The 7-episode docu-series, “The Keepers,” has finally premiered on Netflix, and wow, it was everything you can ask for in a riveting drama.
The show’s center initially focuses on the death and murder of Sister Catherine Cesnik, a 26 year-old nun and teacher whose body was found dead and showing signs of abuse at a mound near a river. The stars of the show, amateur sleuths and former students Abbie Schaub and Gemma Hoskins, has led to a much horrifying discovery -- that Sister Cathy, as her students at Archbishop Keough High School fondly remember her, was deeply connected to an alleged sex scandal involving a prominent priest, some members of the clergy and police, and the Archdiocese of Baltimore. Before Cathy’s body was found, 20 year-old Joyce Malecki was found under certain circumstances, Vanity Fair noted.
All episodes of “The Keepers” were released at the same time, prompting murder mystery fans to dub it as the next “Making A Murder” hit (the show coincidentally also premiered on Netflix), TIME said. However, the producers of “The Keepers” clarified earlier that the point of the show was about the cover-up of a nun’s story.
The Archdiocese of Baltimore has since denied allegations that they went lengths to cover up Sister Cathy’s death and to hide alleged sexual crimes by Father A. Joseph Maskell. The National Catholic Register said that there are no hard evidence that would prove the conspiracy the archdiocese was supposedly had a hand in. Several people, including the sex survivors, journalists, and even police investigators interviewed in the series, are saying a different story.
“There is no suggestion that the archdiocese interfered in any way when the subsequent investigations were occurring in the 1990s. The archdiocese reported the initial sexual-abuse allegation to the authorities in 1993, removed Maskell from ministry and held a public meeting in 1994, and has been transparent with an Independent Review Board since that time,” the religious institution said.
Sister Cathy’s and Joyce’s cases remain open, according to police officials interviewed in the show.
