Never Too Late

Former Cop Arrested for 1957 Murder

Investigators exhume remains for DNA evidence.

A former cop arrested for the 1957 murder of a young girl returned to Illinois in custody as the remains of the 7-year-old were exhumed for more evidence. Jack McCullough, 71, has been charged with the murder of Maria Ridulph, whose remains were found in 1958, 100 miles from where she went missing. At the time Ridulph went missing, McCullough was a teenager known as John Tessier and a suspect in the crime. A friend of Ridulph said a man had approached two little girls and asked if they wanted piggyback rides, and when the friend returned from getting her mittens, Ridulph and the man were gone. The friend picked McCullough out of a lineup last year. McCullough’s alibi has also been called into question.