FBI to exhume body of woman who was brutally killed in 1969 after unsolved case featured on Netflix's The Keepers
Michael Hansen
Published Sep 18, 2026
AUTHORITIES have given a shocking update on the murder of Joyce Malecki.
On November 11, 1969, Malecki went missing while Christmas shopping at Harundale Mall, about 16 miles from Baltimore, Maryland.
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Her body was discovered two days later at Forde Meade, about 18 miles from Baltimore, Maryland.
Investigators determined she was strangled and stabbed.
Malecki's body, whose unsolved murder was documented in a Netflix series The Keepers, will be exhumed by the FBI next Thursday, December 14.
Kurt Wolfgang, an investigator with the Maryland Crime Victim's Resource Center confirmed that Malecki's family has been notified that her body will be exhumed.
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"The Malecki family has stuck with this thing, and they have not given up," Wolfgang told Baltimore's CBS affiliate WJZ-TV.
It has long been suspected that there is a link between Malecki's murder and that of 26-year-old Sister Cathy Cesnik, a teacher at Baltimore's Archbishop Keough High School.
Cesnik, who disappeared four days before Malecki, was found dead in January 1970 in the woods of Lansdowne, Maryland, about seven miles from Baltimore.
Tom Nugent, a freelance journalist who appeared frequently on The Keepers, has been paying close attention to this cold case.
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"I think that something is still happening in the case and that they are in possession of some information," Nugent told WJZ-TV.
Nugent hopes that by excavating the body, a proper investigation can be done, and the Malecki family will finally have some closure.
"They never did stop trying to solve this," Nugent said. "The idea that they might find out what happened is wonderful for them."
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Father Joseph Maskell, a guidance counselor who worked at Archbishop Keough in the 1960s and 1970s, has been accused of sexually assaulting dozens of victims.
In an investigation done by the same outlet, it was revealed that many of those victims confided in Sister Cesnik before her murder.
Multiple survivors of Maskell's abuse have come forward to tell their story, and remember Cesnik for her bravery.
"She confronted him and she lost her life," said survivor Teresa Lancaster.
