The FBI is set to exhume the body of a murder victim whose case was profiled on a Netflix true crime docuseries, “The Keepers.” Joyce Helen Malecki, 20, had gone missing four days after a slain nun, Sister Cathy Cesnik, 26.
Malecki’s brother, Darryl, said that an FBI investigator told him that they’ve tentatively scheduled his sibling’s exhumation for Dec. 14, according to The Baltimore Banner. It is unclear what investigators specifically hope to find.
Cesnik had lived at a rectory for St. Clement Catholic Church. Malecki’s family lived two blocks away, according to Darryl. But he said he did not necessarily think there was a connection between his sister’s and Cesnik’s death.
Joyce Helen Malecki disappeared on Nov. 11, 1969, after going Christmas shopping at Harundale Mall. Hunters found her body two days later in Fort Meade. (Screenshot: WJZ)
“The Keepers” profiled the allegation that Cesnik was murdered after students at the now-closed all-girls Catholic school where she taught, Archbishop Keough High School, told her about them being sexually abused.
The abuse allegations centered around the Rev. A. Joseph Maskell and the Rev. Neil Magnus. Students said that the men used the confessional to target vulnerable girls, and brought them into their offices for what were supposed to be counseling sessions. Maskell and Magnus allegedly drugged the students in the abuse.
The Maryland Office of the Attorney General says 39 women and men have reportedly brought claims against Maskell in Keough and other schools and parishes where he worked.
No one has been arrested for that abuse — both priests have died — nor has anyone been arrested for Cesnik’s and Malecki’s disappearances and murders.
Malecki went missing on Nov. 11, 1969, after going Christmas shopping at Harundale Mall, according to the Banner. Hunters found her body two days later at Fort Meade. Her hands had been bound, she had been strangled and stabbed in the throat.
Cesnik was found dead in a wooded area in January 1970.
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