Except for that day, she said. Western's principal noted that she was an especially "fine teacher," while others pointed out that she was known for her compassion. They have another project scheduled to come out later this year. [13], Netflix produced a seven-part documentary series about the case called The Keepers, which debuted on May 19, 2017. So it probably wasn't the result of some random act of violence. They did stuff. Koob had an alibi for the night he'd been out at a movie with another priest and claimed not to know anything. There was a general backlash against it, and a Catholic psychiatrist argued that memories like that couldn't be repressed then recovered. . 2023 Cable News Network. It had to be somebody who knew her.'. Ultimately, Maskell died in 2001, having never been charged for a thing. [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. 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. In 2004, a retired Baltimore homicide detective told the Baltimore City Paper that the church lawyers had 'stepped in and they talked to the higher-ups at the police department. There is no word on whether the Attorney General's investigators will gain access to those records. Copyright 2023 PopCulture.com. RELATED:Netflixs Tiger King: 15 Best Joe Exotic Quotes. Detective Nick Giangrasso still thought it was someone tied to the church, though, and began to look into Father A. Joseph Maskell. [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. 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.. One of those calls went to a retired Baltimore County teacher, Gemma Hoskins. 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. Two women, both with close ties to an unnamed man who may have been . According to CNN, Bode Cellmark Forensics laboratory in Lorton, Virginia was responsible for comparing the DNA to the sample from the murder scene. But Maskell's case was complicated further by his ties to the police force through his work as a military chaplain. As in, a three-year-old who remembers it. Stuff being crimes, and they're walking around.. Investigating a Catholic priest presented challenges, especially in Baltimore a predominantly Catholic city (via Huffpost). She acted like a savior to his victims, and Huffpost compiled a number of those stories. [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. 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. CNN reported in 2017 that police had the okay to exhume his body for DNA testing, but even then, the DNA wasn't a match with what was found at the crime scene. (Cesnik) was a nun. Father Joseph Maskell's body was exhumed from a Baltimore cemetery earlier this year as part of the investigation into the unsolved slaying. 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. Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik was last seen alive on November 7, 1969. And we hope that someone will be able to come forward with conclusive information about the murder. Rather conveniently, they also couldn't find any other corroborating statements regarding Joseph Maskell's abuse (Jean Wehner's lawyers had no trouble). The news shook a lot of people, to put it lightly. According to People, Jean Wehner suspected that Cesnik had planned to go to police, finally exposing Maskell for what he was. Expand. 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). Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information. 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 why should they? prior to the release of the Netflix documentary series 'The Keepers', for DNA testing involving the murder of Cathy Cesnik. Authorities said results will take up to six more weeks. 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). Sister Catherine Cesnik is pictured with her father, Joseph Cesnik. Catherine Cesnik was born in 1942, she was a devoted catholic nun who taught drama and English at Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore, Maryland. They filed a $40 million civil lawsuit against him, the Baltimore Archdiocese, the sisters who ran the school, and a local gynecologist. Or does White know more than hes telling his audience? Much like the government, the Catholic Church has their own internal system for keeping track of the people who make up their organization. ', 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.'. 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. But when he was questioned by the police, he had an ironclad alibi for the night of Sister Cathy's disappearance. 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). It started with a freelance journalist, Tom Nugent. May 19, 2017. The first clue in the disappearance was found pretty early her car ended up giving some insight into what happened but mostly brought more confusion. He died in 2001, police said. None of these cases have been solved. 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. This photo was not uploaded . Did you encounter any technical issues? 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." She'd said no, but they still kept writing love letters and spending time together. Born in Pittsburgh, Penn., in 1942, reports the Baltimore Sun, Cesnik was described by her younger sister as devoted and rather ambitious. Jerry Oppenheimer For Dailymail.com But, again, that didn't go anywhere, with Maskell always conveniently too busy to talk. It came with the threat that he would tell her father that she'd been "whoring around," and that those consequences would be far worse. Jerry Oppenheimer For Dailymail.com, Pupils take to TikTok as they stage protest at Shenfield High School, Huge urgent police search for missing baby of Constance Marten, King Charles hosts von der Leyen at Windsor Castle, Gabor Mat: No Jewish state without oppressing local population, Putin spy plane before being 'destroyed by pro-Ukraine Belarus group', Amplified jet stream could lead to 'disruptive snow in places', Shocking video shows machete fight playing out in broad daylight, Dashcam captures moment two cars collide on a roundabout, Putin orders intelligence service to find 'scum' who oppose him, Moment supermarket cashier is attacked at work in New York, Police search allotment sheds for Constance Marten's missing baby, Dramatic moment police cars chase driver moments before smash. Maskell denied involvement in any form of abuse. White can only say this about it: Her story is chilling.. It's just a theory one that makes sense, but also one that the police actually can't prove. They got in touch with the local police, reporting that Cesnik had gone missing. But it's not the only theory. 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. They already knew the murderer, but looking further would unearth information he wasn't supposed to know. The 26-year-old nun had been missing for nearly two months. She Was Found Fatally Beaten Two Months After Disappearing in 1969. Her body was found a few months later, discarded unceremoniously in a garbage dump. ', The comments below have not been moderated, By The autopsy reportedly found that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. Cesnik was 26 and on a sabbatical from the Roman Catholic Church. Exposs on the Catholic Church have been steadily being released, with more and more people coming forward over time, but the Church refuses to make a clear statement in the case of A. Joseph Maskell. By 1994, Maskell no longer worked at the high school and was the pastor of Holy Cross Church in Baltimore. Something was clearly wrong, and so, according to the Baltimore Sun, Helen Russell Phillips called on the help of a few friends revs. And this update involves Father Joseph Maskell. And that wasn't the only time he threatened to expose his victims, saying he would get one of the girls expelled and sent to a facility for having done drugs a secret she'd confided in him because she'd thought he loved her. Not every story that Ryan White heard gets told in The Keepers. 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. Gerard Koob it depends on the report) found her car unlocked around 4:40 a.m. on the day after her disappearance. Sharon May states firmly and rudely in her interview that she had absolutely no involvement in any sort of cover-up. 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