“The Keepers” filmmaker Ryan White made the new Netflix docuseries that has everyone on the edge of their seats. He spearheaded the project because of his personal connection to Sister Catherine Cesnik, a nun who was found murdered in January of 1970 and who serves as the centerpiece of the true crime series.
“My access point was a personal connection: My aunt went to Archbishop Keough High School and was Sister Cathy’s student,” White told TheWrap. His aunt was also friends with Jean Wehner, one of multiple people in the documentary who say they were sexually abused by Father Joseph Maskell in the Baltimore, Maryland area.
The series delves deeply into sexual abuse allegations and a lawsuit against Father Maskell brought by “Jane Doe,” now identified as Wehner, and “Jane Roe,” since identified as Teresa Lancaster. Throughout the series, the devastation experienced by survivors is laid bare, as is their strength in confronting unthinkable childhood horrors.
“I hope this documentary can be a tool of healing, but it’s about to be very triggering for the survivors,” said White.
In the end, “The Keepers” doesn’t solve its biggest question: Who killed Sister Cathy? And although the seven-episode series explores — through its lead investigators Gemma Hoskins and Abbie Schaub — three main suspects, including Father Maskell, who died in 2001, White does have his own theory on who abducted and murdered the nun. But he’s only willing to share a slice of it.
Find out what it is in TheWrap’s Q&A with White below.
TheWrap: What was the process of getting this documentary together?
White: My access point was personal connection: My aunt went to Archbishop Keough High School and was Sister Cathy’s student, so she always had a personal connection. I never grew up knowing her teacher had been murdered. A few years ago my aunt connected me to Jean, her friend. She didn’t know Jean had gone through that abuse. Jean is the reason I made “The Keepers” — I had a five-hour conversation with Jean and I left saying, “I need to do something with this woman’s story.” She, to me, was one of the most compelling people I’ve ever met.
When she decided that this would be a healthy step, we went ahead with it.
We did it slowly — it took three years. She was comfortable with that — the long length of production actually helped her comfort level. Obviously, the story grew and grew and one of our first access points was Gemma. We met Gemma in a Home Depot parking lot, a few blocks from where Sister Cathy’s car was found. I was so drawn to Gemma… right when I met her, she had such a unique way. She’s so driven to find out what happened to her teacher. Gemma connected us with so many people in ‘The Keepers.”
If you were part of the Facebook group, people got to know us very well. We would go to Baltimore every two months for the last three years, so people started to feel comfortable around us … Survivors would reach out to us on Facebook.
What’s behind the title?
In one scene, Jean told her friends, “we are the keepers of the secrets,” and I knew that had to be the title. Obviously, it has other meanings — one other meaning was the idea of gatekeepers. The theory that people in position of authority and power are able to decide what we as the populous know or don’t know or whether survivors of abuse are validated or not… I also liked the institutional meaning of “The Keepers.”
When you say survivors, how many are there?
There are six survivors showcased in the documentary but we had many conversations with other survivors who weren’t featured in the documentary.
Our focus was definitely on the survivors of Keough, but many Maskell victims came after Keough, and it’s horrifying. We weren’t actively looking at what he was doing after Keough but obviously, Charles [another abuse victim] played a narrative in the abuse.
I would say there were at least 40 survivors… That’s just 40 from who Gemma and Abbie found, and most of them are no longer alive. But through Gemma and Abbie, we talked to about 25 for the documentary.
Did you face any hurdles? Were you scared of taking on the Catholic Church?
Well, it’s funny how you asked that because I never saw it as taking on the Catholic Church. I was raised Catholic and I had a very positive experience. I had fond memories of the church, but for this, they were so non-participatory with it.
Just Friday, the Archdiocese of Baltimore retweeted something in regards to documentary, and I was appalled that the Archdiocese was retweeting something like that and how insulting that must be for our survivors. And they just paid settlements to the survivors — it’s not that they deny it happened. At this point, I’m so disenchanted with my church — it’s really disappointing. I thought they would have been more participatory.
The biggest hurdle was that the case was so old, that it was 45 years old. So much of the investigation of the murder disappeared and we ran into that time and time again. We were trying to reconstruct the truth when it had been deliberately hidden or kept secret. The only way to do that was to find people who were involved. I have deep gratitude for the detectives who sat down with me and had complete transparency in opening their crime scene photos and investigation. They made the right decision in participating — it wasn’t always easy to persuade someone to take part.
Everyone has a different theory. Mine is different than Gemma’s theory, but we were all looking at the various versions of the “truth” and deciding what we believed was true. What we tried to do in the editing was present all various narratives. I won’t tell you my theory, but I will say: I believe Jean, and I have corroborated Jean, that this is a woman who was telling the truth from the beginning. That means Father Maskell was somehow involved. I have very little doubt at the finish line.
