Murder: True Crime Stories - SOLVED: Chicago's Coldest Case 1

Episode Date: September 2, 2025

When 7-year-old Maria Ridulph vanished from her quiet Illinois neighborhood in 1957, it made national headlines and triggered one of the largest FBI searches of its time. In this episode, we revisit Maria’s final moments, the man last seen with her, and the investigation that wouldn’t lead to an arrest for over 50 years. Murder: True Crime Stories is a Crime House Original Podcast, powered by PAVE Studios. Listen wherever you get your podcasts. For ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crime House+ on Apple Podcasts. Don’t miss out on all things Murder: True Crime Stories! Instagram: @murdertruecrimepod | @Crimehouse TikTok: @Crimehouse Facebook: @crimehousestudios X: @crimehousemedia YouTube: @crimehousestudios To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everyone, it's Carter. If you're loving murder, true crime stories, you won't want to miss our fellow Crime House original show. Conspiracy theories cults and crimes. Every Wednesday, you'll get to explore the true stories behind the world's most shocking crimes, deadly ideologies, and secret plots, from mass suicides and political assassinations to secret government experiments and UFO cults. Follow conspiracy theories, cults and crimes now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, or wherever you listen.

And for ad-free listening and early access to episodes, subscribe to Crimehouse Plus on Apple Podcasts. Grief comes in many forms. After a tragedy, some people need to be alone to process their feelings while others seek connection. Some become quiet and introverted, while others lash out in anger. There's no right way to cope, and there's no handbook for dealing with life's most challenging moments, especially when those moments involve an innocent child. After seven-year-old, Maria Ridolf disappeared on a snowy evening in 1957, her tight-knit Illinois community was turned upside down. Seemingly overnight, neighbors betrayed each other, law enforcement agencies fought amongst themselves, and families were permanently divided. In the midst of all the drama,

the Riddoffs were focused on one thing, finding justice for Maria. But after decades of searching for answers, they had to find a different kind of closure, because there are some mysteries that can never be solved. People's lives are like a story. There's a beginning, a middle, and an end, but you don't always know which part you're on. Sometimes the final chapter arrives far. too soon and we don't always get to know the real ending. I'm Carter Roy and this is murder true crime stories, a crime house original powered by Pave Studios that comes out every Tuesday and Thursday. At Crime House, we want to express our gratitude to you, our community from making this possible.

Please support us by rating, reviewing, and following murder true crime stories wherever you get your podcasts. And to enhance your murder true crime stories listening experience, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get ad-free listening, early access to every two-part series, and exciting bonus content. This is the first of two episodes on one of America's oldest cold cases, the 1957 murder of seven-year-old Maria Ridolf. Today, I'll enter you to Maria. I'll walk you through the last night of her short life and the crime that changed the town of Sycamore, Illinois forever. After Maria was kidnapped, detectives scoured the area for any sign of the young girl. Eventually, they found her, but it wasn't the news anyone was hoping

for. Next time, I'll continue the investigation as detective search for Maria's killer. I'll tell you about the unexpected break that came more than five decades after her disappearance and how just when authorities thought they'd finally captured the person responsible, a final twist left them scratching their heads. All that and more coming up. Back in 1957, and most people probably hadn't heard of Sycamore, Illinois. With a population of less than 6,500, it was tiny compared to Chicago, about 60 miles southeast. Unlike their neighbors in the big city, people in Sycamore either worked on farms or in one of three local factories.

There was Anaconda Wire and Cable, Ideal Industries, and the Diamond Wire and Cable Company. Mike Ridolph was a diamond wire and cable man himself, and while it wasn't the most glamorous job, Mike didn't mind, especially because he was making $80 a week, or $915 in today's money. With that, he could afford a comfortable house in the neighborhood. What really mattered to Mike was his family, his wife Frances and their four children. Their eldest daughter, Pat, was smart as a whip. Their second, 15-year-old Kay was an avid musician, while 11-year-old Chuck was more athletically inclined. Then there was 7-year-old Maria, the baby of the family, and the apple of their eyes.

