After “The Keepers” debuted on Netflix in 2017, the interest in this case has become a world wide phenomenon. As the interests grew, more information has come forward that took this case even further down a rabbit hole.
I had to go there, so forthwith are as many new revelations that I could find on this amazing woman’s murder.
LET’S RECAP
Sister Cathy Cesnik, a nun and a respected teacher at Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore, went out to buy a wedding gift in November 1969. She never came back. A few months later she was discovered, lying on her back on a frozen hillside, far from home, her skull broken. Joyce Malecki, another young lady, was slain around the same time and found in a creek, laying face down. Investigations, notably into Sister Cathy’s murder, lasted decades, but neither crime was solved.
The story begins with Gemma Hoskins and Abbie Schaub, two of the greatest gumshoes you could imagine, both in their 60s. They’re both retired and have devoted most of their time to studying the death of Sister Cathy, a treasured teacher from their childhood. Abbie is a more introverted, detail-oriented researcher. Gemma is more outgoing, with a talent for reading people and persuading them to chat. They are strikingly low-tech at times. Their suspect board is made out of labeled coffee filters connected by lines. They’ve also developed a dedicated Facebook community of former classmates, crowdsourcing recollections and clues, many of whom were surprised and pleased to have a voice and forum after so many years, and to realize that they weren’t alone in their nightmares.
In this meticulously edited series, director Ryan White interviews key witnesses, police, former students from the school where Cesnik worked, local journalists, and a surprisingly small number of church members, painstakingly unearthing the complex story like a paleontologist with a fine paintbrush. His entry point is a group of determined sixty-something former Sister Cathy students who join together to find out what occurred, despite the passage of time and the continual rejection of any justice. It is, after all, their narrative.
At the end of each episode, a new fact is dropped into the narrative like a bombshell that led you to sit on the edge of your seat waiting for the next episode. I remember specifically, after the first episode ended, knowing that I was not going to sleep until I watched every episode, and remarking how beautifully the film was made.
What began as a cold case becomes a horrifying story of systemic abuse, suppressed memory, and institutional rank-closing from the Archdiocese of the Baltimore Catholic church, Baltimore police, and the Maryland state prosecution team.
Father Anthony Joseph Maskell, student counsellor at Archbishop Keough school, was the main alleged abuser, known to have inflicted years of sexual abuse on his young charges. Every attempt to indict him was deflected because, according the victims, the police and even a local doctor were complicit.
The series very thoughtfully reveals the significant players and their backstories, their connection to Cathy and the day she went missing. Some connections are clear, some vague, but the list of possible people involved in her murder was staggering by the end.
Sadly, no one has been arrested for the murder of Sister Cathy or Joyce Malecki, which current police investigators and the gumshoes feel are connected. Maskell and all the other abusers pointed to are long dead, and the Archdiocese still refuses to cooperate in the investigations.
If you need more information about the series itself, I encourage you to stop now, watch “The Keepers” in full, then continue to read this article.
Most of the new information was revealed in a podcast called Foul Play, produced and moderated by Shane Waters and his occasional and serial cohost Gemma Hoskins. The Facebook page The Keepers Official Group – Justice for Catherine Cesnik and Joyce Malecki is an ongoing discussion of the cases with a world wide audience of people fascinated and passionate about finding ways to solve the mysteries.
The following discoveries will not be in order of discovery, as each one is a revelation within itself, but I’m holding what I believe to be the most incredible news for the end. There will be several installments of the discoveries found.
Liz, the medical assistant for Dr. Richter
Gemma and Waters interview ‘Liz’, who shares details from her time working for Dr. Christian Richter. You may recall that Father Maskell allegedly took students he was sexually abusing to Dr. Richter for abortions.
Liz said her job was to be the witness to his examinations during regular business hours. She explains the office was on the first floor, and that was her work place. Her sister worked there as well, and she joined right after her education ended and saw it like a family business. She was very young herself and never knew or heard any rumors.
However, she was found to be dismissed often when the patients undressed, which she found uncomfortable, knew it broke the law and was potentially devastating for the doctor. As she was more protective toward him, she worried that he might jeopardize his practice, and she took her concerns to the office manager. The office manager quickly responded for her to mind her own business.
She soon found that Dr. Richter also had an identical office in the basement, locked and unmarked, where he took some patients after hours. She witnessed it a few times when she was leaving a little later than usual.
Also at that time, she witnessed two priests bringing very young girls into the practice. They were quiet and acted embarrassed and ashamed. Liz presumed that they were being counseled after a discovery of sexual promiscuity. She said Richter scolded the priests and had them go out and reenter into the basement, where they were to meet.
This was when her gut told her something was wrong. She became increasingly uncomfortable. She never interacted with these after hours girls, as they were never seen during regular business hours.
At one point, she heard from nurse friends at the hospital that Maskill brought three young girls at 11 p.m. for what the notes said were D&C’s that Richter performed. They left at 2 a.m. The supervisor of the floor was told about this odd occurrence, and in response she moved the nurse who complained to another unit.
One thing she noted was his décor, which holds significance later on. He was a collector of vintage medical equipment. One piece she remembers well, because she thought it was so cool, was a small box, easy to carry, and inside it held a vintage shock treatment machine.
