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1994 video shows open pit where Maskell hid documents

Posted at 11:05 AM, May 30, 2017
and last updated 2017-05-30 11:05:46-04

A portion of the Netflix documentary "The Keepers" focuses on a stash of documents that then-Father Joseph Maskell ordered to be buried at a local cemetery back in 1990.

When allegations of sexual abuse by Maskell became public, in 1994, the man who buried the documents -- William Storey -- dug them up again, and turned them over to investigators.

In the fourth episode of the documentary, a friend of Father Maskell's said he called them "psychological papers."  A source identified only as "Deep Throat" said he saw the documents, which, he says, also contained photos of high school age girls with their shirts open.

Sharon May, then the head of the sex abuse division in the Baltimore City State's Attorey's office, was also interviewed in the documentary. She told director Ryan White that she didn't see any photographs in the stash of documents. She said she did not have enough evidence to go forward with criminal charges against Father Maskell at that time.

On August 10, 1994, former WMAR reporter Deborah Sherman interviewed Storey, and obtained video of the hole his dug up in the cemetery. The video shows some of the documents still in the hole at Holy Cross Cemetery, although they are blurry and un-readable.

Storey said:"The only word I got was to forget what went on that day.  After it was over I closed in the pit. I was told to just forget it. It doesn't involve me, other than opening the hole."

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