BALTIMORE — 1969 · Unsolved Case

The Murder of Sister Catherine Cesnik

UnsolvedSources: ALast updated: 14 October 2026

On 7 November 1969 Catherine Cesnik, a 26-year-old Catholic nun who taught English and drama at Archbishop Keough High School for girls in Baltimore, disappeared after leaving her Catonsville apartment to go shopping. Her body was found by hunters at a dump in Lansdowne on 3 January 1970. The murder was never solved. In the 1990s former students described sexual abuse at the school and suggested the nun had known about it; the case reached a mass audience in 2017 through Netflix's 'The Keepers'. Baltimore County Police reassigned the case in 2016 and exhumed a body for DNA comparison, but found no match. The case was also cited in the 2023 archdiocesan abuse report.

Date: 1969
Place: Lansdowne, Maryland, USA, Baltimore, US
Category: Unsolved Case
Case Status: Unsolved
Coordinates: 39.2440, -76.6600 ↗

Timeline of Events

7 November 1969Sister Cesnik disappeared after leaving her Catonsville home.
3 January 1970Her body was found at a dump in Lansdowne.
1994Former students' allegations of abuse at the school became public.

2017Netflix released the documentary series 'The Keepers'.
2023The Maryland Attorney General's abuse report was published.

Sources

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