Maria was a little less than 4 feet tall and weighed about 53 pounds. Her honey-brown eyes matched her hair, which she wore with bangs cut straight across. She could be a bit of a scaredy cat and was still afraid of. the dark, and she loved nothing more than being silly and playing with her friends, especially in the wintertime. When the first snowfall came on the evening of December 3rd, 1957, Maria begged her mom to let her go outside. Frances said to finish her dinner first, then she could go.

Maria agreed. She rushed to the table and ate as fast as she could. As soon as she was done, around five. 5.45 p.m., she called her best friend, 8-year-old Kathy Sigmund, to join her. Since Kathy only lived five houses away, the girls agreed to meet outside once they were dressed. Francis made sure Maria was all bundled up, helping her put on a tan, three-quarter-length overcoat. It wasn't as nice as the brand-new jacket she wanted to wear. This one was missing a button and had a worn-down collar.

But Francis didn't want her to get the new coat dirty so soon. The second she was buttoned up, Maria burst out of the door, laughing as soft snow crunched under her feet. She met Kathy at the corner of their street, and the two of them started playing their favorite game, something they called, duck the cars. The rules were simple. Anytime a vehicle rolled down the block,

they had to hide behind a tree. If the car's headlights lit up any part of their body as it passed, they lost. Maria liked playing Duck the Cars because she was the best at it. She ran faster than Kathy, laughing as she made it behind the elm tree just in time to avoid the lights. Kathy, on the other hand, kept getting tagged before making it to safety. While the girls played, Francis had to take Maria's older sister Kay to a music lesson. Around 6 p.m., she and Kay drove by. They saw Kathy and Maria duck behind the elm tree.

Ten minutes later, Francis was back home. She checked on the girls once more before heading inside. With a fresh snow swirling around, it looked like a scene straight out of a Christmas movie. About a few minutes later, a long shadow crossed Kathy and Maria's path. They paused their game as a strength. stranger came up the block, expecting him to simply pass by. To their surprise, he headed toward the big elm. When he stepped into the light, they could see his clean, shaven face under a gray hat. Though he was probably somewhere in his early twenties, he looked much older to the young

girls. He waved over to them and crouched down to speak on their level. When he asked if they were having fun, they nodded nervously and huddled closer together. The man smiled and took off his hat, revealing a head of shiny blonde hair. He had a ducktail haircut like Elvis, the kind that was slicked with pomade and parted in the middle down the back. He leaned in close to Maria and out of the blue asked if she'd like a piggyback ride. Maria didn't usually talk to strangers. But it was clear to Kathy that she felt pressured to say yes, especially because she did like piggyback rides. After thinking it over, Maria nodded and climbed up onto his back.

The man jogged up the street, kicking up clouds of snow as he went. At the end of the block, he circled back and knelt down so Maria could hop off. Kathy watched enviously as her friend giggled. The man smiled. told the girls his name was Johnny. He said he was 24 years old and for some reason he also shared that he wasn't married. Then he turned back to Maria. He offered her another ride. But only if she let him see one of her toys. Maria had just the doll in mind and ran back home to get it. That left Kathy alone with Johnny. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders and told her

quote he liked her something about his tone bothered kathy but she muttered that she liked him too he used the opportunity to offer her a ride not on his back though he said he could take her on a bus or even the train kathy immediately tensed up she wriggled out from under his grip and told him she didn't want to go on any rides with him. Meanwhile, Maria burst through the front doors of her house, dripping frigid water all over the entryway. Frances started to scold her, but Maria looked so happy.

She could only smile as her daughter went over to her toy collection. It was kept in a special area of the living room, a place the family nicknamed Maria's Corner. She scanned the crowd of dolls before picking her favorite and holding it up for her mom to see. When she asked if she could take it outside, Frances told her to pick a rubber one instead. Maria nodded, a little disappointed, and grabbed another doll. She was back outside before her mom could even ask what she was doing.