Liz ended up working for Dr. Richter for ten years. She thought he was an amazing doctor at that time, because he trained her carefully and required her to speak well, as articulation was expected out of his employees.
Now she feels terrible, of course. She realizes she protected him and didn’t think about the girls and what they may be going through, but she rightly points out that at the time, doctors were gods, and you don’t question them. Couple that with her immaturity, and that Dr. Richter was probably an expert in manipulation and deceit, and it’s clear how this could happen.
The Brother
“The Brother” was an unnamed man who came forward to talk to Gemma with his daughter. His experiences throw another dark deep wrinkle into this incredible story.
As a young man, he wanted to teach in the city and work with underprivileged children as a religious brother with the Catholic Church.
He went to high school in Philadelphia, studied physics and math/science in college in the same city, then got his masters in religious studies.
When he entered his service, he got an assignment in Western Maryland, teaching children who were extremely destitute. He told of real starvation with these children, so hungry they would pass out in the class. This was in a boys’ school, and after these brothers worked with these students, he proudly exclaimed that many went on to college.
He was moved to Harrisburg, Pa., teaching for another boys’ school, and his program was so successful that he was sent to Baltimore, Md. to teach workshops for the teachers with the Catholic schools there. That is where he met Sister Cathy Cesnik.
As everyone did, he liked her very much. She was an eager student and loved learning how to better her own teaching skills. It was always a professional friendship, he notes, but she was someone he remembered very well. Her spirit was one that no one could forget.
After Sister Cathy went missing, but before her body was found, The Brother held a prayer for her during his seminar. He noted that Father Maskell was present, as he knew who he was, but this was not common.
After the seminar, a nun approached him and asked if he would give Father Maskell a ride to his car parked far away. He agreed, of course. When he approached Maskell to let him know this was fine, he remembered feeling that Maskell was very odd. Not friendly, but stiff and deliberate.
When they went out to the car, Maskell asked him if he would take him to pick something up nearby, before he took him to his car. The Brother agreed, but his red flags were up. He did not feel particularly comfortable with Maskell.
He pointed at a row of apartments and had The Brother park behind them. He asked The Brother to follow him up and help him carry something out. Hesitant, The Brother agreed again, though he said that Maskell was talking very strange, like there was another meaning behind his words.
The went up the stairs to the second floor and down a long hallway. Maskell had a key, and without touching the door or knob, he put the key in the lock and said, “It doesn’t work. Can you turn the knob and push it open?”
The Brother looked at the door and back at Maskell, and every thing in his subconscious told him to get out of there. He backed away, told him he was not comfortable, and he needed to go. Maskell was visibly angry as he followed him down the stairs without saying anything, after not trying the door anymore at all.
As The Brother got back in the car, he asked Maskell to tell him where his car was, and Maskell pointed back to the school where they left from. His car, as it turns out, was within a short walking distance, and Maskell could have originally walked there with ease.
As the Brother thought about this incident throughout the years, after the details and accusations came out in the 90’s, he has come to a clear and chilling conclusion about this strange encounter.
The Brother is certain that Maskell was trying to set him up as the killer of Sister Cathy. Maskell knew The Brother knew her and liked her a lot, and Maskell would have only to dump her body in the room, lead his police friends to find her. With The Brother’s fingerprints on the door and knob, he would have been arrested, tried, and sent to prison for the rest of his life.
Beth, the friend/student of Sister Russell Phillips
Beth, now 60 years old, was a student at Martin Spaulding High School, graduating in 1979. She knew Sister Russell Phillips (Russ, as she was known to others) well as a teacher, but by then her name was Mrs. Welch, as she had left her station as a nun and gotten married.
Beth knew Sister Russell because of something that happened in her neighborhood and its incredible connection to what happened to Sister Cathy Cesnik.
In 1977, when Beth was a sophomore, there was a triple murder in her neighborhood. As it happens, she lived across the street from a victim, and the victim’s sister was her good friend.
To Beth, it was a devastating blow. She felt it must have shown on her face, because when she went back to school, Russ pulled her aside and said asked her, “You know what happened to me, don’t you?”
Beth knew, as Sister Cathy’s murder was still on the tongues of many, especially gossipy teens, and it got around that Mrs. Welch was actually a former nun and had lived with Sister Cathy.
Beth nodded. It was at that moment that Russ and her became friends. She often checked up with Beth and made sure she wasn’t suffering from what had happened. They never talked specifically about Sister Cathy, but Beth knew that Russ understood her pain, grief and fear, and she had someone to turn to when she needed someone to talk to.
On the last day of school, the year that Beth graduated, she ran into Russ’s room to have her sign her yearbook, and to tell her how important she had been to her.
Russ took Beth’s face in her hands, looked deep into her eyes and said, “Don’t ever let a man be superior to you.”
Beth said that she never saw Russ again, as her life took her elsewhere, but she never forgot that moment and what she told her.
As the years went by, the advice took on a deeper meaning, and Beth now can understand how important that advice meant to Russ.
Please stay tuned for more installments of discoveries. The best is yet to come.