BALTIMORE.- Researchers of the FBI plan to exhume the remains of a young woman whose unsolved 1969 murder has been a source of widespread speculation, especially since the documentary series Netflix The Keepers examined the murder of a Baltimore nun that unfolded days earlier under eerily similar circumstances.
Joyce Malecki went Christmas shopping in November 1969 at a suburban shopping center outside Baltimore and never returned home. Her body was found at a nearby military base days later and an autopsy determined that she had been strangled.
A defender of the Malecki family confirmed on Tuesday that the exhumation was provisionally scheduled for Thursday.
The case received renewed attention after the release of The Keepers in 2017, raising questions about whether Malecki’s disappearance was related to that of nun Cathy Cesnik, who was found dead of blunt force trauma after shopping.
Also in 2017, investigators exhumed the body of a Catholic priest, Father Joseph Maskell, to see if his DNA matched evidence at the scene of Cesnik’s death. The documentary questioned whether Cesnik was murdered because she knew that Maskell sexually abused students at the Catholic high school where they both worked. But DNA testing revealed no matches and the case remains unsolved.
The most recent source of speculation came earlier this year, when federal and local authorities announced that they had solved the murder case of another young woman: 16-year-old Pamela Conyers, who disappeared in 1970 in the same shopping center as Malecki and died by strangulation.
Investigators used relatively new DNA technology and genealogy research to identify a suspect in Conyers’ death: Forrest Clyde Williams III, who died in 2018 of natural causes after spending most of his adult life in Virginia. In the decades that followed, Williams incurred no more than a couple of minor criminal charges.
When they attributed Conyers’ murder to Williams, officials said they had no evidence connecting him to any of the other unsolved homicides. They also said they did not believe Conyers knew Williams.
Kurt Wolfgang, executive director of the Maryland Crime Victims Resource Center, said it appears investigators are now trying to extract DNA from Malecki’s body, although it is unclear what they are seeking to determine. He said the FBI has shared little information with the family about recent developments in the case, but the timing could suggest a link to Williams.
Wolfgang said relatives would be allowed to attend the exhumation, which would otherwise be closed to the public.
They want justice to be done, said Wolfgang, whose nonprofit organization has collaborated with the Malecki family. Although it was 54 years ago, it would certainly help them to know what happened.
A spokesman for the FBI’s Baltimore field office declined to comment, citing respect for the ongoing investigation. The case is being handled by federal investigators because Malecki’s body was found on military property.
When Malecki was a child, her family attended a Catholic church outside Baltimore, where Maskell served as a priest. They lived on the same street when Maskell resided in the parsonage of St. Clement Catholic Church. He was later assigned to Archbishop Keough High School, where he was accused of abusing numerous girls.
Wolfgang said Malecki told her relatives that she didn’t like him at all and told people to stay away from him. But Wolfgang said the family has no direct evidence to suggest she was one of Maskell’s abuse victims and is hesitant to jump to conclusions about linking the various cases.
A woman interviewed in The Keepers claimed that Maskell showed her Cesnik’s body in the days after the nun disappeared. Cesnik was a teacher at Archbishop Keough High School when she was murdered.
Earlier this year, the Maryland Attorney General’s Office released a report detailing decades of child sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Baltimore that identified Maskell as one of its most prolific abusers, saying he attacked at least 39 victims. According to the report, Maskell was transferred to St. Clement’s after being accused of abuse in his previous position, one of several times the archdiocese turned a blind eye to his misconduct.
Maskell denied the allegations before his death in 2001 and was never criminally charged.
