Netflix 'The Keepers' Revives Interest In 1969 Murder Tied To Fort Meade

ODENTON, MD — Buzz from the new Netflix docuseries The Keepers — which examines the 1969 murder of Sister Catherine Cesnik, a nun who taught English at Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore — has revived interest in another murder committed about the same time, authorities say. The body of the second victim, Joyce Malecki, 20, of Landsdowne, was found on a shooting range on the grounds of Fort Meade.

Anne Arundel County Police said Thursday that the department has "received numerous recent inquiries" about Malecki’s murder due to the Netflix series, which says both women knew a priest accused of serial sexual abuse of girls. "Since both of these murders occurred around the same time period, there is an interest to know if these cases could be related," said department spokesman Lt. Ryan Frashure.

Some blogs and websites say the Malecki murder investigation was handed over to the Anne Arundel County Police Department by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which is not true, Frashure said. Because Malecki’s body was found on federal property, the FBI is the lead investigating agency in her death.

Any inquiries regarding the Joyce Malecki murder investigation may be made to Federal Bureau of Investigation Public Affairs Specialist Dave Fitz at 410-277-6689 or david.fitz@ic.fbi.gov.

Director Ryan White says his docuseries is an effort to unearth the truth behind the silence concealing rape and sexual abuse committed by Keough school chaplain Father Joseph Maskell, as well as other clergy, Baltimore police, and a local gynecologist. The series premiered May 19 on Netflix, and the gripping saga has spawns a Facebook page, Justice for Catherine Cesnik and Joyce Malecki, which has nearly 30,000 members.

Two students, now grandmothers who talked to White for the series, reported Maskell's sexual abuse to Cesnik, who disappeared two days later. The nun was found murdered two months later in a Baltimore County field; nobody has been charged in either woman's death. After students reported the ongoing sexual assaults by Maskell he fled to Ireland for a time before his death in Baltimore in 2001.

Since 2011, the Baltimore archdiocese has paid a total of $472,000 in settlements to 16 people who accused Maskell of sexual abuse, reports The Baltimore Sun.

While Maskell was never charged with a crime, investigators and the Netflix series point a finger at the late priest as a likely suspect in the blunt-force trauma slaying of Cesnik, and possibly Maskell, as well.

Now retired Baltimore police Detective Nick Giangrasso, who was assigned to investigate Cesnik's disappearance, told the Sun her killing was not a random attack. "I believe that she was a confidante of girls at Keough," Giangrasso told the newspaper. "I think they came to her telling her about the things that Maskell was doing."

The Baltimore City Paper reports Malecki was abducted from the parking lot of a department store in Glen Burnie on Nov. 11, 1969. Her body was found two days later in a creek on Fort Meade, she had been strangled and stabbed to death. The autopsy report said that she had scratches and bruises on her body, indicating that she had tried to fight off her attacker

While the Malecki family attended St. Clement Church, where Father Maskell served from 1966 to 1968 and she attended week-long retreats as a student which included extended religious instruction with priests, there is no indication Malecki reported she was abused by the priest. In a 2005 City Paper article, FBI Special Agent Barry Maddox Maddox reviewed the connections the reporter found and said, “All of these coincidences certainly rise to the level of possible significance for solving both killings. We haven’t ruled anything out, including Father Maskell, and we have gone back to reinvestigate the Malecki killing and possible links to the Cesnik case.”

St. Clement Church is located less than a mile from where Cesnik’s body was found, and a former police investigator told the City Paper, “Whoever dumped the nun’s body there had to know the area well."

Malecki's body was found a few miles away.

»Screenshot from Netflix trailer