Another TV show I watched during my re-acclimation to the US soil and the LA time zone and hoop-la was a docu-series called, “The Keepers“. I had actually watched the first couple of episodes in Tokyo and finished the rest upon returning to LA. And man, was my experience riveting and spooky.
It’s all about the re-opening of a the cold case of the 1969 disappearance and murder of the 26-year-old nun Sister Cathy Cesnik in Baltimore. In the process of the re-opening of this case (inspired by Gemma Hoskins and Abbie Schaub, retired grandmothers in their sixties who were students of Sister Cathy and started a Facebook group for others to share information about their teacher and horrific happenings at their school), a web of secrets are exposed about the child sex abuse at school and the Catholic Church’s undying attempt to cover it up. And to make matters even more terrifying, the seemingly connected murder of a neighboring young girl, Joyce Malecki, just days later after Cathy Cesnik was declared missing, was also explored as well.
Hoskins and Schaub have spent the past three years of their lives seeking answers and justice for the above atrocities to no avail. Their pursuit of those answers may have not brought about the justice they seek as of yet, but it definitely caused an avalanche of criminalizing revelations and encouraged the past victims of the ring of sexual abusers to deal with their past courageously to bring about healing and self-empowerment as they admit the identity of the ringleader of the offenders, Father Maskell.
One of the victims known as Jane Doe, whose identity is later disclosed to be Jean Hargadon, resurrected Cathy’s murder back into the headlines in 1994 when she filed a $40 million lawsuit alleging abuse at the hand of Father Maskell—and that he had shown her Sister Cathy’s body in the woods when she was a child as a warning against speaking out.
Hoskins and Schaub encounter Hargadon on their Facebook page and incorporate her journey and narrative into the presentation of all of the evidence they discover about what really happened to Sister Cesnik.
Bottom line, these golden girls are better detectives than our American law enforcement in many ways and their genuine desire to seek justice no matter the political muck it may cause or no matter how many skeletons in the closet it may dig up, is utterly mind blowing. To see what two fearless women, a Facebook page and 3 years of ferocious detective gadget work will do is phenomenal and demonstrates how much power we do have depending upon our will to genuinely exercise it.
Does this mean we put the sex offenders/ murderers behind bars – No. In fact, most of them are dead any way. However, the truth some how always prevails and what we find is revenge is not ours; for, the universe has an organic way to ensure that we all pay for our transgressions.
When you get some time, be sure to check out “The Keepers” on Netflix. And for more information about who participated in the making of the docu-series, check it out on imdb.
💜Love & Light☀️,
CRISTEN M. MILLS