Maria raced up the street to the corner. By the time she reached Johnny and Kathy a few minutes later, she was out of breath. Still, she proudly held up her rubber doll. dressed in a red and white skirt complete with tiny pockets. Johnny ooed and awed as she showed it off. Then, as promised, he gave her a second piggyback ride up the street and back to the corner. Next was Kathy's turn. Even though she didn't want to go on a bus or a train with Johnny,

she wasn't opposed to getting a piggyback ride, especially because Maria looked like she was having so much fun but her fingers were stinging from the cold so she asked Johnny to wait until she got her mittens from home before she left she asked him what time it was she wanted to make sure it wasn't past her curfew he told her it was seven o'clock Kathy trudged home through the snow

a few minutes later she returned to the corner mittens in hand, ready for her piggyback ride. But Johnny and Maria were nowhere to be seen. Kathy wandered in circles, calling out for her friend and checking the elm tree they used to hide from the cars. Nothing. At a loss, Kathy went back to the Riddoff house and rang the doorbell. Maria's older brother, 11-year-old Chuck, answered.

Kathy told him she couldn't find Maria. Chuck figured the girls had probably been playing hide-and-seek and Maria had done too good a job at hiding. He called his parents over, and Francis and Mike went outside to find their daughter. First, they tried the corner. Next, they looked in their backyard. Mike used a whistle to call the kids for chores, so he grabbed it and blew hard. Any other night, Maria would have responded to the sound immediately, knowing she'd be punished if she didn't. This time, she didn't answer.

That's when Chuck realized something was wrong. He ran up and down the block with one of his friends, both of them screaming Maria's name at the top of their lungs. They knocked on her friend's doors, but no one had seen her. Meanwhile, Francis took Kathy back to her house. There, the little girl finally mentioned Johnny and the piggyback rides. She told the story in a confusing eight-year-old kind of way, but Frances got the picture, and it made her very nervous.

She wanted to call the cops, but Mike talked her out of it. He was sure Maria had simply wandered off and gotten lost somewhere in the neighborhood. They spent a few more minutes searching, scouring every nook and cranny while Mike blasted his whistle. At this point, it was around 7.25 p.m. and the sky was completely black. Francis jumped in her car and raced to the police station. It was time to get the authorities involved. By 8.30 p.m. on December 3, 1957, a massive search party marched through the streets of Sycamore, Illinois.

Police were joined by families from just about every house on the block, calling out for seven-year-old Maria Ridolf. The owner of the local hardware store even cleaned out his shelves, handing over lanterns and flashlights to the searchers. No stone was left unturned. Based on Kathy's story, detectives questioned neighbors about the mysterious man Maria was last seen with. a 20-something blonde man named Johnny.

The only person with any information was a contractor who lived across the street from the Riddoffs. He said he heard a child scream around the time Maria disappeared. He thought she was only playing and didn't go outside to investigate. Which made sense. Sycamore was supposed to be safe. The kind of place where people left their doors unlocked all year round. It made what happened to Maria all the more terrifying, but at that point

the community was still hopeful. After all, there were dozens of searchers, and the conditions seemed favorable. An hour or so into the quest, the snow had all but stopped. That's when three neighbors, including Kathy's father, came upon a trail of footprints, clearly belonging to one adult and one child. The steps led to an open field behind the Ridd-off house, then toward a nearby barn. The men treaded carefully. With only a vague description to go on, they had no idea how dangerous this Johnny was. So they walked softly on the snow following the trail to the barn.

At the last moment, they jumped around the corner, hoping to catch the culprit by surprise. but no one was there. Instead, there were some shallow tire tracks heading north toward the highway. The men had no idea where the kidnapper was going, but it seemed like he'd gotten a head start. While the neighborhood search party continued into the night, local detectives launched an official investigation, and the first person they wanted to talk to was 8-year-old Kathy Sigmund.

