|
Post by jason on May 8, 2017 8:18:52 GMT -5
I don't understand why Maskell would have killed Sister Cathy because she was about to tell what he was doing. What she said wouldn't have carried any weight unless the girls who had been allegedly sexually assaulted by the priest also came forward and they could have done that without her, which he well knew. I don't think Maskell had anything to do with the nun's death and I have my doubts about the sexual abuse charges.
|
|
|
Post by kitty on May 15, 2017 1:55:15 GMT -5
With all the talk about sexual abuse, something probably happened. But people who accuse priests of sexual abuse get big payouts from the church and this makes me think that some of those women that came forward in the '90s and said that he sexually abused them might have been lying just to get the money.
|
|
|
Post by Graveyardbride on May 17, 2017 19:33:16 GMT -5
Exhumed Priest’s DNA Doesn’t Match that Found at Crime SceneBALTIMORE – A DNA sample taken from a Catholic priest whose remains were exhumed does not match evidence from the unsolved 1969 killing of Baltimore nun Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik, Baltimore County police said Wednesday. The Randallstown grave of the Rev. A. Joseph Maskell was dug up in February so detectives could compare his DNA profile to a sample taken from the nearly 50-year-old crime scene. Police said they received results Wednesday from a forensics lab in Virginia that excluded Maskell as a contributor to the DNA from the scene. The announcement comes days before the premiere of the Netflix documentary series The Keepers, which focuses on the case and is set to be released Friday.
Police spokeswoman Elise Armacost said the results do not necessarily clear Maskell as a suspect, however, they do mean current forensic technology doesn’t provide a physical link between him and the crime scene, she said. “For now, we’ve pretty well reached the end of the road when it comes to forensic evidence,” she added. “Our best hope for solving this case at this point lies with the people who are still alive. And we hope that someone will be able to come forward with conclusive information about the murder.”
Cesnik, who taught at Archbishop Keough and Western high schools, went missing in November 1969. Her car was soon discovered near her southwest Baltimore apartment, but her body wasn’t found until January 1970 in a Lansdowne field. The 26-year-old had suffered blunt force trauma to the head.
Maskell worked at Keough between 1967 and 1975 as a counselor and chaplain. Multiple former students have accused him of sexual abuse. The Keepers, which has seven episodes, examines the theory that Cesnik was killed because she knew about the abuse.
The police department declined to specify what physical evidence remains in the case of the nun’s death. Maskell’s DNA sample was sent to Bode Cellmark Forensics lab in Lorton, Va., they said.
Since the 1990s, police have tested the DNA of about six other suspects in Cesnik’s death, but none matched evidence in the case. As with Maskell, Armacost noted: “The fact that the DNA profiles of the various suspects have not matched the crime scene evidence – it doesn’t necessarily exonerate them.” Police say they also submitted the DNA profile from the crime scene to the FBI’s national database and there have been no matches there, either.
Maskell died in 2001. The Archdiocese of Baltimore says it has reported paying a total of $472,000 in 16 settlements to people who said he abused them, plus $97,000 in additional counseling assistance. Joanne Suder, an attorney who represents victims with abuse claims against Maskell, said more people are talking about the case in light of recent developments and she believes they will turn up new information in the investigation. “Our office has received quite a few important calls that we intend to share with the police,” she added. In the 1990s, a woman who came forward with abuse allegations told police that Maskell had taken her to see Cesnik’s dead body before it was discovered by authorities.
In recent days, the Baltimore archdiocese posted a section of its website outlining its response to the case. The section includes a “Frequently Asked Questions” page and links to diocesan policies on reporting abuse. Archdiocese officials said they first received an accusation concerning Maskell in 1992, which the priest denied. He was working at Holy Cross in Baltimore and was sent for psychological evaluation and treatment. Church officials said they could not corroborate the allegations and he returned to work at St. Augustine in Elkridge in 1993. After additional allegations surfaced, Maskell was removed from the ministry in 1994, according to the archdiocese. He fled to Ireland, where he worked as a psychologist, before returning to the U.S. Source: Alison Knezevich, The Baltimore Sun, May 17, 2017.
