Posted on 07/27/2011 5:30:31 PM PDT by nickcarraway
It is a mystery that has haunted a Chicago suburb for more than a half century. A little girl was found murdered, and the only suspect in the case had gone free, until now. CBS News correspondent Dean Reynolds reports that police went to great lengths to try to close this cold case.
For 53 years, the grave of seven-year-old Maria Ridulph was undisturbed. Her unsolved murder case as cold as the ground that held her coffin.
On Wednesday morning, however, her remains were exhumed to see if modern science - and DNA - can support the authorities' belief that they've cracked this case at last.
Arrest made in unsolved 1957 murder of little girl "We want to bring the best minds available to us to have them conduct a thorough examination of her remains," says Clay Campbell, DeKalb, Ill., county state attorney.
On that December evening back in 1957, Maria's friend Cathy Sigman recalled playing together outside when a man calling himself Johnny asked if they wanted to play.
Cathy went to get her mittens, but when she returned, the man and the little girl known as "Pretty Maria" by her friends were gone.
The case was so notorious it drew the attention of President Dwight Eisenhower, who asked for daily updates.
Maria's body was found the following April, 120 miles from her Sycamore, Ill., home.
Fast forward to early this month when police in Washington, acting on a tip from Illinois- arrested and charged Jack Daniel McCullough - a 71-year-old former policeman from the Seattle area - with kidnapping and murder.
Back in 1957, his name was John Tessier and he was Maria's neighbor. When questioned by police then, he said he was on a train to Chicago when she disappeared.
But three years ago, after he had changed his name to McCullough, an old girlfriend produced an unused train ticket of his from the very same day.
That sparked an intense focus on him.
"We've been fairly astonished at not only the leads that we've gotten, but the recollections of some of the local residents," Campbell says.
More than half a century later, this case is no longer cold.
Very bizarre. I remember this case, although I was a child in New York City at the time. Perhaps we had fewer disappearances of children in those days, but for whatever reason, it was practically national news.
its not justice served, after all these free years, but at least, if he is the murderer, he’ll get to spend his old age in a cramped cell.....
No, we just didn’t have crime pimps like Nancy Grace to exploit the grief stricken 24/7.
In 1958 I used to wander all alone along Oxnard Beach. I mean for its whole length. At that time there was no marina.
This was a beach with a lot of beachy-type homes and some apartments but otherwise not much visited by people from in town, meaning Oxnard, or elsewhere.
No one ever bothered me. I was just 6-years old.
It is impossible for children to do that today.
I remember the reports of this crime. The little thing was just playing in her yard.
Yeah. Same here. I was allowed to go alone up the street five houses to see my friend. We were both 3.
I wonder why she'd kept it for all those years. Did she suspect him, and if so, why didn't she bring the ticket forward before three years ago?
I sure hope this little girl didn't suffer any guilt because she left her friend alone with the man. She certainly wouldn't have been able to help her; she would only have ended up a second victim.
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