While children aren't usually the most reliable witnesses, Kathy had an unusually strong memory. She gave officers a detailed description of Johnny and his outfit. He wore a gray hat, blue jeans, and a multicolored striped sweater that didn't seem like enough to protect against the bitter cold. He was clean-shaven, and Kathy said he had long teeth or possibly a gap tooth. she also told her family the man spoke like she used to her parents took that to mean that Johnny had a country accent according to them he probably sounded like a quote hillbilly while detectives took down the details the rest of the officers set up roadblocks given the tire tracks they weren't too hopeful they estimated Johnny had a 70 minute lead on them

If he went along Route 64, as they suspected, chances were he'd already left the county. By 10.30 that night, the entire town had been scanned from top to bottom. And yet, when the search party circled back to Maria's house, they made a startling discovery only a few hundred feet away. On the outskirts of a neighboring property, a group of volunteers found Maria's rubber doll. lying in the snow. Police had covered the same area an hour earlier. Some of the officers couldn't believe they'd missed the doll the first time and openly wondered if someone had planted it there after their initial search. One of the men involved in the investigation, Assistant State Attorney James Boyle was convinced someone put the doll there after the fact. The following day he made

a public announcement, begging the person who moved the doll to come forward and identify themselves. No one did. But by that point, it probably didn't matter. The doll had already been handled by dozens of people, making fingerprint analysis useless. Other crucial evidence had been damaged too. The footprints and tire tracks behind the barn were trampled. Even so, that didn't slow the search. A day after Maria went missing, on Wednesday, December 4th, the probe continued. The local high school even canceled classes for seniors so they could help look. The town factories gave workers a day off so they could join in two. Sadly, their efforts didn't bear much fruit.

By 7 p.m., around 24 hours after Maria went missing, authorities were reasonably confident she was no longer in. the area. At that point, the FBI got involved. The possibility that she'd been taken out of state brought the kidnapping into their jurisdiction. The investigation was headed up by 46-year-old Richard Auerbach. Educated as a lawyer, Richard joined the Bureau six years earlier as a special agent. He pulled out all the stops to find Maria, including sending observation planes and helicopters into the skies to search with a bird's eye view. Back on the ground, agents went over every possible suspect with a fine-toothed comb. That included searching the homes of everyone

in the Ridoff's vicinity and interrogating all-known criminals. By Thursday, Maria had been missing for over 48 hours, and the authorities were already expecting the worst. In an unusual move, a couple of special agents even set up camp at the Riddhoff home. They were there to protect the family and monitor any incoming information. They slept on a pull-out couch, tapped the family's phones, and waited with bated breath, hoping the kidnapper would call to ask for ransom. If he didn't, they feared Maria was already dead. Over the next few days, a total of 60 agents flooded Sycamore under Richard's command.

They interviewed gas station attendance, out-of-town guests, and even dentists, hoping that someone with Johnny's long teeth had recently been examined. None of it turned up solid evidence. Until a couple of days in, when an anonymous tip led to a breakthrough, A caller who refused to identify herself phoned the sheriff to report a suspicious young man in the Riddolph's neighborhood. His name was John Tessier.

He was 18 years old, a little younger than police expected, but he had blonde hair and lived only about two blocks from the Riddhoffs. After interviewing his neighbors, agents found plenty of reasons. to think the anonymous caller was on to something. Multiple residents described him as weird and generally got the sense that he was a bit of a creep. Some people even had firsthand experiences to back up their feelings.

One teenager in the area had seen John standing in front of his bedroom window wearing nothing but his underwear on multiple occasions. According to the witness, John simply stood there, staring out with a strange blank expression. He seemed completely out of it. And that wasn't the only disturbing story detectives heard about John. Five years before Maria's disappearance, another eight-year-old girl named Pam Smith remembered John approaching her and offering a piggyback ride.

She said yes, then quickly regretted it when he started sprinting down the street and refused to put her down. She clung to him, bawling for a full four blocks until a neighbor spotted them at a gas station. Thanks to his help, Pam's father caught up to the pair and yanked his daughter off John's back. He then threatened John, who never came near Pam again. The similarities to Maria's abduction were obvious, so on December 8th, five days after she disappeared, the authorities paid John a visit. He wasn't home, but his parents invited the agents in. They apparently weren't surprised to see the FBI. Everyone in town knew the police were looking for a man named Johnny. The Tessiers figured they would be questioned sooner or later, but