Some are calling it “The Next ‘Making a Murderer'” — what is your response to that?
“Making a Murderer” was such a phenomenon and if we have a fraction the popularity of “Making a Murderer,” I will be a happy filmmaker. But it’s not about popularity, it’s about the impact … My hope is that we can have a fraction of that popularity that leads to justice. The more people watch it, the more information will come out of the woodwork.
Were you impressed with Gemma’s investigative skills given that she has no police or journalism experience?
What’s really funny about Gemma, she’s taking criminology classes right now which I find hilarious. She always wanted to become a Personal Investigator. I told her, “everyone is going to recognize you and you’re going to be the worst PI in the world!” Look, my mom and my aunt are women in Baltimore, so Gemma in a way is my mom and my aunt — she’s so much like them, and I hope “The Keepers” doesn’t get relegated to another crime story in Baltimore. I’m also not a journalist or a detective but I borrowed a lot of skills from Gemma’s skillset over the years.
How did the women keep their faith and how were they able to move on and have kids after what they went through?
I mean, it’s a survivor story at its core. Jean is the most incredible survivor that I’ve ever witnessed. She doesn’t recognize that of course — she lives small. But people from the outside that intercept with her realize the power of the survivor story in her. I don’t know how they do it — I don’t think she knows. I think the really special part of “The Keepers” is that people are speaking up for a lot of people who didn’t survive it. People walked to suicide, people are still hiding and keeping their secrets, and I think all of the survivors recognize the power in numbers.
'The Keepers': All the Major Players in Netflix's True Crime Documentary Series (Photos)
More than 40 years after her death, the case of Sister Cathy Cesnik's murder is still unsolved. Netflix's documentary series "The Keepers" dives into the case and uncovers a web of abuse that may be the source of a cover up and the murder. Here's our quick guide to all the people in "The Keepers" you need to know.
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Sister Catherine Cesnik A nun and teacher at Archbishop Keough High School in 1968, Sister Cathy was murdered in Nov. 1969, although her body wasn’t discovered until Jan. 3, 1970. She suffered blunt force trauma to her head and the case remains open to this day. Information in “The Keepers” suggests Sister Cathy might have been killed because she found out that priests at Keough were sexually abusing students.
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Joyce Malecki The 20-year-old Baltimore woman went missing on Nov. 11, 1969. Her body was found in a wooded area two days later. Her case is similar to Sister Cathy’s — both women disappeared from the same area in the city, both were found in isolated areas not far from one another, both died around the same time in November, and both had marks on their necks that indicated choking. Some suspect the same person killed both women, but authorities have never been able to find a link in their cases.
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Father A. Joseph Maskell An administrator, psychologist and counselor at Keough when Sister Cathy was a teacher there, Maskell has been accused by dozens of students and other children of sexual abuse. In 1994, two victims, known then as Jane Doe and Jane Roe, attempted to sue the Catholic Church and Maskell for alleged abuse, but the case was thrown out because of Maryland’s statute of limitations. Maskell was never tried or convicted of any crimes, and he died in 2001.
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Father Neil Magnus Another of the administrators at Keough, Magnus was accused of participating in sexually abusing students along with Maskell. Magnus died in 1988 and was never charged with any crimes.
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“Brother Bob” A third abuser who "Jane Doe" remembers from her days at Keough, but whose face she cannot recall. The identity of Brother Bob remains a mystery, although some in “The Keepers” believe he might be the missing link in the case of who killed Sister Cathy.
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Jean Hargadon Wehner (“Jane Doe”) The first former student to accuse Father Maskell of sex abuse, she appeared in the 1994 lawsuit as “Jane Doe.” Wehner said she waited to come forward because she had repressed her memories of the abuse and only recalled them later. She also thinks Sister Cathy was murdered because she knew about Maskell’s abuse and was going to come forward. She said that Maskell showed her Sister Cathy’s body.
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Teresa Lancaster (“Jane Roe”) The second plaintiff in the 1994 lawsuit against Maskell, Lancaster was known in the case as “Jane Roe.” After the failed lawsuit, she went to law school and became a lawyer, working with Survivors Network for those Abused by Priests, or SNAP. She was part of the Keough class of 1972.
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Gemma Hoskins A former Keough student who had Sister Cathy as a teacher before her death, Hoskins teamed with Abbie Schaub nearly 45 years later, in 2013, to try to solve the nun’s murder. Before that, Gemma spent 37 years as an elementary school teacher.
