Netflix’s “The Keepers” debuted two months ago, and since then, filmmaker Ryan White has seen positive developments in the case: More victims have spoken out and police are investigating further into Father Joseph Maskell’s past life.
“I am seeing that ‘The Keepers’ is having a positive impact, not just in the sense that more victims have come forward but it is also having a positive impact in showing people that they aren’t alone and that it’s possible to move forward and confront your painful past,” White told TheWrap during a recent interview.
White said that many new victims have come out of the woodwork since the series was released: “A lot of people watched the series and realized that they weren’t the only ones and now have the courage to talk about it. Hopefully, it will lead to a lot of healing.”
There has also been a lot of movement in terms of investigating Maskell. “The Keepers” explores the murder of Sister Catherine Cesnik, who disappeared in November 1969 and whose body was discovered in January of 1970. The documentary investigates whether Maskell had Sister Cathy killed because she was about to expose him and others for sexual abusing teenage students at Archbishop Keough High School. Maskell died in 2001, and until his death, he had denied the allegations.
According to CNN, Father Maskell’s body was exhumed in February to see whether his DNA matched the DNA from the murder scene. Two days before “The Keepers” was released, Baltimore County Police found that the DNA profile did not match.
“No one’s prevailing theory was that his DNA would be there,” White added, referring to many people’s idea that Maskell ordered the murder but himself did not orchestrate it. “It’s a huge outward sign that they are taking Maskell seriously as a suspect now, and it definitely begs the question why these tests weren’t done when he was alive and Jean Wehner [Jane Doe] was coming forward. He could’ve been arrested.”
According to White, the documentary prompted a lot of digging into Maskell’s past, specifically when he relocated to Ireland. According to the Baltimore Sun, Maskell worked as a psychologist amid his sexual abuse allegations in the United States. Whether he assessed any children or teens during his time in Ireland could not yet be determined by the agency doing the review.
“We were only concentrating in our documentary for the most part on certain parts of Maskell’s character but he had a long career before and after his time at Keough,” White said. “A predator doesn’t stop abusing so it’s been a sad truth that people from other sides of his career — and from Keough — have come out of the woodwork.”
Moreover, a few days after the documentary was released, the Baltimore Police Department launched an online form for people to report sexual offenses related to the docuseries.
“We have been contacted by victims from the past who want to report the sex offenses that occurred to them,” the department wrote on its Facebook page.
In July, a Change.org petition was launched and has since garnered over 42,000 signatures asking the Archdiocese of Baltimore to release information they have on Maskell. White told TheWrap he had asked for these documents during the making of the documentary, and is “dubious” whether they would even release them now.
Lastly, a few weeks before the series came out, Maryland extended the statute of limitations for victims of childhood sexual abuse, on which the senate voted unanimously. The previous statute of limitations provided that child sex abuse victims could only sue until age 25 — now, they can sue until the age of 38.
“It might be people doing the right thing for the wrong reasons but it’s good news for sexual abuse victims,” White added.
However, the major developments in the case since the documentary’s debut won’t change White’s mind about making a second season. Previously, he had said he wouldn’t want to make a follow-up season given how “painful” the process was for all the people involved.
“I’m still standing behind that, but I’m not going to say never,” White said about a second season. “There is a lot of information coming to us right now and there could be certain developments that I would document. But, at the moment, I’m not dead set on that. I’m still preoccupied with promoting the series and to make sure it has the largest impact that it can have. I’m still very happy where it ended. The series will end up shaking the branches in Baltimore and nationwide to have more information coming out that could lead to justice and murder being solved.”
'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.