How to Catch A Criminal: Closure for Some

Dec. 3, 1957. Seven-year-old Maria Ridulph and her friend Kathy Sigman played in the snow that evening in Sycamore, Illinois. As they ran back and forth, enjoying the falling snow, a tall man dressed in a flamboyant sweater approached. He greeted the girls and introduced himself as “Johnny” and asked if they liked dolls and piggyback rides. Sycamore was a safe, friendly, rural town. There was no need to lock your doors, and if your children were outside playing, there was nothing to worry about in this close-knit community. The girls thought nothing of it when Johnny spoke with them. Maria happily accepted a piggyback ride from the stranger. When he inquired about her dolls, Maria ran home to retrieve one to show him. After she returned with the doll, the chill of the freezing night air got to Kathy. She went home to get a pair of mittens and came back outside to play. When she did, she found both Johnny and Maria were gone.

Kathy headed to the Ridulph household and asked about Maria. The Ridulph parents said she wasn’t home and sent 11-year-old Charles, Maria’s older brother, out to find where Maria was hiding. After he couldn’t find her either, he informed his parents something may be wrong. The Ridulphs contacted police and a search began. Police and volunteers went door-to-door looking for Maria or Johnny. Police were able to determine the girls were seen by neighbors around 6:30 p.m. without anyone else around. Johnny must have approached after 6:30, and abducted Maria between 6:45 and 7:00. Sycamore Police and the FBI followed up on tips, interviewing known sex offenders and locals who matched the description Kathy gave of Johnny. Many of these people were eliminated as suspects because they had solid alibis, such as one man Kathy picked out of a lineup, who was in jail at the time of the kidnapping. Law enforcement also questioned a man named John Tessier. Tessier was 18 at the time of Maria Ridulph’s kidnapping and matched the physical description and name of the man who approached the girls on Dec. 3. His mother told investigators he was home all night and couldn’t have been the culprit. In subsequent interviews however, she stated John had taken a train from Rockford, Illinois, to Chicago on Dec. 3, to complete the enlistment process for the Air Force. This was verified by Air Force records and a phone call placed to the Tessier residence from Rockford around 7 p.m. on Dec 3. Recruiting officers met with Tessier again shortly after, placing him over 40 miles away from the crime at the time of its occurrence. John Tessier later passed a lie detector test and was eliminated as a suspect just before beginning basic training.

On April 26, 1958, over 100 miles from Sycamore, two hikers found the skeletal remains of a young girl under a tree. The remains were identified as Maria Ridulph, confirming the worst had happened. Though cause of death could not initially be determined, an autopsy conducted decades later showed Maria died from multiple stab wounds to the throat. Unfortunately, no other leads would pan out and this case would be inactive for 50 years.

Circumstantial evidence is evidence based on reasonable inferences, whereas direct evidence is based on fact. For example, if a person’s body is found with a gunshot wound and their pants pockets turned inside out, it is reasonable to infer there was an armed robbery gone wrong. Without knowing if the victim’s pockets were already inside out, or if the killer was actually attempting to steal something when he fired, this is circumstantial evidence. However, if an eyewitness testifies that they saw a man with a gun approach another man and shout “Give me your wallet!”, and the other man cried “Don’t shoot! I only have a few dollars!” before emptying his pockets, followed by a gunshot, we have direct evidence of an armed robbery and murder. The suspect had a gun, demanded the victim’s wallet, and fired the gun, killing him. This information requires no inferences. It establishes what happened without any other party, such as a judge or jury, needing to make an assumption. While circumstantial evidence is often highly valuable in court—especially if the inferences which need to be made are clear and simple—it is easier to dispute than direct evidence. Direct evidence narrows down what happened by eliminating possibilities, but circumstantial evidence can inadvertently open additional possibilities.

In 1994, John Tessier’s mother was on her deathbed. She told her daughters John was responsible for the disappearance of Maria and they needed to tell the police. At this point John Tessier was no longer close to his family and would eventually change his name to Jack McCullough, paying homage to his mother’s maiden name. Since his enlistment in 1957, Jack McCullough had risen to the rank of Captain in the Air Force, and became a police officer in Washington in 1974. In 1982 he took a plea deal after being accused of statutory rape of a runaway 15-year-old girl, ending his career in policing. For years, McCullough’s sister, Janet Tessier, reached out to law enforcement, asking them to reopen the case based on her mother’s deathbed confession. In 2008, Illinois State Police decided to look into the disappearance of Maria Ridulph once again.

By the time the case was reopened, many of the original witnesses and investigators had passed away, leaving the officers without much in the way leads. Maria was exhumed and checked for potential DNA evidence, but due to her body being exposed to the elements for several months before being found, there was nothing of value collected. However, with his own mother laying the blame on him, there had to be something that tied McCulllough to the crime. When re-interviewing witnesses and persons of interest, police spoke to Jack’s high school girlfriend. She was able to provide them a photo of McCullough, as well as another surprising bit of evidence. She still had Jack’s Air Force-issued train ticket he would have used to take the train from Rockford to Chicago to complete his enlistment. The ticket hadn’t been used. Investigators hypothesized if Maria was abducted at 6:20, not 6:30, that would have given McCullough enough time to drive his car to Rockford, make the phone call to the Tessier residence, and meet the recruiters. Only a 10-minute difference compared to the timing officers originally speculated. Kathy Sigmun, now Kathy Chapman, was provided a photo lineup including the photo of Jack. She picked him out and said he was the one who approached her and Maria on Dec. 3, 1957.

Jack McCullough refused to answer questions about Maria Ridulph when brought in for questioning in July 2011, and was subsequently arrested for the kidnapping and murder of Maria Ridulph. He was found guilty in 2012 and sentenced to life in prison. Finally, there was justice for Maria Ridulph and her family, making this the oldest cold case ever to be closed. Until it was no longer closed.

Sir William Blackstone said “It is better that ten guilty persons escape than that one innocent suffer.” This quote has become a hallmark of the American justice system. No innocent person should be convicted of a crime they did not commit. In 2015 Jack McCullough appealed the court’s ruling and managed to have the kidnapping conviction overturned due to a three-year statute of limitations which was in effect for that crime in 1957. The appellate court also found his mother’s statement on her deathbed should not have been admitted as evidence during the trial. Later that year he filed a motion requesting a dismissal of the murder charge. Once this motion was set for a hearing, the new State’s Attorney, Richard Schmack, reviewed the case. He found that evidence was left out of the trial which would have clearly established McCullough’s whereabouts on the night of the crime. He found that the phone call McCullough made to his family’s home did indeed come from a payphone in Rockford, and given winter weather conditions that night, it would not have been possible for Jack to make the abduction, make the drive, and make the phone call within the timeline investigators presented.

Jack McCullough was granted a new trial, however, one week later the murder charge was dismissed. In 2017, the Dekalb County Circuit Court determined he was innocent of the crime and would not be re-tried. For the Ridulph family this would surely be a bitter conclusion, but for McCullough, a sweet one. A wrongfully convicted man was freed and officially labeled innocent, while the Maria Ridulph murder was once again unsolved, and cold. Unfortunately in this case, two innocent people suffered, and a guilty person escaped.