BALTIMORE — Investigators with the FBI are planning to exhume Joyce Malecki’s body later this week. Malecki was murdered in 1969.
Her case remains unsolved but interest in the case increased after her case was featured in Netflix’s “The Keepers.”
Malecki went missing when she was Christmas shopping in Nov. 1969 at a mall near Baltimore, Maryland, according to The Associated Press. Her body was found days later near a military base. WBAL reported the military base was Fort Meade.
An autopsy found that Malecki was strangled to death, the AP reported.
An advocate for Malecki’s family confirmed to the AP on Tuesday that the exhumation process is “tentatively planned” for Thursday.
Malecki’s case was featured on “The Keepers.” According to WBAL, she was featured in the show because she was located days after Sister Cathy Cesnick had disappeared.
Cesnick went missing under similar circumstances to Malecki. According to the AP, she was found dead after she went shopping. She never made it home and was found later with blunt-force trauma.
“The Keeper’s” was released in 2017, the AP reported.
Some believe both of Malecki and Cesnick’s murders are tied to alleged abuse by Father Joseph Maskell, WBAL reported. No one has been arrested in connection with Malecki’s murder yet.
The FBI is hoping to find new evidence with Malecki’s remains, Malecki’s brother said, according to the news outlet.
Kurt Wolfgang, executive director of the Maryland Crime Victims Resource Center said that investigators are looking to get DNA from Malecki’s remains but it remains unclear what investigators are trying to figure out, the AP reported.
“They want justice out of this thing,” said Wolfgang, according to the AP. “Even though it was 54 years ago, it would certainly help them to know what happened.”
Wolfgang said that the exhumation is closed to the public but relatives can attend. The FBI’s Baltimore Field Office declined to comment due to “respect for the ongoing investigation,” the AP reported.
The FBI is involved in this case because of where Malecki’s body was found in 1969 which was Fort Meade, a U.S. Army base.
