Murder With My Husband - 245. The Piggyback Killer

Episode Date: December 2, 2024

In this episode, Payton and Garrett dive into the case of Maria Ridulph. A little girl who disappeared one night after playing with her friends.  NEW MERCH LINK: https://mwmhshop.com Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/themwmh Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/murderwithmyhusband/ Discount Codes: https://mailchi.mp/c6f48670aeac/oh-no-media-discount-codes Watch on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@murderwithmyhusband Listen on Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/into-the-dark/id1662304327 Listen on spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/36SDVKB2MEWpFGVs9kRgQ7?si=f5224c9fd99542a7 Case sources:  CBSNews.com - https://www.cbsnews.com/news/jack-mccullough-man-wrongly-convicted-in-ill-girls-1957-murder-is-released/ https://www.cbsnews.com/video/extra-jack-mccullough-on-why-he-changed-his-name/ https://www.cbsnews.com/news/maria-ridulph-murder-will-the-nations-oldest-cold-case-to-go-to-trial-ever-get-solved/ CNN.com - https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2013/08/us/oldest-cold-case/ DailyChronicle.com - https://web.archive.org/web/20130813071537/http://www.daily-chronicle.com/mobile/article.xml/articles/2011/07/07/99996529/index.xml NBC.com - https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/72-year-old-ex-cop-convicted-slaying-illinois-girl-1957-flna998974 The New York Times - https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/us/maria-ridulphs-killer-gets-life-55-years-after-her-death.html?partner=rss&emc=rss&smid=tw-nytimes The Pittsburg Press - https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1144&dat=19580427&id=Fw0fAAAAIBAJ&pg=7248,3139354 The National Registry of Exonerations - https://www.law.umich.edu/special/exoneration/pages/casedetail.aspx?caseid=4875 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hey everyone, welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder With My Husband. I'm Peyton Morland. And I'm Garrett Morland. And he's the husband. And I'm the husband. Feels a little weird right now because normally we have a monitor on

that you know you see us sometimes looking at, but right now we don't have it on. It's starting to feel like old Murder With My Husband. It's a little weird. And we would record without seeing ourselves you just ate I'm stuffed I am stuffed you you know what I hate honestly this is my 10 seconds sure we didn't make an announcement um holidays for those that are celebrating Thanksgiving the holiday in the US of a hope everyone's having a good time with family and friends. If you do not have family and friends to celebrate with,

then that is why we released this episode. So you can celebrate with us while listening to some true crime and Garrett and Payton and we love you. Okay, before we keep going, I will point out that Payton has a new jacket on and when she puts her arms out it looks like bat wings I'm not gonna lie It's really cool

And it makes her really happy I Said to care I said want to see what I got and cuz when I my arms are down It looks like just another black sweatshirt. Mm-hmm,hmm and he's like oh another black sweatshirt exactly what you need I was like no just wait for it she put her arms out sort of flying away and I was like holy crap anyways put your arms out baby let me see we'll put a picture on Instagram or something because it's really cute anyways I don't know I don't have a ton for my 10 seconds I feel like especially because we are recording a little bit more ahead than normal. So I haven't been able to live out my full week of Garrett's 10 seconds.

We see some food, we're back home. Food is really good. Something that I hate is I hate stuffing myself, but it's so hard not to when food's so good. You guys know what I'm saying. Like there's food and there's stuff, and I'm so stuffed right now. Really? Oh, you ate your whole meal.

You ate your whole meal, you freak. That's not what I read. No, I did, I scarfed it. I had these filet and shrimp enchiladas with this, I don't know what they put on top of it. some filet and shrimp enchiladas with this, I don't know what they put on top of it, amazing sauce. And then I had probably, I don't know, six or seven gallons of chips and then some beans, butter cake.

I was just, I was in my zone tonight, just eating away. It tasted amazing. And I'm so stuffed right now but it was worth it I just hate being stuffed but sometimes you just have to stuff yourself sometimes you have to go you know what food is amazing and so am I what a what a blessing that's what I got for you guys let's hop into today's case and I hope everyone is having a wonderful day.

