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Police: DNA from exhumed former priest does not match evidence from nun's murder
By Christine Boynton
BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. (WBFF) – DNA from the remains of a former Baltimore priest does not match DNA from the murder scene of Sister Catherine Ann Cesnik, police announced on Wednesday. The nun’s murder has been under investigation for almost 50 years. The body of former priest Joseph Maskell was exhumed on Feb. 28, 2017, so that DNA could be compared to evidence gathered at the crime scene. “Maskell is not the first suspect whose DNA has been compared to the crime scene sample,” police wrote in a release. “Over the years, BCoPD detectives have developed DNA profiles of about a half-dozen suspects and compared them against the crime scene evidence. None of these suspects’ profiles have matched.” Investigators say their best hope now lies with interviewing anyone willing to come forward with information. Cesnik was reported missing on Nov. 7, 1969 and her decomposing body was found in Lansdowne on Jan. 3, 1970. A former student at Archbishop Keough High School came forward in the 1990s claiming that she had confided in Cesnik about being sexually abused by the priest, shortly before her disappearance. The defrocked priest was accused of sexually abusing several people. Police say the nun was last seen at her Baltimore City apartment before she left to run errands in the Edmonson Village area. Detectives believe she was grabbed by the suspect in front of her residence and forced back into her car. Her body was found at a dumping area. The DNA profile from the crime scene has also been placed into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, but resulted in no matches from the national database, police noted. The death of Sister Cesnik is now the subject of a Netflix original documentary series "The Keepers" which premieres May 19.
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