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Sister Catherine Cesnik case: Nun Cashed $255 Check, Police Say

Baltimore Sun
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City homicide detectives said yesterday that Sister Catherine Cesnik (S.S.N.D.) cashed a $255 paycheck made out to her at a Catonsville bank shortly before she disappeared Friday night.
Police said either the missing 26-year-old teaching nun or her roommate made the trip regularly to the First National Bank branch on Frederick avenue every second Friday with their paychecks from the city school system.
One of the checks, police said, was deposited in their joint checking account at the bank, and the other was cashed to meet "operating" expenses on the garden apartment they shared on North Bend road.

Bakery Box In Car

Meanwhile, a bakery box filled with buns which was found on the front seat of the car that Sister Catherine drove Friday night apparently established that she did go to the Hecht Company store in Edmondson Village, which was to have been the second stop on her trip.
Her roommate, Sister Helen Russell Phillips, S.S.N.D., told police that Sisler Catherine had planned to buy a wedding present for her sister at the department store.
Police said they still are still checking store records to see whether Sister Catherine actually
bought the present, but that the Muhly's Bakery from which the buns were purchased is located in the Hecht store.

"Couldn't Recall Seeing" Nun

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A clerk at the store who was on duty Friday night said yesterday that she "just couldn't recall seeing" the missing nun.
Police continued checking tips and leads in the Southwest Baltimore area yesterday, but did not resume their massive searches of Saturday and Sunday.
"We are convinced that Sister Catherine is nowhere in this vicinity," one policeman said yesterday.

"No Evidence Of Foul Play"

Capt. John C. Barnold, Jr., head of the homicide squad, said yesterday his investigation has turned up "no evidence of foul play" in S1ster Catherine's disappearance.
"We could find no evidence of violence of any kind," Captain Barnold said.
The car Sisler Catherine was driving, a green, 1970 Maverick which police said she and Sister Russell are paying for together, was found at 4.30 A.M. Saturday parked illegally near their apartment.
Police said that no resident of the apartment complex reported seeing the green sedan in the parking place assigned to the nuns in the apartment parking lot about 8.30 P.M. Friday.
Other residents first spotted the car parked in a yellow-line area or North Bend road and Carriage court at 10.30 P.M., police added.

Besides the buns, the unlocked car contained only a knocked-over plastic litter basket and a forked twig caught on the turn-signal lever by a yellow thread.

The Baltimore Sun is republishing archived coverage of the unsolved 1969 murder of Sister Catherine Cesnik, which is the subject of a Netflix documentary series set to debut May 19. Cesnik, a 26-year-old Baltimore nun, was reported missing in November 1969 and her body was found in Lansdowne in January 1970. These stories appear as they were originally written in The Sun or The Evening Sun. 
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