Our sources for this episode include cbsnews.com, cnn.com, dailychronicle.com, mbc.com, the New York Times, the Pittsburgh Press, and the National Registry of Exoneration. A trigger warning before we get into the episode. Today's case includes discussions of violence and sexual assault against minors. So please listen with care. Okay, we obviously live in a world where we are bombarded with news 24 seven. There is so much coming at us all the time. It can kind of be hard to keep track,

but then there are moments and hopefully they're rare when something so shocking occurs that we remember it for the rest of our lives, thinking 9-11, the assassination of JFK. These are moments of collective trauma when a whole society realizes their world is never going to be the same. And sometimes this happens on a smaller scale. For the residents of the small town of Sycamore, Illinois, that moment came on December 3rd, 1957,

when seven-year-old Maria Ridolf went out to play one night and never came home again. Okay. I hate people. I hate people. I know, seven-years-olds. I hate people. I hate people. I know, seven years old. I hate people. Let's get into it.

Sycamore, Illinois lies about 45 miles west of Chicago, and it had about 7,000 residents back in 1957. Honestly, it was a pretty idyllic place. Everyone knew everyone. Most residents didn't lock their doors. Again, it's 57, so most people weren't locking their doors. They honestly felt comfortable letting their kids go out and play even at night. So it was not unusual when the night of December 3rd, 1957, Maria Riddlef asked

her mother, Frances, if she could go out after dinner. The first snow of the year was falling and she wanted to plane it with her close friend, Kathy, from down the street. Now this wasn't like sometimes today, mom will call mom and make a playdate for seven year old. This was back when seven year old would walk her little self over all alone and knock on the door and say, Hey, can Kathy play this? This is the type of playdate we are having.

So her mom says that's fine. And a few minutes later, the two girls meet out on the corner and they were actually playing a game they called duck the cars, which involved running across the street before a car's headlights could hit them. Oh, okay. Headlights. So, I mean, so it's around this time as they're playing duck the cars that a young blonde man approaches the two little girls. The man then told them his name was Johnny and asked if either of them wanted a piggyback ride. So Maria is like, heck yes. Adult Johnny. What the freak? I would like a piggyback ride. So Johnny carries her up and down the street. She was laughing the entire way. And when they get back, Maria decided she wanted to get her favorite doll to join

her on the next piggyback ride, which is just like. Devastating. Yeah. So she ran back to her house, leaving Kathy alone with Johnny because she's going to get her doll. And while Maria was gone, Johnny asked Cathy if she wanted a piggyback ride, but Cathy said no. So they just sat there and waited for her friend to return.

So by now the snow was starting to fall and Cathy was actually getting cold. So when Maria got back a few minutes later, Kathy looked at her and said, hey, now that you're back from your house, I'm gonna run home and go get my mittens because my hands are cold. She was like, can you come with me?

And Maria said, no, I'll just stay here. So Kathy goes home alone and when she comes back- I can't listen to this. When she comes back a few minutes later, Maria and the adult blonde Johnny man are gone. So Kathy kind of wanders around for a bit, a little bit outside. Remember it's getting dark and she's calling for Maria.

And then she actually goes to the Ridolph's house and asks Maria's 11 year old brother, Chuck, for help. So she goes over and she's like, can you come help me look for your sister? Now Chuck knew this was not the first time that Maria had gone missing. She had also disappeared a year before while playing a game and turned up about an hour later.