|
|
|
Post by jason on May 17, 2017 21:19:33 GMT -5
Pat, Kitty & Sam: Looks like we were right. The priest's DNA didn't match. I also doubt the veracity of those women who claimed he sexually abused them. People will do a lot of things for money, even lie under oath. They could have reasoned that because he had been widely accused, he was guilty, so why not get a little money out of it. Also the lawyer probably encouraged them and coached them as to what they should say.
|
|
|
Post by catherine on May 18, 2017 11:39:39 GMT -5
Pat, Kitty & Sam: Looks like we were right. The priest's DNA didn't match. I'm also beginning to doubt the veracity of those women who claimed he sexually abused them. People will do a lot of things for money, even lie under oath. They could have reasoned that because he had been widely accused, he was guilty, so why not get a little money out of it. Also the lawyer probably encouraged them and coached them as to what they should say.
If those women were lying, it's unforgiveable. Students do make up stories about teachers, counselors, or whatever, for all kinds of reasons. I know it would be almost impossible to prove, but if this priest was, for whatever reason, slandered by some nasty, resentful student, I hope that his name is cleared some day by one of the women coming forward and admitting that she lied.
|
|
|
Post by pat on May 19, 2017 8:23:28 GMT -5
Now they're saying that another priest, Neil Magnus, may have killed Sister Cathy. I guess they'll dig him up too.
|
|
|
Post by kitty on May 20, 2017 19:20:44 GMT -5
I watched the whole "The Keepers" series and didn't learn anything that I didn't already know. They spent most of the time on the sexual abuse, and the women weren't even believable, and hardly any on the murder.
|
|
|
Post by catherine on May 24, 2017 11:24:41 GMT -5
I wasted time that could have been better spent watching this series, which amounted to NOTHING! I was interested in the files that Maskell paid someone to bury in the cemetery, but when the former assistant prosecutor was interviewed, she came across as an incompetent fool making flimsy excuses. Obviously, there was nothing in those files implicating Maskell in anything. If there had been, he would have destroyed them, not buried them in the frigging cemetery!
The more I read about this case, the more I'm convinced that the alleged sexual abuse at the school isn't related at all to Sister Cathy's murder or the murder of the other woman, and I have my doubts that there was any sexual abuse.
|
|
|
Post by Kate on May 24, 2017 15:04:27 GMT -5
I hadn't heard of Sister Cathy's murder until I read this article a year or two ago. I watched "The Keepers" and now I'm more confused than ever. The ex-priest, Koob, who Sister Cathy wrote the love letter to, has always denied that they were having a sexual affair. But in Lee's article, the retired police officer says that Koob admitted it to him. Then on the show, Koob said that the police brought him Sister Cathy's vagina wrapped in newspaper. It's very hard for me to believe that police officers walk around with sexual organs from murder victims wrapped up in newspaper. I'm beginning to think that everyone involved in this case is crazy and that makes me think that the sexual abuse, if it happened, didn't have anything to do with Sister Cathy's murder.
|
|
|
Post by Graveyardbride on May 29, 2017 12:15:04 GMT -5
Irish Woman Accuses Maskell of Sexual Abuse
A potential Irish victim of Joseph Maskell, an American priest who lived and worked in County Wexford in the 1990s after leaving Baltimore amidst allegations of sexual abuse, has come forward after a Netflix documentary claimed he was possible involvement in murder. Maskell fled to Ireland in 1995 after two women filed a lawsuit accusing him of sexual abuse. While in Ireland, he worked as a psychologist in private practice and with the local area health board.
Joanne Suder, a Baltimore lawyer representing many of Maskell’s alleged victims, said, “One of the attorneys in my office took a call concerning a potential victim of sex abuse in Ireland by Maskell.” There have been no previous reports of allegations against Maskell in Ireland, which Suder said had in the past protected pedophiles. “Historically, Ireland has not been receptive to sending priests back. It’s been a safe haven for priests and it doesn’t make Ireland safer,” she claimed.
