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Baltimore Witness Says She Was Shown Body of Murdered Nun by Abuser-Priest
By Tom Nugent
Inside Baltimore
November 12, 2014
http://insidebaltimore.org/
Retired Cop Confirms 2 Witnesses Also Reported
“Death Threats” from the Later-Defrocked Cleric
“I Wiped Maggots from Her Face,” Recalls
Former Student at Baltimore Catholic School
Archdiocese Paid $40,000 to a Second Abuse Victim
For Injuries Dead Nun Allegedly Sought to Prevent
[Editor’s Note: The two poems at the end of the following story are published with the permission of the author, who signed them as: “Jean Hargadon Wehner, Survivor.”]
November 2014 – After remaining anonymous for more than 40 years, a Baltimore woman has come forward to identify herself as a witness who was “shown the dead body of Sister Cathy” Cesnik by a Catholic priest who was allegedly involved in the nun’s murder as a way to keep her from reporting his sexual abuse of students at a Catholic high school in the city.
Jean Hargadon Wehner, known only as “Jane Doe” during a controversial 1994 lawsuit that sought to collect $40 million in damages resulting from alleged rampant sexual abuse at Archbishop Keough High School in the late 1960s and early 1970s, said she was taken to a garbage dump in Lansdowne by the alleged abuser-priest in the late fall of 1969.
The isolated and difficult to find dump was located only half a mile from the St. Clement Roman Catholic Church in Lansdowne, where the alleged – and later defrocked – abuser-priest served as pastor for several years.
“When [the now-deceased pastor, Father A. Joseph] Maskell told me he would take me to Cathy [murder victim Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik, a former English teacher and drama coach at the high school], he led me to believe she was still alive,” said Wehner. “I had no idea where we were going. As I walked around a corner, I saw her on the ground. I ran over, bent down, and began wiping maggots off her face.
“As I stared at my hands in shock, Maskell leaned over and whispered in my ear: ‘You see what happens when you say bad things about people?’”
Wehner, one of two plaintiffs in the 1990s lawsuit, said she had decided to come forward at this time because other former Keough students have also been speaking out about the alleged abuse in recent months – and because her own healing process has now reached the point where she can talk more openly about the years of abuse she allegedly endured at the former Catholic girls high school in southwest Baltimore during the late 1960s.
The plaintiffs in the widely reported 1994 lawsuit – eventually dismissed on a legal technicality after a Baltimore court ruled that the “statute of limitations” for bringing such a suit had been exceeded – charged that they had been required to endure sexual abuse at the hands of the priest, including rape, and that the abuse had sometimes taken place at gunpoint. They also said in the lawsuit that they had been forced to submit to abuse from police officers who were friends of the priest.
Wehner’s astonishing details about her visit to the dead nun’s body at the garbage dump in Lansdowne are powerfully supported by comments from Baltimore police, as reported in a front-page story in the Baltimore Sun on June 19, 1994.
“In interviews with police and the Sun,” wrote two Baltimore Sun reporters, “she [Wehner] provided details about the body that were known only to investigators at the time, and detectives have not dismissed her claims.”
In addition, the autopsy on the murder victim’s body disclosed the presence of maggots in the throat, according to the 1994 story – a finding that appears to support Wehner’s description of “wiping maggots” from the victim’s face.
The tangled Cesnik cold case took another amazing twist last month, when Inside Baltimore reported that Wehner’s co-plaintiff in the lawsuit – Baltimore attorney Teresa Lancaster, known as “Jane Roe” in the lawsuit – had received a $40,000 payment three years ago from the Archdiocese of Baltimore, in return for signing a “release” in which she agreed not to seek further payment for abuse-related damages in the future.
The agreement pointed out that the term “Conduct” in the agreement refers “to all activities by or at the direction of Maskell” – and then noted that “it is acknowledged and agreed that the payment of the amounts set forth herein is compensation for bodily physical injuries arising from the Conduct.”
According to Lancaster, herself an attorney, the language of the agreement is “crystal-clear,” and when coupled with a letter of apology the Archdiocese also sent to her, “is an admission by the Archdiocese that the sexual abuse took place.”
Another alleged abuse victim, who did not wish to be identified, also told Inside Baltimore that she had been offered a large cash payment in return for signing a release.
(The Office of Communications at the Archdiocese of Baltimore did not respond to several telephone messages and emails which asked how many similar payoffs have so far been made to other victims of the alleged abuse.)
Lancaster also said that a high-ranking Baltimore law enforcement official who was involved in investigating the alleged Keough abuse in the 1990s told her during an interview that “we know the priest was involved” in Sister Cathy’s murder in November of 1969, “but there’s nothing we can do about it.”
In addition, a former School Sisters of Notre Dame nun has said she was told by two Baltimore County detectives in the mid-1990s that “we know the priest killed the nun” . . . and a retired high-ranking Baltimore police official has recently confirmed that two witnesses told police investigators in a formal statement that the alleged abuser-priest had made death threats in their presence when they visited the nun’s apartment.
Sister Cathy was abducted one day after their alleged visit to her apartment. The nun’s badly decayed body was discovered at the Lansdowne garbage dump by two hunters on January 3rd of 1970.
Jean Wehner said that she decided to speak out now because she wants to help provide support to other people who may be able to provide information about the Cesnik case.
“The reason I clarified my experience was so anyone having similar details will feel supported,” she said. “I am concerned for the other survivors. Hopefully, if they have any new information, they will contact the [Baltimore County Police Department Cold Case] detective and tell him.”
[To reach Detective Dave Jacoby of the Baltimore County Police Department cold case unit, call 410-887-3943 or email him at djacoby@baltimorecountymd.gov. Detective Jacoby has said he welcomes any new information about Sister Cathy Cesnik’s murder, including information that is provided anonymously.]
Wehner said she has struggled for many years to deal with the emotional impact of being taken to the dump and shown the nun’s body as a warning to her about what would happen if she spoke out about the abuse.
Part of the healing process, she said, has been to write poetry about her painful experience. In one poem, for example, she tried to describe what it feels like to have a gun held to your head during a sexual-abuse incident. That poem is titled The Gun.
The Gun
The gun is
on the table.
The table is between him and me.
The gun is
on the table.
Then it is in his hands.
I look at the gun.
Do I see him?
Do I see anything but the gun?
I see the bullets,
one by one…
removed and placed
on the table.
One then the other…
until all six are
on the table.
What does he look like?
Is he even there?
The gun is small and dark grey,
the holes empty.
The gun is held by a hand
next to my head.
It feels cold.
Is he speaking?
I can’t hear anything
over the deafening sound
of the click of the trigger!
Jean Hargadon Wehner
Survivor
In a second poem, Wehner described her continuing efforts to heal psychologically from her experience at Keough.
Forgive Myself
I forgive myself!
I forgive myself for…
What others did to me.
What others made me feel like.
What others made me believe.
What others made me do.
What I’ve done to survive.
What others made me do.
I forgive myself!
I forgive myself for…
Being afraid~
Being afraid~
Being afraid~
Being afraid~
when I needed to be strong
for me.
I forgive myself for being human!
Jean Hargadon Wehner
Survivor
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