death cathy cesnik autopsy photos
[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. 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. More: Every Original Series Cancelled By Netflix. The next time the young nun was seen, it was by a female student from Cesnik's school, Archbishop Keough High School. We know this speculation about the circumstances is not false, because Jean Hargadon Wehner tells us in the show that she has evidence proving otherwise. "The Keepers" premieres on Netflix May 19. May 19, 2017. Baltimore County Police exhumed the body of a priest for DNA testing in the case 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. ", Up Next: Netflix Hidden Gems For Sci-Fi And Fantasy Lovers. A. Joseph Maskell. 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. But that charming faade was shattered in 1992. According to the Baltimore Sun report on Cesnik's death, Malecki was a 20-year-old from nearby Lansdowne at the time of her death. One of the most famous pieces of evidence from the show is the cigarette butt shown in episode six, found near Sister Cathys body. Were not going to let this go, Hoskins said. Sister Cathy was a teacher at Archbishop Keough High School and went missing in Baltimore in 1969. Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik was last seen alive on November 7, 1969. Unless some brave sleuths or particularly inspired detectives go digging, Keough High School is now, for better or worse, closed to a continuing story. They say they were trying to find enough evidence for viewers to conclude that the nun's murder, and the sexual abuse must be related. He'd mostly target students who were struggling, either academically or at home, calling them in for "therapy," where he used his charms to manipulate them into believing he knew what was best for them. 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. In spite of the Freedom of Information Act, the federal government has continuously neglected to provide Gemma Hoskins with this information. But amidst the many . It's one of those terrible truths of the world that bad things happen to good people. 2. Updated Giangrasso, pointing to the discovery of the car, and the fact that it was returned close to where Sister Cathy lived, theorized that the killer was someone who she knew and possibly whom she trusted. But that lead didn't go anywhere. Stories shared by Capital Gazette showed that Cesnik was thought of fondly by all the people she'd worked with, despite being a teacher at Western High School for only a couple months. But when he was questioned by the police, he had an ironclad alibi for the night of Sister Cathy's disappearance. In that case, Cesnik might've been killed to stop her from actually being able to do that. RELATED:Netflixs Tiger King: 15 Best Joe Exotic Quotes. 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. Almost 50 years ago, a Baltimore nun named Sister Catherine Cesnik was found choked and beaten to death . And the oldest was in her 20's.. 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. The green 1970 Maverick had been parked illegally near the apartment. Much like the government, the Catholic Church has their own internal system for keeping track of the people who make up their organization. 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 that's where things get hazy. 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. This photo was not uploaded . ', They were told to 'stop harassing him,' he said. [1] Her body was discovered on January 3, 1970, near a garbage dump in the Baltimore suburb of Lansdowne. Priests regularly got away scot-free. She was found dead two months later. For us, our bar was more about bringing these womens experiences to light and starting this conversation.. Still a mystery. Catherine Anne Cesnik SSND (born November 17, 1942; disappeared November 7, 1969) was an American Catholic religious sister who taught English and drama at Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore, Maryland. 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. 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. 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. The unsolved slaying of Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik in Baltimore in 1969 hit another dead end Wednesday when police learned that DNA from a long-deceased priest did not match crime scene evidence . . See more ideas about catherine, documentaries, unsolved murders. I don't understand what happens on the other side, she said. November 1969: Sister Cathy Cesnik disappears. "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. Sister Catherine Cesnik is pictured with her father, Joseph Cesnik. But, somehow, that evidence vanished, never making it to court. May 11, 2017 at 2:54 pm. Audiences reacted poorly to how cold, smarmy, and arrogant Sharon May appeared to be, and with good reason: they have every reason to believe she was very much involved in a cover-up for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, evident enough from her complete inaction throughout the case. Sister Catherine Cesnik is pictured with her father, Joseph Cesnik. 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. He was permanently removed from the ministry in 1994. Her body was found in Lansdowne, south of Baltimore, on January 3, 1970. 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.". Her body was found a few months later, discarded unceremoniously in a garbage dump. Theres no question she told them she would do something about it.. It seems that either the Archdiocese is lying about having investigated the accusations, or the Archdiocese is lying about having internal records on A. Joseph Maskell. Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik was 26 when she disappeared in 1969; her body was found weeks later. 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. Another article put out by the Baltimore Sun tried to paint a clearer image of the evening. After a week of teaching, Sister Cathy, a member of the Sisters of Notre Dame, and the daughter of a Pennsylvania postal worker, decided on Friday night that she was going to go shopping. One of Baltimores most infamous cold cases, Cesniks death is the subject of a new documentary series, The Keepers, which releases May 19 on Netflix. 