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Post by kitty on Jan 8, 2016 12:39:03 GMT -5
It does look that way. But what if she was one of those psychotic women who imagined an intimate relationship with the priest? If you really pay attention to what she wrote, she doesn't say anything about being worried that her period was late and I would think that if there was something between them, considering that she was a nun, she would have been very worried. Koob was a sleazeball, but he could have been telling the truth. Of course, he did later leave the church and become a Methodist, probably because Methodist ministers don't have to be celibate. You could be right, Jason. I've heard of women imagining they have an affair with a man and they're so convincing that everyone believes them. Men have fantasies like that too, like those celebrity stalkers. I'd like to read the entire letter that she wrote, if someone can find and post it.
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alan
New Member
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Post by alan on Apr 17, 2016 9:42:12 GMT -5
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Post by kitty on Apr 17, 2016 13:31:06 GMT -5
Thanks for the links. I missed the Law & Order show based on this case. If I don't see it in a rerun, I'll have to wait until this season is released on DVD.
In the Huffington Post story, they stated that Cathy and the priest were having a sexual affair, but I'm still not convinced that they were.
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Post by madeline on Apr 21, 2016 22:54:27 GMT -5
Thanks for the links. I missed the Law & Order show based on this case. If I don't see it in a rerun, I'll have to wait until this season is released on DVD.
In the Huffington Post story, they stated that Cathy and the priest were having a sexual affair, but I'm still not convinced that they were. I know that people can imagine they're romantically involved with someone so much that they begin to believe it themselves. It's also possible that as a nun, she wouldn't have had sex before marriage, but either way, there was something going on between them and even the priest admitted that he asked her to marry him.
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Post by mabarker62 on Feb 5, 2017 22:51:16 GMT -5
I know many of the people involved in this story and Maskell was my Priest. The girl who saw the Nun at the dump was her student which is how she recognized her, she is not crazy. Maskell took her to see the dead Nun to warn her off of telling what was going on. Yes they were teenagers being plied with drugs and alcohol and threatened by the Priest and others. In those days Priests were worshiped. The Baltimore City Police were complicit because Maskell's brother was a high ranking officer in the BCPD and Maskell was the Police Pyschiatrist.
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Post by mabarker62 on Feb 5, 2017 22:55:03 GMT -5
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Post by jason on Feb 6, 2017 1:29:30 GMT -5
Thanks for sharing this info. Because you knew the principals involved, was Sister Cathy and Koob having an affair? Or were they just exceptionally close friends?
BTW, "mabarker62" is a cool name. I like it.
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Post by pat on Feb 6, 2017 13:47:29 GMT -5
I don't blame Sister Cathy at all, but the letter that she wrote to Koob wasn't what would be considered normal for a nun to write to a priest. Also, he did leave the priesthood and got married, so his vow of chastity didn't mean much.
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Post by Graveyardbride on Feb 9, 2017 21:45:32 GMT -5
Police Continue to Pursue Leads in ‘Sister Cathy’ CaseBALTIMORE – Nearly five decades after the death of a nun who taught at Archbishop Keough High School, Baltimore County police say they are still working the case. The body of Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik was discovered January 3, 1970, in a field off Monumental Avenue in Lansdowne. The 26-year-old woman had gone missing approximately two months earlier after leaving her Baltimore home to go shopping.
Officer Jennifer Peach, a spokeswoman for the county police, said detectives have been conducting interviews in recent months. A cold-case investigator is reexamining evidence after the retirement of a detective who previously worked the case, she added. “Over the years, we developed several people of interest,” she advised. The case “remains open and under active investigation.” However, she added, “we have no new evidence to add to the case at this point.”
Two women who say they have spoken with investigators were featured in an interview that aired Wednesday on WJZ-TV, The Sun’s media partner.
Police have reexamined the case over the years, including in the 1990s, when a woman came forward with allegations of sexual abuse by A. Joseph Maskell, a priest who worked as a chaplain and counselor at Keough. She implicated Maskell in Cesnik’s death. Maskell died in 2001. Before his death, he denied allegations of abuse or any knowledge of Cesnik’s killing.
In November, The Sun reported on a series of settlements the Archdiocese of Baltimore reached with about a dozen people who said they were abused by Maskell.Source: Alison Knezevich, The Baltimore Sun, February 9, 2017.
