The Nun's Murder

Dear Olivia,
I found a documentary on Netflix that I feel you would enjoy watching. It is called The Keepers. I started the series because I like murder mysteries. I only intended on watching an episode or two, but like every other series I’ve started, I had to finish it. As I was watching The Keepers, I thought of you, Olivia. Not only does the story of Nun Cathy Cesnik involve murder, but it also involves sexual abuse allegations. Now I know you deal with sexually based offenses in the Special Victims Unit, so I thought this might interest you. The Keepers is about two former students of Nun Catherine Ann Cesnik, who taught at a public Catholic high school in the 1960s. The murder occurred in Baltimore, Maryland. Cesnik was murdered in 1969, but to this day it remains a mystery as to who killed her. The two former students, Gemma and Abbie, decided to make a documentary on their journey of investigating the murder of their beloved teacher. What they didn’t realize was that there is so much more to Cesnik’s story than they ever knew. As they begin to dig deeper into what happened that night in 1969, they uncover more than they bargained for.

As Abbie and Gemma begin their digging into Cesnik’s story, they discover that the priest, Joseph Maskell, who was working as a chaplain at Keough High School at the time of Cesnik’s murder and also while Abbie and Gemma attended there, has sexual abuse allegations against him. Every time an allegation was brought against him, it would mysteriously fall flat. Abbie and Gemma were never abused and they had no idea that it was happening to their very own classmates. The show digs deep into a few of the women’s abuse stories, and especially one, Jane Doe. Jane Doe came forward in 1992 after she began to remember things that happened during her high school years at Keough. She has something called repressed memories, where she buried those memories of sexual abuse from Maskell, and come to find out, a few other men in her town, because they were traumatizing and she needed to be able to put that behind her as she began her life. Eventually, we find out that Jane Doe’s name is Jean Wehner. When she came out with the allegations against Maskell in 1992, she was afraid for her safety, so she was published in the newspaper articles and news stories anonymously as Jane Doe.

Something else I wanted to mention to you is about the sexual abuse victims in the story. Since you deal with victims of that nature almost on a daily basis, I wasn’t sure if you were able to see how those abuses affect the rest of the victim’s lives. In The Keepers, we get to see victims talk about their experiences from fifty years ago and how they pushed it aside to be able to move on with their lives. I’m not sure if you have much experience with how sexual abuse affects the lives of the victims long-term or not, so I think this series would be a good watch for you. One thing that is mentioned by Jane Doe, I believe, is that many of the victims battled addictions throughout their lives and I think she even said there have been classmates and others she attended Keough with who committed or attempted suicide, as they couldn’t handle those memories of abuse any longer. Jane Doe mentioned that there could have been so many more lives saved if the victims would have come together and brought each of their stories of abuse to the public and the police sooner, but at the time, Maskell had them scared for their lives.

As I don’t want to spoil the series for you, I’m not going to tell you too much about what Abbie and Gemma find out as they dig into Cesnik’s story. Many of the suspects in the mystery are dead, as this happened 49 years ago. So since it wasn’t solved almost fifty years ago when it occurred, it is now a cold case and is much more difficult to solve as so much time has passed. Something that doesn’t help with solving it is that so many documents from the case have mysteriously disappeared and the Baltimore County police department nor the Archdiocese of Baltimore have much of an explanation for. There have been so many improvements in the technology used in solving crimes since the sixties, so if it were to take place now, I feel that with DNA testing and fingerprinting technology, it would be easier to find the killer(s).

Let me know what you think,
Morgan