The FBI Announces Plans to Exhume a Woman’s Remains Linked to the 1969 Unsolved Murder Featured in Netflix’s ‘The Keepers’

FBI investigators have scheduled the exhumation of Joyce Malecki, a young woman whose unsolved murder from 1969 gained renewed interest following Netflix’s documentary series “The Keepers.” The series delved into the similarly mysterious murder of a Baltimore nun, Sister Cathy Cesnik, which occurred just days before Malecki’s death under strikingly similar circumstances.

Malecki disappeared in November 1969 after going Christmas shopping at a mall near Baltimore. Her body was later discovered on a nearby military base, and an autopsy confirmed she had been strangled. A family advocate indicated the exhumation was planned for Thursday.

“The Keepers,” released in 2017, brought attention to the possibility that Malecki’s case might be connected to Sister Cathy Cesnik’s, who also vanished after shopping and was later found dead from blunt force trauma.

In 2017, investigators also exhumed the body of Father Joseph Maskell, a Catholic priest, to test his DNA against evidence from Cesnik’s murder scene. Maskell, who worked at the same Catholic high school as Cesnik, was accused of sexual abuse. However, the DNA results did not match, and both cases remain unsolved.

Earlier this year, another case drew parallels with Malecki’s. Pamela Conyers, a 16-year-old girl, vanished in 1970 from the same mall as Malecki and was also strangled. Investigators using advanced DNA technology and genealogy research identified Forrest Clyde Williams III as the suspect in Conyers’ murder, although he had died in 2018.

Officials stated they had no evidence linking Williams to the other unsolved cases and did not believe Conyers knew him. Despite this, recent developments suggest investigators might be seeking DNA from Malecki’s remains, potentially to explore a connection to Williams.

Kurt Wolfgang, from the Maryland Crime Victims Resource Center, noted that the Malecki family, still seeking justice after 54 years, would be allowed to attend the private exhumation.

Malecki grew up attending a Catholic church where Maskell, later implicated in numerous abuse cases at Archbishop Keough High School, served as a priest. Relatives recall Malecki’s aversion to Maskell, but there’s no direct evidence she was one of his victims. The family remains cautious about drawing links between the cases.

“The Keepers” included an interview with a woman claiming Maskell showed her Cesnik’s body. The Maryland Attorney General’s Office recently released a report detailing widespread child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore, with Maskell identified as a major abuser.

Maskell, who passed away in 2001, denied all allegations and was never charged. The FBI, leading the investigation due to Malecki’s body being found on military property, declined to comment on the case.