She was just out wandering. So Chuck, the 11 year old, isn't seriously worried. He's like, oh my gosh, she's done it again. But when an hour had passed and they still hadn't found her, he decides to finally go home and tell his parents, Francis and Mike, that his little sister Maria was playing with Cathy

and went missing with an older man. So at about the same time, the Ridolphs actually get a call from Cathy's mother who told them Kathy had seen Maria with a man named Johnny that night and then now apparently she's missing. So the parents learn from both parties that this is happening and this is when the panic starts to set in. So Francis called the police to report their daughter missing and Mike organized a search

party and at around 8 PM, the search party went to a house a few blocks over that belonged to a man named Ralph Tessier. Now, Ralph was the owner of the local hardware store, and they wanted him to open the store so they could get some flashlights and lanterns. Now, Ralph said he'd be right there, and then he and his wife E Eileen, got ready to go. They're gonna go help search for this little girl.

But before leaving, they did something unusual. They locked their front door. And they also locked the back, making sure no one could get in the house. And they do this because they do have younger kids. And now there's a kid that's missing. And so they're like, we're gonna leave the kids home alone. We want the doors locked so they can stay safe, right?

It's like this panic around. But I do need to mention that the hardware store owners did have older kids and not all of their kids is home that night because one was not home. He was 18 years old. He had blonde hair and his name was John. What? Yep.

So John Tessier was born John Cherry in Belfast, Ireland in the year 1939. And his mother Eileen, whose maiden name was Micola, was married to a man who served in the British military during World War II. Now when John was just three years old, his father died in combat and Eileen, who also served as one of the first female searchlight operators in the Royal Air Force, ended up falling for an American soldier named Ralph Tessier. Now Ralph and Eileen were married November 18th,

1944, and when Ralph went back home. Now, Ralph and Eileen were married November 18th, 1944. And when Ralph went back home to America, to Sycamore in 1946, where our case is taking place, he takes Eileen, their newborn daughter, and his now six-year-old stepson, John, with him. So this is why they have young kids and older kid. So John Tessier, as we'll call him for the rest of the episode, landed in the rural Midwest in 1946.

And by most accounts, honestly, he never really fit in there. He didn't connect with other kids while he was growing up in Sycamore. They didn't understand why he spent so much time marching around in camouflage pants, waving a wooden sword, and it was cause he was playing like he was in war. And these antics actually earned him the nickname commando.

And they actually labeled him a permanent outsider in, like, that came from a foreign land. But John doesn't really seem to care. He, according to people was something of a dreamer who preferred to live in his own world. There was one thing about this world, however, that he really care. He, according to people, was something of a dreamer who preferred to live in his own world. There was one thing about this world, however, that he really liked and that was a particular American song he loved, When Johnny Comes Marching Home. Most of us have probably heard this.

Is it When the Saints? When the Saints? When the saints go marching. That's when that can't be it. It's gotta be a different song. Okay I just played the song a little bit for you and as well as Garavit. Garavit? So John liked this song because as he said his name is also Johnny but he also idolized soldiers. One of his earliest memories in fact, is his birth father in uniform, giving him a piggyback ride up the stairs.

Now John dreamed of being the celebrated soldier who came marching home, but wanting a hero's welcome doesn't make you a hero. And when John was just 15 years old, he proved that he was far from his idol when he got expelled for physically assaulting a teacher at school. Now, the details of this incident have been lost to time, but it must have been pretty extreme because he never actually goes back to school. He just kind of milled around town for a while, making a little money, painting signs.

Basically, he bided his time in town, now kicked out of school until he could enlist in the military. So right after his 18th birthday, November 28th, 1957, John made an appointment with a military recruiter. They scheduled him a physical exam in Chicago on December 2nd, 1957. Now on that day, Johnny marches in right on time, but he soon encountered the first major setback of his adult life. Doctors found a spot on his lung due to a childhood infection of tuberculosis. So they tell him, hey, this disqualifies you from service. John is stunned. This is what he's wanted to do his whole life. So he argued with the recruiters until they agreed

to let him come back the next day and take the exam again. He comes back, doctors are like, nah bro, the spot is still there and he is still disqualified. So John left the Chicago office with his dream in ruins. And it was about 12 p.m. on December 3rd, 1957. And back in Sycamore on this exact day, Maria Ridolf was looking forward to the end

of the school day, clouds were gathering, and again, the first snow of the year was about to fall. I mean, obviously, pieces are starting to fall together, it makes sense, I just don't understand. I mean, I'm sure we'll get to motive. It's just confusing. I have been using Rocket Money for a few years now. And honestly, I love it. It is such a game changer. If you listen to this podcast, you know that Peyton and I talk about Rocket Money all the time. Rocket Money is a personal finance app that empowers you to save more, spend less,

