On the winter night of December 3rd, 1957, in Sycamore, Illinois, seven-year-old Maria Ridulph went outside to play a game of “duck the cars” with her friend, Kathy. The girls were approached by a man who called himself “Johnny.” He offered piggyback rides and asked if the girls liked to play with dolls. Kathy left to retrieve her doll from home to show “Johnny,” but when she returned, Maria Ridulph and the man had vanished. What ensued would be a fifty-year-old cold case and a complicated mystery that begs the question, who murdered Maria Ridulph?
Warning:
Episode mentions child kidnapping, child death, child murder, child sexual abuse, and child sexual assault.
If you have any information regarding the kidnapping and murder of seven-year-old Maria Ridulph, please contact the Illinois State Police at www.isp.illinois.gov.
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Sources:
Maria Ridulph murder: Will the nation’s oldest cold case to go to trial ever get solved? (2017, June 4). CBS News. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/maria-ridulph-murder-will-the-nations-oldest-cold-case-to-go-to-trial-ever-get-solved/
Neumann, S. (2024, December 22). Girl's Abduction and Murder Became 'Oldest Cold Case' in U.S. History. Here's How It Was Solved — Until It Wasn't. People.com. https://people.com/maria-ridulph-murder-oldest-cold-case-8764184
Taken: The coldest case ever solved. (n.d.). https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2013/08/us/oldest-cold-case/
Wikipedia contributors. (2025, February 23). Murder of Maria Ridulph. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Maria_Ridulph