In the 1990s, sexual assault and abuse allegations began to surface against Maskell, who had served as a chaplain at Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore. Maskell denied involvement in any form of abuse. A Warner Bros. Ryan White's aunt attended Archbishop Keough High School, and had stayed in touch with Jean Hargadon-Wehner. Crime Museumadds that the car itself was newly caked in mud. Details. The trial court dismissed the action as time-barred by the statute of limitations. Many of the parents in the area would regularly attend his masses and let him baptize their children. 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. Another woman, Teresa Lancaster, also came forward. Joseph Cesnik in 1930 Census; Census Place: Pittsburgh, Allegheny, Pennsylvania; 1930 United States Federal Census; National Archives and Records Administration. 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. The Boston Archdiocese had been regularly making private settlements, paying for silence when it came to reports of abuse by priests. Copyright 2022 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. November 1969: Sister Cathy Cesnik disappears. (Cesnik) was a nun. 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. Not every story that Ryan White heard gets told in The Keepers. 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. 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. 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 . Eluding police questioning, Maskell eventually ran off to Ireland in 1994 to work as a priest. The mutilated body of the 26-year-old teacher was found on January 3, 1970. , updated ', 'Before I knew it, there was a big man on top of me and then I thought that would be it and another policeman came in and I could hear Maskell in the distance talking and laughing. September 2, 2018 / nickvdl. The exact area couldn't actually be reached by car, meaning that she would've been forced to walk there, or possibly carried. The church was her life and the people important to her were in the church, said Armacost. Netflix's documentary series "The Keepers" dives into the case and uncovers a web of abuse that may . . The details go on, and none of them are pretty. Sister Catherine 'Cathy' Cesnik, a pretty and popular 26-year-old nun who taught at an all-girls Catholic school in Baltimore, was last seen by her roommate, another nun, going off to shop on the evening of Friday November 7, 1969. 2. Updated No one really knows exactly what happened to Cesnik. 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. It was actual, hard evidence that would at least be enough to arrest Maskell for possessing child pornography. Later in 1994, authorities exhumed boxes Maskell had buried in a Baltimore cemetery and found one to contain child pornography. They have internal records on everyone including A. Joseph Maskell. Not two decades. And why should they? Photo of Sister Cathy Cesnik (Image Source: Daily Mail) On November 7, 1969, Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik disappeared. More than 40 years after her death, the case of Sister Cathy Cesnik's murder is still unsolved. But Maskell's case was complicated further by his ties to the police force through his work as a military chaplain. 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). 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. 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." It was thrown out on a technicality, according to Huffpost. However, Spitz, who worked on the case, later confirmed that there had been maggots in both the victim's mouth and trachea when found. [6] Residents at the apartment complex noticed Cesnik in her car at approximately 8:30 that night, and others spotted her car illegally parked across the street about two hours later. murders for possible connections to Sister Cathy. 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. 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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. And now the streaming, seven-part Netflix documentary, The Keepers, has investigated the case and will feature interviews with victims of the school abuse, and new revelations. After the series premiered, messages started to arrive from around the world with new information. 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 Murder. 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. 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. Other times, he would arrange full pseudo brothels. After that, it seemed like she paid a visit to Muhly's Bakery inside the Hecht Company store in Edmondson Village. The autopsy reportedly found that the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head. 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. But that's where things get hazy. RELATED:10 Best True Crime Shows On Netflix. 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. Gemma Hoskins has helped dozens of victims get in touch with their investigators. 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). Sister Catherine Cesnik is pictured with her father, Joseph Cesnik. They encourage everyone reading this to question everything, stay hydrated, and treat others with kindness. Unfortunately, Russell is . There was a general backlash against it, and a Catholic psychiatrist argued that memories like that couldn't be repressed then recovered. 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. "Buried in Baltimore: The Mysterious Murder of a Nun Who Knew Too Much", "Justice for Sister Cathy is Long Overdue", "With New Lead, Police Reopen Old Murder Case", "Timeline: The Sister Catherine Cesnik Case", "Sister Catherine Cesnik Case: Missing Nun's Body Found in Lansdowne", "Baltimore Priest Victim: Police Were in on Sexual Abuse", "Jane Doe et al. All rights reserved. Wehner alleged that there was frequent sexual abuse at Sister Cathy's school. 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 . [13][14] Police spokeswoman Elise Armacost announced that this discovery does not exclude Maskell from being a suspect in the case. Jan. 3, 1970, changed that. Copyright 2023 PopCulture.com. [13], Netflix produced a seven-part documentary series about the case called The Keepers, which debuted on May 19, 2017. So the case couldn't go forward. Both women have said that she was the only member of the school's staff who helped them and other girls abused by Maskell, et al., and have said that she was murdered prior to discussing the matter with the archdiocese of Baltimore. ', Asked how they could get away with such a crime, Lancaster told the TV news interviewer, 'Power and fear. Students, parents and the local media buzzed about the 26-year-old's disappearance. . The Baltimore Sun reported in late 2016 that since 2011 the archdiocese has paid out settlements to Maskell's alleged victims. [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. Her co-workers had kind words to say about her. However, this is a small step towards justice. The case remains open and unsolved. It was a name he kept hearing in interviews with other priests, and the man had worked with Cesnik while she taught at Keough. Netflix's documentary series "The Keepers" dives into the case and uncovers a web of abuse that may . Priests regularly got away scot-free. 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. 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. In another scenario, James Maskell arrested a man named Phillip Shane after the two of them got into an altercation and Maskell lied about how they came to blows. What the show doesnt touch on, however, is Koobs supposed relationship with Sister Cathy. Jean Wehner also added that, one day, Cesnik took her aside, just to ask if the priests were hurting her. Nicole Mello is an author of horrors, romances, and comedies. 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). I agree. She also talked about what happened after Sister Cathy found out about it. The weapon that caused it? RELATED:Everything Available At Launch On HBO Max. More than 40 years after her death, the case of Sister Cathy Cesnik's murder is still unsolved. It continues to be one of several theories.. Feb 7, 2019 - Justice for Sister Cathy . ', 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.'. This photo was not uploaded . The only evidence that she had been out, were the buns she had bought at the bakery. 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