A new development may add another chapter to the story of Sister Cathy Cesnik, the nun whose murder was the focus of the Netflix blockbuster documentary series, “The Keepers.”
Later this month, the FBI plans to exhume the body of Joyce Malecki, a 20-year-old woman who was brutally murdered and whose body was discovered at Fort Meade, two days after disappearing while Christmas shopping at Harundale Mall in 1969. Both locations are in Maryland.
Malecki’s murder was explored in “The Keepers”, a 2017 documentary that investigated rampant sexual abuse at Archbishop Keogh High School, an all-girls high school in Baltimore. At least 39 survivors have come forward to say that a priest there, Fr. A. Joseph Maskell, used information from the confessional to bring victims in for counseling in his office. From there, Maskell drugged and raped the students. The school is now closed.
At the time of her disappearance and murder, Malecki lived with her family approximately two blocks from the rectory where Maskell was staying. According to the documentary, Sister Cathy, who was a teacher at Keogh High School, was gathering information to report Maskell when she was murdered. Although family members do not know whether there is a connection between Malecki’s murder and Sr. Cathy and Maskell, Malecki’s brother indicated to the Baltimore Banner that they are “hoping for closure” with the exhumation.
On October 1, 2023, the Maryland Child Victims Act took effect allowing survivors of child sexual abuse to take legal action no matter when the abuse first occurred. In the wake of this legislation, the Archdioceses of Baltimore filed for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy reorganization. This expected and ill-fated decision by the archdiocese is a shallow attempt by the bishop to harbor perpetrators, conceal assets, and shield the truth from survivors of sexual abuse.