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Post by Graveyardbride on May 5, 2017 19:51:01 GMT -5
Catholic Priest Exhumed in ‘Sister Cathy’ CaseBaltimore County police dug up the grave of a Catholic priest who died in 2001 as part of the investigation into the unsolved murder of a Baltimore nun 46 years ago. The case is the subject of a soon-to-be-released documentary. County police said they exhumed the body of A. Joseph Maskell (above) to compare his DNA with crime scene evidence in the cold case of Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik, whose body was found in Lansdowne in January 1970. The priest’s body was exhumed Feb. 28 at Holy Family Cemetery in Randallstown and returned to the grave the same day, county police spokeswoman Elise Armacost advised.
Cesnik’s case is the subject of the upcoming Netflix documentary The Keepers, a seven-part series premiering May 19. The documentary explores the theory that 26-year-old Cathy Cesnik was killed because she had knowledge of sexual abuse committed by Maskell. Abuse allegations emerged in the 1990s against Maskell, who had worked as a chaplain and guidance counselor at Archbishop Keough High School. The Archdiocese has reached settlements with at least a dozen people who said he abused them.
Abuse allegations against Maskell emerged in the 1990s. He had worked as a chaplain and guidance counselor at Archbishop Keough High School. The Archdiocese has reached settlements with at least a dozen women who said he abused them.
One of the alleged victims who came forward with allegations of abuse by the priest has implicated him in the nun’s death. Prior to his demise, Maskell, who was removed from the ministry in 1994, denied allegations of abuse and said he had no knowledge of Cesnik’s death.
Investigators “have never established that [Cesnik] was killed because of information that she had about abuse in the Catholic Church,” Armacost admitted, though she acknowledged it is one theory, among others, that police have pursued. She said there is little physical evidence remaining in the decades-old case, but detectives “felt very strongly that in the interest of leaving no stone unturned, it was necessary to exhume Maskell’s body and compare his DNA to the evidence that is remaining.” It will take up to six more weeks before the results of DNA testing are complete, Armacost added. She declined to specify what evidence remains from the crime scene.
There has long been speculation as to whether Maskell might be connected to Cesnik’s murder. Attorney Joanne Suder, who has represented the women who accused Maskell of sexual abuse, revealed that at least one client told her she confided in Cesnik concerning the abuse and the nun said she would tell “higher-ups.” Suder added: “I think if the various law enforcement agencies had done a proper job in the ‘70s, that could have avoided the necessity to do [an exhumation] in 2017.”
Archdiocese of Baltimore spokesman Sean Caine said Thursday the exhumation “was total news to us,” quickly adding, “We support it, especially if it helps lead them to a definitive conclusion about what happened. The archdiocese has been completely open and transparent with everything that we know.” After Maskell was removed from the ministry following the abuse allegations, he went to Ireland, Caine explained. Church officials here learned of his whereabouts in the summer of 1996, when the archdiocese received an inquiry from an Irish bishop asking whether Maskell was in good standing. According to Caine, the priest was living in Wexford, Ireland, when archdiocesan officials wrote advising he was not to perform any priestly duties and requesting he return to Baltimore, Caine. In 1998, the archdiocese learned Maskell had returned to the United States and was living at Stella Maris, a Catholic nursing facility in Timonium, Maryland.
Since the 1990s, police have gathered the DNA of approximately six other people as part of the investigation into Cesnik’s death, Armacost advised. She also said investigators have identified another suspect who is still living, but declined to offer any details.
Cesnik taught at Archbishop Keough High School and then Western High School, and lived with another nun in southwest Baltimore. She went missing in November 1969 after going to a bank to cash a $255 paycheck and then to the Edmondson Village Shopping Center, where she bought buns at a bakery. Her body was discovered January 3, 1970, in a field off Monumental Avenue. She had suffered blunt force trauma to the head.
County police said Thursday they also are exploring possible connections between Cesnik’s death and those of three other women whose bodies were found in other jurisdictions: 20-year-old Joyce Helen Malecki, who disappeared days after Cesnik and whose body was found at Fort Meade; 16-year-old Pamela Lynn Conyers, whose corpse was discovered in Anne Arundel County in 1970; and 16-year-old Grace Elizabeth “Gay” Montanye, who was found in 1971 in South Baltimore. “They all went missing from shopping areas in roughly the same time period,” said Armacost, explaining the other deaths have not been connected to Maskell.
