I have always loved crime and mystery stories. Agatha Christie, Arthur Conan Doyle, and the many authors of Nancy Drew gave me not only a love of reading, but also the love of solving problems and seeking truth. True crime stories have made quite a comeback with podcasts like Serial (season 1) and Up and Vanished as well as Netflix Originals Making a Murderer. All contain a gruesome crime. All remain (mostly) unsolved. So when I saw yet another true crime docu-series on Netflix, one involving a cold case, a dead nun, and two determined women, I was simultaneously drawn in and skeptical. The seven-part story of "Who Killed Sister Cathy Cesnik?" is compelling and one that even Agatha Christie could not have written. Truth is always more fascinating than fiction.
Director Ryan White set out to investigate the murder of Sister Cathy with the help of Gemma Hoskins and Abbie Schuab, who were students of the nun at the time of her disappearance in 1969 in Baltimore. Her body was found two months later, but the case remained unsolved. They unflinchingly piece together events and key people in the case, but it goes so much deeper than murder of a beloved teacher. Recovered memories, child abuse and cover-ups. It becomes unclear who is protecting who when the police and the local Catholic Archdiocese seem to collude. Note that this all occurred prior to the Spotlight articles in Boston which unearthed a mountain of evidence of child abuse in the Catholic Church all over the world. As the amateur investigation advances, many still debate the legitimacy of recovered memories. For survivors of child abuse, it is a very real terror to relive in order to seek justice. I felt for the men and women affected by this in the series and commend them for being so brave in telling their stories in an effort to prevent this from ever happening again.
As with many other true crime series, we are left with the question of truth. No one may ever know exactly what happened to Sister Cathy, except those who were complicit in the crime. What were are left with is a sense of what might have happened, who might have been responsible and how those events could have conceivably played out. And do you know what I've learned from all my mystery books? Usually, the simplest explanation is the right one.
There is a lot out there if you feel compelled to do some of your own investigative work in helping solve this case or if you are just curious enough to know what wasn't covered in the Netflix series. If you're like me, it's all too easy to get involved with research and wanting to know if the case has developed further.