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across all of the app's features. So let Rocket Money help you reach your financial goals faster. Get Rocket Money today at rocketmoney.com slash husband. That's rocketmoney.com slash husband, rocketmoney.com slash husband. This episode is brought to you by Missouri. From November 25th to December 2nd, get 25% off everything on orders over $150 in Missouri's biggest sale ever. From bold

hoops to minimalist stacks, Missouri has something for everyone. Missouri makes handcrafted fine jewelry for every day made with responsibly sourced materials so you can look and feel good about gifting and wearing them. Shop your wishlist 25% off at majori.com today. So what happened next has been a matter of debate ever since, but there are a couple of pretty solid facts. Number one, John leaves. He's devastated because his dream of enlisting is crushed over basically, and he wound up

in a town called Rockford. It was about 45 miles from Sycamore and 90 miles from Chicago that night. Now, Sycamore is about halfway in between. He actually placed a collect call from Rockford to his parents' house at 6.57 p.m. And then between 7.15 and 7.30, he showed up to an Air Force recruitment office that had just closed for the evening.

He banged on the door until recruiters answered and begged them to take him despite the spot on his lung. John was so worked up when he spoke to the recruiters that they actually thought he was on drugs, but they didn't turn him down and said, instead they said, hey, just come back in the morning. And this much of this night is verified. But the question remains, where was John that night before he got to Rockford that evening? There was a sliver of time from the time he left the office

and the time he shows up to another recruiter office where he's missing. And that happens to be the same time when Maria disappears. How did the police figure this out so fast? Like it seems like they knew exactly where to go. Well, I'm telling you a little ahead because I already know the killer.

So I'm giving you the timeline. Police haven't really discovered this yet. Got it. I'm just telling you after the fact. Because it even, I mean, but they went to somebody's house like right, his house right away. They were asking that his parents are the owners

of the local hardware store and they said, hey, we need flashlights to search for her. Oh, understand. They don't actually know that he's involved or has anything to do with it. Yes, Maria's parents and the search party are going to his parents and saying, hey, can you lend us some stuff to search?

So it's all gonna intertwine with each other. Yes, and I'm just gonna be honest right now, I just told you that there's a chunk of time missing in his story and that question would actually go on to be debated for the next 55 years. So this case is not getting- 2012? Not getting solved right away.

Get outta here. So by 8 away. Get out of here. So by 8pm, on the night of December 3rd, all of Sycamore was searching for Maria. Police had set up roadblocks, they searched train cars, truck cabs, the bus station, they scoured buildings and houses, fields and woods. No one found any sign of her. However, one searcher did find her doll in the alley behind Maria's house. And if you remember, she went to get that doll

before her friend Kathy left and she was alone with Johnny. So they also had a description of the kidnapper because of Kathy. Kathy had told police the man that her friend was last seen with was blonde and went by the name Johnny. So naturally, they zeroed in on suspects who fit that description. So as early as the next day, word had gotten around that 18-year-old Johnny Tessier,

this outcast in the community, was blonde and his name was John and he went by Johnny. So police actually spoke to his mother, Eileen, on December 4th, the next day. And they say, Hey, we're talking to anyone who's blonde and fits this description. We know your son. Where was he last night? And Eileen was like, he was home. This is obviously a lie. Because he wasn't home.