Under Maryland law, corpses can be exhumed only with the permission of a state’s attorney, said Baltimore County State’s Attorney Scott Shellenberger, who signed a letter authorizing the exhumation of Maskell’s body. “At this moment, that’s the extent of our office’s rôle,” he added. According to Shellenberger, his office authorizes exhumations about twice a month – but most are because a family member is relocating and wants to move his/her loved one’s grave to be closer to them. “This may have been the first one I’ve ever done for a criminal investigation,” said Shellenberger, who took office in 2007. Source: Alison Knezevich, The Baltimore Sun, May 4, 2017.
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Post by pat on May 6, 2017 10:19:39 GMT -5
I know that looks can be deceptive, but the priest doesn't look like a pervert and certainly not like a killer.
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Post by Graveyardbride on May 6, 2017 11:39:35 GMT -5
Former Priest Tells What Really Happened to Sister CathyIt’s been almost a half-century since 26-year-old nun and teacher Sister Cathy Cesnik was senselessly murdered back in 1969 – and to this day, those closest to her are still searching for answers when it comes to her death.
After her body – which was covered with choke marks on her neck and a hole in the back of her head – was discovered in a dump by a group of hunters, people immediately pointed fingers at a priest named Father Joseph Maskell, who worked at the Archbishop Keough High School with Sister Cathy, after it was revealed that he was sexually molesting, abusing and raping the young women at the school, many of whom confided in Sister Cathy about the harassment.
But after a group of Keough alums conducted their own investigation into Sister Cathy’s disappearance and murder – which will be the focus of the upcoming Netflix docu-series, they were able to reveal what they believe to be the truth: Not only is Maskell responsible, but he also wasn’t acting alone.
Sister Cathy’s close friend, Pastor Gerard Koob (above), exclusively tells In Touch that he believes Maskell hired a hitman – and that man is still alive today. “I still think Maskell is the key person responsible for her death, but [he] arranged for her to be assassinated,” he claims. “She was killed because she knew too much.”
According to former students, Maskell would “prey” on the young women who were in vulnerable situations by calling them into his office. Many of those students would confide in Sister Cathy, a 26-year-old teacher loved by the students.
Despite the fact many believe Maskell was responsible, he was never charged with her murder and he died in 2001. “I’m convinced the church was protecting him,” Nick Giangrasso – a former detective with the Baltimore Police Department’s Homicide Unit – tells In Touch. “Maskell was the No. 1 guy we wanted to talk to, but he was always busy and never available.”
Not only was Maskell not charged with her murder, he wasn’t punished for any of his other crimes either – although in 2010, the Archdiocese of Baltimore apologized to Maskell’s victims and paid out of court settlements.
With the new-found interest in the case because of the Netflix series, Sister Cathy’s former students are still holding out hope that justice will one day be served. “She was truly amazing, and she could have done so much more with her life, but it was cut short,” Gemma Hoskins, one of her former students, tells In Touch, adding that one day, things will be made right, not only for Sister Cathy, but also all the victims. “These women do not deserve what happened to them.”Source: Cathy Sitzer, In Touch Weekly, May 3, 2017.
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Post by jason on May 6, 2017 12:58:12 GMT -5
I know that looks can be deceptive, but the priest doesn't look like a pervert and certainly not like a killer. Neither did Ted Bundy.
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Post by kitty on May 6, 2017 21:06:07 GMT -5
I would really like for this case to be solved. But I have a hard time believing some of what the priest has been accused of. Even if young people didn't share things like sexual abuse back then, it seems to me that something like that would have gotten back to at least one parent and something would have been done about it. Are any of the accusations the women made who filed the lawsuit from what are called repressed memories?
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Post by Sam on May 8, 2017 3:17:06 GMT -5
I know that looks can be deceptive, but the priest doesn't look like a pervert and certainly not like a killer. I know what you mean. There's always been something very strange about this case. I don't see how a priest could have got away with all that he's been accused of and the police who were investigating in the '70s never heard about any of it.
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