Posted on 07/02/2011 6:23:42 AM PDT by SanFranDan
A man has been charged with the killing of a seven-year-old girl 53 YEARS after she was abducted in a case that gripped America.
Jack Daniel McCullough, 71, is accused of murdering Maria Ridulph, who was kidnapped while playing with a friend near her home.
As almost an entire community and law enforcement agencies searched for her, President Eisenhower and FBI director J Edgar Hoover demanded daily briefings on the hunt.
McCullough, from Seattle, is being held at Washington's King County jail today awaiting extradition after being picked up for questioning last Wednesday.
The crime has haunted the city of Sycamore, in DeKalb County, about 50 miles west of Chicago, for over half a century.
On December 3, 1957, a young man approached her and another child introducing himself as 'Johnny' and asked: 'Do you have any dollies? Would you like a piggy-back ride?'
'Pretty Maria' as the newspapers would call her, said yes to one ride and then another. At that point, Maria’s friend went home.
For the next five months, around 7,000 Sycamore residents and dozens of FBI agents and state police frantically searched for her.
Then in April, 1958, Maria’s decomposed remains were found beneath an oak tree near Galena by a couple foraging for mushrooms in Jo Davies County, in the northwest corner of the state.
McCullough was known to Maria's family, according to police. He was 18 at the time and named John Tessier. He lived just a block away.
He was an initial suspect but had an alibi and the case went cold after he joined the military and changed his name to McCullough.
But two years ago, Illinois police were given a tip-off leading to the suspect and they worked with local detectives culminating in McCullough's arrest earlier this week.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
Another cockroach exposed to the light of day.I hope that God and his conscience didn’t give him a moments peace since the murder.
Check for same post by Nichcaraway.
Wow.
Sadly, it seems her parents didn’t live to see the day.
Thanks SanFranDan.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.