Montanye, 16, met a stranger at a shopping mall on Sept 29, 1971, northwest of Baltimore, according to police. The Keepers, a 7-part documentary, is currently available to stream on Netflix. Copyright 2022 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. [4] Cesnik had three siblings. However, Spitz, who worked on the case, later confirmed that there had been maggots in both the victim's mouth and trachea when found. (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. Around 7:30pm on . Oddly, her Ford Maverick, which she had recently purchased, was found just a block from her apartment parked illegally in a no parking area and unlocked. Crime Museumadds that the car itself was newly caked in mud. Stirred to action, the Police exhumed the remains of A. Joseph Maskell, the former priest accused of murdering Sister Cathy, and took a DNA sample to test against DNA found at the murder scene. Did you encounter any technical issues? Baltimore County Police exhumed the body of a priest for DNA testing in the case But the autopsy results, which were not . This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. 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. 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. Either she or Phillips would always make to stop on every second Friday to cash their paychecks. . Often, survivors would choose to remain anonymous, and the crew of The Keepers respected that choice and removed their stories, names, and/or faces from the series. The series also renewed the investigations into the murders of two women, Sister Cathy Cesnik and Joyce Malecki. It's hard to say what's true. 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). Phillips never saw her roommate again after she left that evening, and even a store clerk couldn't confirm Cesnik's presence there that night. Stuff being crimes, and they're walking around.. v. A. Joseph Maskell et al. May 11, 2017 at 2:54 pm. She was found dead two months later. 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. 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. There was a general backlash against it, and a Catholic psychiatrist argued that memories like that couldn't be repressed then recovered. I always felt like there was some reason for me to be here and I didn't know what it was. Sister Cathy was a teacher at Archbishop Keough High School and went missing in Baltimore in 1969. However, she didnt want to go on the record. Just a few days before she vanished, the priest reportedly called her and, once again expressing his love, had asked her to marry him. Meteorological records also reveal that temperatures during the week in question were warm enough for maggots to hatch. [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. Sister Catherine Cesnik, a nun from the School Sisters of Notre Dame, a teaching order, began her career at Archbishop Keough High School, a private, all-girls Catholic School. Her body was found a few months later, discarded unceremoniously in a garbage dump. [deleted] 6 yr. ago. Still a mystery. Koob had an alibi for the night he'd been out at a movie with another priest and claimed not to know anything. 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. Western's principal noted that she was an especially "fine teacher," while others pointed out that she was known for her compassion. Investigating detectives found no leads on Cesnik's death, and the investigation was later abandoned. By The Murder Of Catherine Cesnik, The Nun Who Knew Too Much. The mysterious Brother Bob is, in many ways, even more chilling a figure than A. Joseph Maskell. 1. 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. RELATED: 10 Exciting New Netflix Originals Still Coming In 2019. Gemma Hoskins has helped dozens of victims get in touch with their investigators. And the oldest was in her 20's.. The mutilated body of the 26-year-old teacher was found on January 3, 1970. And it was the students who really benefited from that, as Huffpost describes. Many of the parents in the area would regularly attend his masses and let him baptize their children. [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. Some of the women recalled feeling drugged during those events, during which Maskell would basically share them with his friends as he saw fit. As the next morning rolled around, Catherine Cesnik still hadn't returned to the apartment, and her roommate became very concerned. Something was clearly wrong, and so, according to the Baltimore Sun, Helen Russell Phillips called on the help of a few friends revs. It just means that there's no link between Maskell and the crime scene. On January 3, 1970, the body of Catherine Cesnik was found by two hunters. Locating that stash, investigators found, among other things, nude pictures of underage girls. Whats worse than considering the fact that A. Joseph Maskell terrorized one community? Because of the condition of Cesnik's corpse, police were unable to tell if she had been sexually assaulted. 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). 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?'. A girl who did threaten to report him soon found his gun in her mouth, as he told her that no one would believe her he had a fancy degree from Johns Hopkins, after all. Inside Baltimore sheds some light on the idea that Cesnik's murder wasn't a lone incident. They were always invited to come to her apartment, where she checked in on the situation regarding Maskell. Police then announced that the DNA taken from A. Joseph Maskell was not a direct match to the DNA found at the two-month-old murder scene, where 26-year-old Sister Cathy was found decomposing in 1970. . Pamela Lynn Conyers, 16, was last seen at the shopping mall in Glen Burnie on October 16, 1970, police said. I think he's dead, but I may be wrong. But that argument didn't fly in the 90s. None of these cases have been solved. The exact area couldn't actually be reached by car, meaning that she would've been forced to walk there, or possibly carried. But investigators found only a few inconsistencies in some statements, and detectives were unable to find any damning evidence against the priest. Sharon May states firmly and rudely in her interview that she had absolutely no involvement in any sort of cover-up. Or does White know more than hes telling his audience? The Baltimore police has since reopened its investigation. The Keepers centres on the death of 26-year-old nun, Sister Cathy Cesnik, who went missing from Baltimore, Maryland on November 7th, 1969.Her body was found decomposed two months later, but the . 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. After Maskell died in 2001, the two women decided to go public, using their real names. However, they say theres nothing, even though Jean Wehner found many victims willing to come forward simply by sending out letters in the mail. 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. , updated Not two decades. And this update involves Father Joseph Maskell. One of the major theories that The Keepers hypothesizes is that Maskell either killed Sister Cathy or had her killed. But it's not the only theory. "The Keepers" premieres on Netflix May 19. CNN Sans & 2016 Cable News Network. For us, our bar was more about bringing these womens experiences to light and starting this conversation.. Every bit of it, vividly. Photo of Sister Cathy Cesnik (Image Source: Daily Mail) On November 7, 1969, Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik disappeared. 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. It started with a freelance journalist, Tom Nugent. Sister Cathy Cesnik was reported missing after she failed to return home from a shopping trip in November 1969. Her case has remained open ever since, Armacost said. ", court of Appeals of Maryland, No. Maskell's DNA did not match the forensic profile from 1970, although investigators noted that this . Youtube. By 1994, Maskell no longer worked at the high school and was the pastor of Holy Cross Church in Baltimore. (Cesnik) was a nun. The call led Hoskins and Keough graduate, Abbie Schaub, to start their own research into Sister Cathy's murder. Her cousin was soon to be married and Sister Cathy wanted to shop for an engagement gift, she told her roommate, Sister Helen Phillips, with whom she shared a small garden apartment in Southwest Baltimore, a blue-collar area of the city. An autopsy found Cesnik died from blunt force trauma to the head, according to police. But, somehow, that evidence vanished, never making it to court. . 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. 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.