Maskell, whose father was from Limerick, was in Ireland from at least April 1995 to September 1998, the diocese of Ferns has revealed. The diocese said it “aired its anxieties” to the health board about Maskell’s work as a psychologist after learning of the reasons why he left Baltimore.
Both the FBI and the Baltimore police have been presented new information since the release of the Netflix documentary. According to an FBI statement: “FBI Baltimore continues to pursue any and all investigative leads in the Joyce Malecki murder investigation. The Keepers [the Netflix documentary] is rightfully bringing attention to the senseless and unsolved murders of Sister Cathy Cesnik and Joyce Malecki. As in all cold-case homicides, it is never too late to contact law enforcement authorities if you know anything about the crime.”
Suder added that, while it became increasingly difficult to solve a murder case after 72 hours, it was possible that Cesnik’s killer could be identified more than 47 years after her death.
The Keepers, a seven-part series released by Netflix this month, examines the mysterious death of Cesnik, 26, who taught English at Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore, and asks whether she was killed because she was about to reveal details of a network of sexual abuse led by two priests.
Cathy Cesnik taught English at Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore. Her haphazardly parked car was found a day after she disappeared in November 1969 after going shopping. Eight weeks later, her bludgeoned decomposing corpse was discovered on a remote hillside.
The documentary, which likely hopes to emulate the true-crime television success of Making a Murderer, also on Netflix, examines alleged abuse perpetrated by Maskell and a fellow priest, Neil Magnus, at the school. Victims claim Maskell and Magnus also brought in police officers to participate in group rape sessions.
The story is told principally through the eyes of Gemma Hoskins and Abbie Schaub, two students taught by Cesnik who are still haunted by her death. Abuse victims at Keough High School were often identified during the sacrament of confession with the priests targeting vulnerable children who were ashamed and confused after being abused at home. Jean Hargadon Wehner has alleged she was repeatedly raped at age 14 while being told this was to “cleanse her soul.” After Cesnik disappeared, Wehner said Maskell took her to see the nun’s body, which was crawling with maggots, and warned her: “This is what happens when people say bad things.” After complaints were made to the archdiocese in 1995, Maskell was temporarily removed from his post at the school for psychological evaluation.
A total of 30 women eventually came forward with accounts of sexual abuse at Keough. In 2016, the archdiocese of Baltimore paid settlements of up to $50,000 each to 13 former students. Maskell was chaplain to the Baltimore county police and the Maryland state police as well as the local National Guard unit, giving him connections in the city’s Catholic establishment. The former priest died in 2001 without having been convicted.
Source: Toby Harnden, The Sunday Times, May 28, 2017.
|
|
|
Post by catherine on May 29, 2017 14:33:40 GMT -5
Every time there's an update in this case, it's more bizarre than the last. After "The Keepers" was shown on Netflix, suddenly a woman in Ireland decides that she was sexually abused. This is just a little too convenient if you ask me. Now that one has "come forward," others will be coming out of the woodwork, hoping to get settlements from whoever hired Maskell in Ireland, or granted him a license to work as a psychologist over there. As I said in an earlier post, -- though not in these exact words -- I wouldn't believe these women if their tongues came notarized.
|
|
|
Post by jason on May 29, 2017 23:17:56 GMT -5
Did anyone who watched "The Keepers" believe a word that crazy woman, Jean Wehner, said? I can't decide which is worse, the fact she made up such trash, or that there are people who actually believe her.
|
|
|
Post by madeline on May 30, 2017 16:33:16 GMT -5
The more I learn about this case, the more it sounds like the Salem Witch Trials 300 years later. According to the women, one of their abusers was called "Brother Bob." How silly can you get?
|
|
|
Post by pernella on Jun 3, 2017 4:59:58 GMT -5
You wanna know why people take so long to report sexual abuse? Look how you treat them when they do.
|
|
|
Post by jane on Jun 3, 2017 8:08:39 GMT -5
You wanna know why people take so long to report sexual abuse? Look how you treat them when they do. I can't speak for anyone else, but the reason I have doubts is because the women waited 25 years to say anything.
|
|