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. It just means that there's no link between Maskell and the crime scene. Father A. Joseph Maskell was a person of interest for a reason, it seemed. While she was still working at Keough, she definitely had some idea of what Maskell was doing, and when he called one of the students in for "therapy," she did what she could. There might have been more going on here than just bad luck. A writ of certiorari was granted by the Maryland Court of Appeals, which upheld the lower court decision, ruling in part, "that the mental process of repression of memories of past sexual abuse does not activate the discovery rule. No matter how wrong it seems, it's happened too many times, and the case of Sister Catherine Cesnik is one of those examples. 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.. She Was Found Fatally Beaten Two Months After Disappearing in 1969. But, on top of that, she had a natural gift for teaching. He was said to have allowed girls at the school to talk about sex and drugs in his office, and even permitted alcohol and cigarettes during gatherings in his rectory living quarters. [6] At 4:40am the next morning, Russell's friends, Peter McKeon and Gerard J. Koob, both Catholic priests, found Cesnik's car, in muddy condition, and illegally parked across from her apartment complex. Cesnik went missing on the night of Nov. 7, 1969 after stopping by a local shopping center to pick up buns from a bakery, cash a check and buy an engagement present for her sister, the Sun . 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. Nicole currently resides in Massachusetts with their husband and two best friends. 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. Father Neil Magnus Is A Possible Suspect On 'The Keepers'. 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). But Maskell's case was complicated further by his ties to the police force through his work as a military chaplain. Potential suspects seem like they should shed some light on a case, but that wasn't the case here, as Huffpost documents. One of the friends Helen Phillips had called upon, Koob had been dating Catherine Cesnik at the time. Inside Baltimore sheds some light on the idea that Cesnik's murder wasn't a lone incident. 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. Catherine Cesnik's disappearance scared a lot of people. 1 of 40. Police dropped him as a target before he died. The autopsy concluded her cause of death . More than 40 years after her death, the case of Sister Cathy Cesnik's murder is still unsolved ', One former student, Teresa Lancaster, told WJZ-TV in Baltimore, that Sister Cathy had 'confronted' Maskell 'and she lost her life for it.'. However, White did still get to talk to them he even got to talk to the anonymous student he mentions in the series. When she was reported missing later that night, several dozen cops and half-a-dozen dog teams unsuccessfully searched a wide swath of Baltimore's southwest neighborhood searching for clues to her whereabouts. 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.. "The Keepers" premieres on Netflix May 19. A headline in a Baltimore newspaper blared: 'City Police Fail To Find Missing Nun.'. "For now, we've pretty well reached the end of the road when it comes to forensic evidence," Elise Armacost, a spokesperson for the Baltimore County Police Department said. [13], Netflix produced a seven-part documentary series about the case called The Keepers, which debuted on May 19, 2017. Jane Doe (Jean Wehner) is quoted as recalling a man she knew only as Brother Bob, who she can hardly remember from being traumatized so badly by him, whispering to her that he was the one who had killed Sister Cathy. All rights reserved. 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. One of the most frustrating aspects of being a true crime fan is dealing with endless cover-ups from authorities and government entities, like police and the FBI. Copyright 2023 PopCulture.com. But investigators found only a few inconsistencies in some statements, and detectives were unable to find any damning evidence against the priest. The service at the at Sacred Heart Catholic Church in Pinehurst, North Carolina lasted 1 hour. [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. Maskell was a police chaplain and he knew people in high places that's how they got away with it. The weapon that caused it? Regardless of why the school is closing, the walls will never be able to talk now. Her case has remained open ever since, Armacost said. Investigators dug up Maskell's grav to compare the DNA of Maskell, to evidence from the crime scene. Joyce Helen Malecki, 20, disappeared from Harundale Mall a few days after Cesnik; her . She was last seen just before leaving . [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. Stuff being crimes, and they're walking around.. Did you encounter any technical issues? 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? Crime Museumadds that the car itself was newly caked in mud. It was actual, hard evidence that would at least be enough to arrest Maskell for possessing child pornography. She was found dead two months later. . 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. She'd said no, but they still kept writing love letters and spending time together. They revealed themselves in "The Keepers" thanks to documentary filmmakers Ryan White and Jessica Hargrave. With twigs and branches found in the car, police thought that they might have a pretty good lead, as the Baltimore Sun explained. Without getting into a bunch of complicated legal jargon, victims of abuse would've had three years to come forward. The Huffington Post reported that Maskell told Wehner, "You see what happens when you say bad things about people?"[1]. So we didn't want to set that as our bar, Hargrave said. 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. On February 28, police opened the grave of Rev. ', He claimed that the detectives were told to either charge the priest 'or let him go. 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). 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. 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 . Discovery Company. Those who knew her at the time said that she wouldn't allow any conversation about Cesnik's death, saying that was her life before, and that she now had a new life. I agree. 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?'. By William Cannon 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. by Caralynn Lippo. It was apparently a fixation for Maskell, who would then perform his own mock "exams" on the girls, flaunting his authority and power. . Investigators didn't really buy that, thinking that he knew more than he let on, but the church forced them to stop searching. She acted like a savior to his victims, and Huffpost compiled a number of those stories. The case remains open and unsolved. 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