UNITED STATES
Romper
By Megan Walsh
Netflix’s upcoming true crime documentary series The Keepers revisits the 1969 murder of Sister Cathy Cesnik, who was brutally killed decades ago. Cesnik taught at the Archbishop Keough High School in Baltimore alongside the school chaplain Father Joseph Maskell and Director of Religious Services Father Neil Magnus, both of whom were allegedly abusing some of the girls (neither Maskell or Magnus was convicted of sexual assault, denying any part in accusations). Years later in the ’90s, two women came forward to share what happened to them during their time at Keough. One of those women was named Teresa Lancaster. But who is Teresa Lancaster on The Keepers?
Currently, Lancaster is an attorney living in Baltimore and a child sexual abuse activist who works with victims through the Survivors Network of Those Abused By Priests. But she was also one of the women who brought Father Maskell’s abuse to light. In 1994, she and another former Keough student named Jean Wehner filed a suit against Maskell, the Archdiocese of Baltimore, the School Sisters of Notre Dame (who ran the school), and a gynecologist named Dr. Christian Richter. Neither Lancaster nor Wehner truly saw justice served for what happened to them, but they did make public the abuse that had formerly been a closely-kept secret. (Like Maskell, Richter maintained his innocence and said he had not been part of any abuse.)
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.