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Abbie Schaub Another former student of Sister Cathy’s, Schaub and Hoskins combined forces to try to uncover what happened to Sister Cathy in 1969. Schaub was previously a nurse. Together, she and Hoskins started the “Justice for Catherine Cesnik and Joyce Malecki” Facebook page in 2013 to try to solve the case, which has become a network of Keough alumni and abuse survivors.
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Marilyn Cesnik Radakovic Sister Cathy's younger sister, who joins the investigation with Hoskins and Schaub during "The Keepers."
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Gerald Koob A close friend of Sister Cathy’s, who says his relationship with her was almost romantic. Koob was a Jesuit priest at the time of Sister Cathy’s murder. He and his friend and fellow priest, Peter McKeon, discovered Sister Cathy’s car parked at a strange angle across the street from her apartment.
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Sister Helen Russell Phillips Sister Cathy's roommate in 1969 when she disappeared. The pair lived in the Carriage House Apartments building instead of at the convent, in an attempt to get closer to the secular world to better serve their students. When she realized Sister Cathy was missing, she called Koob, and together with him and McKeon, the three later called the police.
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Peter McKeon McKeon was also a priest, and accompanied Koob to Sister Cathy's apartment when Sister Russell called to say she was missing. Koob says that he and McKeon went to the movie "Easy Rider" the night of Sister Cathy's disappearance.
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Edgar Davidson According to his first wife, who speaks in the documentary under condition of anonymity, Davidson talked about being involved in Sister Cathy's murder in 1969. In "The Keepers," Davidson said he called a radio show years later and said he had information about the case. During his interview in "The Keepers," however, he denied any involvement.
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Billy Schmidt Sister Cathy's neighbor in the Carriage Hill Apartments building. His family believes he may have had something to do with Cathy's death, along with his brother, Ronnie, and an unknown man called "Skippy." He would eventually commit suicide.
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Dr. Christian Richter A gynecologist who Maskell would take students to while he was serving at Keough. He was accused of sexual abuse and aiding Maskell, and was also named in a 1994 lawsuit. The suit was thrown out and Richter was never convicted of any wrongdoing. He died in 2006.
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Tom Nugent Freelance journalist Tom Nugent covered Sister Cathy's death starting in 1994. Since then, he's been tracking and investigating the story over the years and is one of the investigators of her death in "The Keepers."
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Bob Erlandson Bob Erlandson was a journalist working for the Baltimore Sun in 1993. He first reported on Sister Cathy's story because of Wehner's accusation that Maskell was involved in her murder. He worked on the story for the next year and a half, but said in "The Keepers" the archdiocese in Baltimore stonewalled him at every turn.
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Beverly Wallace The attorney for "Jane Doe" and "Jane Roe" in the 1994 lawsuit against Maskell and the archdiocese.
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"Deep Throat" An anonymous source who was a detective working on the Maskell case in 1994. He refuses to be identified, allegedly because he fears reprisals from people responsible for the cover-up of Sister Cathy's death and Maskell's abuse. He claims he interviewed more than 100 girls in the case who knew of or were involved in sexual abuse.
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Sharon A.H. May The Baltimore State's attorney working on the Maskell case in 1994. She chose not to charge Maskell, saying the case lacked evidence. Because no criminal charges were leveled against Maskell, Wehner and Lancaster became plaintiffs in the 1994 lawsuit against Maskell and the archdiocese.
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Kathy Hobeck In addition to Wehner and Lancaster, Kathy Hobeck is one of six abuse victims who appears in "The Keepers." She didn't come forward or join the lawsuit against Maskell in 1994. She was a member of the Keough class of 1970. In addition to the six abuse victims featured in the documentary, director Ryan White told TheWrap there are at least 40 victims in total, some from after Maskell's stint at Keough.
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Lil Hughes Knipp Another of the women who were abused at Keough, Lil Hughes Knipp did not come forward until years after the 1994 lawsuit. She was a member of the Keough class of 1971.
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Charles Franz In "The Keepers," Charles Franz came forward as one of Maskell's abuse victims in the 1960s. He said that when he told his mother of the abuse, she told the Baltimore Archdiocese in 1967 -- two years before Sister Cathy's murder. His account directly contradicts the church's story about what it knew about Maskell.
Detective Gary Childs Baltimore County Police Detective Childs is assigned to the cold case file for Sister Cathy's murder at the time of "The Keepers."
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All the people you need to know to follow Netflix’s sprawling documentary series ”The Keepers“
More than 40 years after her death, the case of Sister Cathy Cesnik's murder is still unsolved. Netflix's documentary series "The Keepers" dives into the case and uncovers a web of abuse that may be the source of a cover up and the murder. Here's our quick guide to all the people in "The Keepers" you need to know.