A Little Less Mess: The Murder of Maria Ridulph [Illinois]

On a freezing December evening in 1957, seven-year-old Maria Ridulph was playing under the streetlights of Sycamore, Illinois, when a friendly young man offering piggyback rides vanished with her into the winter dark. The disappearance triggered an unprecedented nationwide manhunt that drew personal attention from J. Edgar Hoover and President Dwight D. Eisenhower, only to end months later when Maria’s remains were discovered deep in a rural wooded ravine.

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Music courtesy of Blanche

Sources

The National Registry of Exonerations: Jack McCullough Case Summary & Exoneration Record
The Innocence Project: llinois Prosecutor Seeks Justice Amid Decades-Old Wrongful Conviction (DeKalb County Review)
CNN Special Investigative Series: Taken: Coldest Case Ever Solved (Reporting by David Fitzpatrick & Drew Griffin)
The Chicago Tribune / Associated Press Archives: Sycamore Community Coverage, 1957 Abduction Searches, and 2012 Trial Records
DeKalb County Circuit Court: State of Illinois v. Jack McCullough (2016 Conviction Vacatur & 2017 Certificate of Innocence Filings)