insisted John had an ironclad alibi. According to them, on December 3rd, when Maria vanished, John was 40 miles out of town. He had traveled to Rockford, Illinois, that afternoon, to enlist in the Air Force. His parents told investigators that around 7.10 p.m., the same time Maria was abducted, he called them from a pay phone and asked to be picked up. By A.D.C.C.L.A.C., clock, he was in the car with his dad on his way home. If that was true, John Tessier couldn't be the culprit. He was already in Rockford when Maria was taken. Agents would need to verify his alibi. In the meantime, they asked to search his room. They might have been looking for the multicolored sweater eight-year-old Kathy had described. If they were, they didn't find it, or anything

else incriminating. Still, they asked John to come in for a lie detector test later that week. When his parents told him about it later that night, he eagerly agreed to take the polygraph. According to them, he seemed anxious to get the exam over with, claiming he had nothing to hide. He didn't know he was in for a rude awakening. Pam Smith's story had rocketed him to the very top, of the FBI suspect list. And on December 9th, when he showed up for the polygraph, the agents didn't pull any punches. The first thing they said to him was,

we know you did it. That's when John started to panic. This one test could shape the course of his future. If he couldn't convince the cops he was innocent, his life would be over. Grocery shopping, Cho-ching. Ordering food?

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classic episodes of 48 hours from the vault. Follow and listen to 48 hours. on the free Odyssey app or wherever you get your podcasts. Six days after seven-year-old Maria Ridoff went missing, the FBI questioned their number one suspect.

On December 10, 1957, they strapped 18-year-old John Tessier to a polygraph machine at the Golden Harvest Motel in Sycamore, Illinois. The next hour was the most agonizing experience of his young life. As he sat sweating under the motel lamp, agents flooded him with accusations, leading questions, and veiled threats. They made him recount every second of his life between December 2nd and December 4th.

John felt like he was under a microscope. He racked his brain to remember everything. Finally, after what seemed like an endless interrogation, the agents released him and scanned the test result. They were shocked. There were zero signs that John was lying in any of his answers, and the examiner was certain he couldn't have cheated. The Bureau's number one suspect seemed to be a red herring, but just to be sure, agents had to follow up on his alibi. They checked in with the Air Force recruiter who spoke to John in Rockford on the afternoon of December 3rd. it seemed like John was telling the truth.

Although the staff sergeant did agree that John was a little off, the sergeant described his new recruit as a possible drug user and as very odd. The weirdest thing John did at the meeting was show the staff sergeant a little black book he carried around. Inside, he had written down the names and addresses of young women in Sycamore, along with their bust and hip measurements. That was definitely disturbing, but it didn't discount his alibi. Agents were able to look into payphone records and confirmed that he had, in fact, called his parents from Rockford around 7 p.m.

That was the final nail in the coffin. John Tessier wasn't in Sycamore at the time, Maria Riddolph was kidnapped. But if he didn't do it, then who did? Agent figured Kathy Sigmund might be the only one who could answer that question. Desperate for a breakthrough, they had the eight-year-old pour-through binder after binder of police lineups. Sifting through a sea of adult faces wasn't easy for a little girl.

They knew they were putting her under a lot of stress, but no one else had to be. seen Johnny. She was the best chance they had at identifying him. And after more than a week of looking over the lineups, Kathy had provided them with several new leads. There was a 26-year-old man who drunkenly bragged to a group of strangers that he knew who abducted Maria. There was a convicted sex offender in Rockford who Kathy said might be Johnny. There was a 31-year-old Marine who'd been arrested for abusing an eight-year-old, and there was a serial criminal named Donald R. Buckle who was known to pick up young runaways in the area. Each lead seemed promising at first, but when detectives look closer, they realized every single suspect had an airtight

alibi. Though they fit the profile, there was no evidence to tie them to Maria's abduction. The investigation continued this way for almost a month, with the suspect list ballooning to include 77 possible culprits. FBI agents worked around the clock to follow up on every tip they received, knowing that with each passing day, their chances of finding Maria were slipping through their fingers. The longer the search dragged on, the more likely their missing person's case would turn into a murder investigation. By Christmas of 1957, prospects were dwindling. All 77 suspects had been cleared,

and the initial rush of anonymous tips dried up. The Bureau couldn't lie to the Riddhoff family any longer. In all likelihood, they believed Maria was dead. The 60 agents who'd hit the streets for the people, past month, packed up and left when the case was handed back over to the state police. The FBI had given up. Even then, the community in Sycamore stayed strong. The Illinois State Police put a new investigator, Lieutenant Ray Kramer, in charge.

