Joyce Malecki was last seen Christmas shopping in November 1969 at a mall in the suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland. She never came home.
A few days later, the 20-year-old’s body was found on a nearby military base. She had been strangled.
For 54 years, Malecki’s killing has remained unsolved.
It’s a case that received renewed attention after Netflix’s documentary series The Keepers was released in 2017, in which it examined the slaying of Sister Cathy Cesnik, a Baltimore nun, that unfolded just days earlier under eerily similar circumstances.
Questions were raised about whether Malecki’s disappearance could be linked to that of Cesnik, who was also found dead after she went shopping and never returned.
Now, FBI investigators are planning to exhume Malecki’s body in an effort for answers. An advocate for her family confirmed to The Associated Press that the exhumation was tentatively planned for Thursday.
Kurt Wolfgang, executive director of the Maryland Crime Victims Resource Center, said it appears investigators are now looking to extract DNA from Malecki’s body, although it’s unclear what they’re seeking to determine.
Mr Wolfgang said relatives will be allowed to attend the exhumation, which will otherwise be closed to the public. His nonprofit has been working closely with the Malecki family.
“They want justice out of this thing,” Mr Wolfgang said. “Even though it was 54 years ago, it would certainly help them to know what happened.”
The latest source of speculation came earlier this year, when federal and local authorities announced they had solved the case of yet another young woman’s homicide.
Pamela Conyers, 16, went missing in 1970 from the same shopping mall as Malecki and similarly died from strangulation.
Pamela Conyers— (Anne Arundel County Police Department)
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. He incurred nothing more than a couple minor criminal charges over the subsequent decades.
When they pinned Conyers’ killing on Williams, officials said they didn’t have evidence connecting him to the unsolved homicides of Malecki or Cesnik. They also said they didn’t believe Conyers knew Williams.
Mr Wolfgang told The Associated Press that the FBI shared little information with the family about recent developments in the case, but the timing could suggest a link to Williams.
A spokesperson for the FBI’s Baltimore Field Office declined to comment, citing “respect for the ongoing investigation.” Federal investigators are in charge of the case because Malecki’s body was found on military property.
Forrest Clyde Williams III— (Anne Arundel County Police Department)
In 2017, investigators also exhumed the body of a Catholic priest, Father Joseph Maskell, to see if his DNA matched evidence from the scene of the nun’s [Cesnik] death.
The documentary released the same year questioned whether Cesnik was killed because she knew Maskell was sexually abusing students at the Catholic high school where they both worked. A CBS Baltimore investigation revealed many of those victims confided in Sister Cesnik just before her murder.
A woman who was interviewed in The Keepers claimed 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 killed.
But the DNA testing did not reveal a match and the case remains unsolved.
When Malecki was growing up, her family attended a Catholic church outside Baltimore where Maskell served as a priest.
They lived down the road while Maskell was living in the St Clement Catholic Church rectory. He was later assigned to Archbishop Keough High School, where he was accused of abusing numerous girls.
Mr Wolfgang said Malecki told her relatives “she did not like him one bit and told people to stay away from him.”
But Mr Wolfgang said the family doesn’t have any direct evidence suggesting she was one of Maskell’s abuse victims and they’re hesitant to jump to conclusions about linking the various cases.
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 targeted at least 39 victims.
According to the report, Maskell was transferred to St. Clement after being accused of abuse at his prior assignment — one of several times the archdiocese turned a blind eye to his misconduct.
He denied the allegations before his death in 2001 and was never criminally charged.
