BALTIMORE — More than half a century after she headed to Harundale Mall in Glen Burnie to go Christmas shopping and wound up dead in a creek bed at Fort Meade, the FBI exhumed the body of Joyce Malecki raising the hopes of family members, including her brother, Darryl.
“We’re hoping and praying that the FBI does have something and maybe they can bring some resolve to my sister,” said Darryl Malecki, “It’s been 54 years and the person that committed this crime needs to be dealt with if they’re still alive.”
The Maryland Crime Victims’ Resource Center has been representing the Malecki family in an investigation seemingly set back when physical evidence was destroyed years ago.
“They were told long ago that there was skin under her fingernails, and certainly if they had evidence to destroy, that would have been part of the evidence that they had, but whether that was destroyed or not, we don’t know,” said MCVRC Executive Director Kurt Wolfgang.
Sister Cathy Cesnik, whose case was featured in “The Keepers” docuseries, was murdered four days before Malecki, and the case of another woman abducted and murdered after visiting Harundale Mall, a year after Malecki’s death was solved earlier this year through ancestral DNA, but to date, there’s no evidence tying her killing to either of those.
Once the remains had been exhumed and the testing had been completed, Joyce was placed in a new coffin and surviving family members were invited to visit her in the chapel.
Her brother, Darryl, who is now 71-years-old, was the last family member who had spoken to her on the day she went missing when he was just 17.
“The first thing I said ‘hi’ and I’m sure she’s in heaven and I hope she’s talking to my parents,” said Darryl Malecki, “We lost a grandchild. Hopefully, she’s holding her.”