He did his best to follow the few lingering trails the Bureau left behind, but he had trouble making progress. His counterparts in Sycamore had the same issue. For the next five months, it seemed like the investigation was at a standstill. Until April 26, 1958, when a shocking discovery changed everything. That afternoon, a couple of retirees happened to drive through Northern Illinois on vacation. They stopped in the tiny town of Elizabeth and asked the locals about a good spot for their favorite hobby, mushroom hunting. They were directed to a patch of forest called the Herman Bonnet Woods, over a hundred miles

from Sycamore. The old couple pulled their car over near a railroad crossing and wandered into the trees. After only about three hundred yards, they thought they'd stumbled on a mushroom. But when they bent over for a closer look, they realized how wrong they were. was the tiny body of a girl, wedged underneath a decaying log. Authorities identified her as Maria Ridolf. The discovery reignited the investigation. Unfortunately, though, the autopsy didn't provide the evidence police were hoping for.

There was more decomposition the normal suggesting animals had gotten to the remains. That meant Maria's cause of death was impossible to determine. She was found wearing her flannel shirt in brown socks, which is how the family identified her. Her other clothing, including her tan overcoat, pants, and underwear were nowhere to be seen. It was a crushing blow. The lack of progress frustrated the authorities who started fighting amongst themselves. The main issue was about protocol. the sheriff in sycamore county accused the officers who recovered maria's body of spoiling evidence he claimed they rushed the remains to the morgue without waiting for forensic experts at the scene

the feud made it into local papers and ultimately distracted from the larger investigation it was a seriously embarrassing public spat things got so bad the governor of illinois stepped in he had the case transferred once again, this time to Lieutenant Emile Toffon. Tofant was a highly respected veteran detective, but by that point, the investigation had stalled so many times it was difficult to keep track. Under his leadership, 12 deputies worked to find new leads and re-examine the old ones. Suspects came and went, with no new evidence coming to light.

A year later, Lieutenant Tofant was down to just four. deputies on the case. By the spring of 1959, it had been almost 18 months since Maria Riddolph was killed and her family wasn't any closer to getting justice. A year after that, the case officially ran cold. The Riddofs tried to accept the lack of closure, but it wasn't easy. Maria's brother, Chuck, took things especially hard, developing a drinking problem at just 13, but he wasn't the only one who couldn't let the case go. Decades later, the people of Sycamore were still haunted by the mystery of what happened to Maria, and although many people had accepted, they might never know the truth.

There was someone out there who'd been keeping a secret for nearly 40 years. By 1993, they were ready to come clean. They thought they knew who'd killed Maria, and she wasn't the only person they'd hurt. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Carter Roy, and this is Murder True Crime Stories. Come back next time for part two on the murder of Maria Ridoff and all the people it affected. murder true crime stories is a crime house original powered by pave studios here at crime house we want to thank each and every one of you for your support if you like what you heard today reach out on social media at crime house on tic talk and instagram don't forget to rate review

and follow murder true crime stories wherever you get your podcasts your feedback truly makes a difference and to enhance your murder true crime stories listening experience, subscribe to Crime House Plus on Apple Podcasts. You'll get every episode ad-free, and instead of having to wait for each episode of a two-part series, you'll get access to both at once, plus exciting bonus content. We'll be back on Thursday. Murder True Crime Stories is hosted by me, Carter Roy, and is a Crime House original and powered by Pave Studios.

This episode was brought to life by the Murder True Crime Stories team. Meem, Max Cutler, Ron Shapiro, Alex Benadon, Natalie Pertsovsky, Lori Marinelli, Sarah Camp, Tara Wells, and Russell Nash. Thank you for listening.