Because he was going around to those offices. Her other kids had been there, but John hadn't been there. In fact, his half siblings didn't see him all that night or the following day. Some of Eileen's daughters actually overheard their mother talking to police, and they knew she was lying. And they actually tried to tell police, hey, like we need to talk to you. But the cops don't even give them a chance. They never end up talking to the other kids. They just took Eileen's word for it that her 18 year old son had an alibi and they moved

on to the next blonde. Crazy. So that's even crazier if she knows about it and it's just like, oh, sorry. Right. Her own kid to her other own kid yeah yeah ironic this might not have been a result of negligence so much as a loss of jurisdiction because that same day December 4th 1957 the FBI moved in on the investigation 29 federal agents showed up overnight and took over the investigation and they asked police for a list of suspects. And in a town where everybody knew everybody,

the cops had their own ideas about who might have done this. So they give the FBI a list of known sexual deviants in the area. This included homosexuals because it's 1957. It also included peeping Toms, child molesters. Some of them were only known by nicknames. So there's a lot of people on this list, but a few days later, they actually get a tip from an anonymous person telling them to check out John Tressner in the neighborhood

for the case. So the feds look into it and they found that John Treschner doesn't exist. But they do find John Tessier, who fits Cathy's description of the kidnapper. So the FBI now are also onto 18 year old John in a completely different way. I don't understand how he doesn't get caught. Either way, they ask John if he can come in and take a polygraph test and John agrees. So two days later on December 10th, John was wired up and questioned. And during the interview, agents asked John if he had ever had sex with children. And he said, yes, sort of.

Wait, what? He said that he had engaged in quote unquote sex play with a younger girl in the past. But that was years ago and he's 18 now and he's outgrown it. What is... this is insane. He also lets them know, listen I didn't even know Maria, I really only met her once four years ago, he'd helped her cross the street, they kind of lived in the same neighborhood and he's like I've never spoke to her again. I wasn't listening in the military that night. And the polygraph showed he was telling the truth.

So between the test and his alibi, the FBI like, Hey, he's cleared. Once again, he's cleared. Just like the local police, they move on. And the next day, December 11th, 1957, John left home to actually join the air force. So he was thrilled to be moving on, and as Christmas approached, Maria's family wrapped gifts for her and put them under the tree, gifts they had already bought, but Maria was not home to open them. The holidays came and went, and with the dawn of the new year, it seemed like there was little to hope for. Months went by, no new leads,

and then the trail goes completely cold. Until one day in April, 1958, in a wooded area 200 miles north of Sycamore, two hikers found a body. I always, I think about this quite a bit. For some of the cases we do where bodies have never been found. It's crazy how just years later, like hiking trails come up or more houses are built, civilizations growing.

Lakes begin to drain. And all of a sudden bodies are just found. Yeah. That have been there for decades. Right. The remains they found that morning, April 28th, 1958, were half buried under a fallen tree. Again, this was 200 miles away from Sycamore. They were so decomposed that they weren't obviously human, but the hikers

were concerned enough to contact the local police and a coroner soon determined that the remains were human and belonged to a little girl. Now dots are connected and Maria's parents, Mike and Francis, were shown a scrap of clothing. It was found on the body and they identified it as the shirt that Maria was last seen wearing. So soon, the body's ID was confirmed through dental records and it was the Riddlef's worst fear. It was Maria. So now even though they

knew that Maria was dead, there was still a lot of unanswered questions. How did her body get 200 miles away from home? Who had brought her there? How did she die? Sadly, investigators failed to provide any answers. They didn't take photos at the crime scene What nor did they determine an exact cause of death the autopsy just said? Suspected foul play because they were just over the case I don't know if it's because they just didn't have enough information Or they didn't even know if the bones were human at the time and if this wasn't upsetting enough The FBI had bowed out of the investigation at this point

Since Maria's body had been found within the state, the case no longer fell under their jurisdiction, so they turned it back over to the Illinois State Police, who after two years of going over the same leads, or lack thereof, moved it into cold cases once again. So by the time Maria's body had been found, John was starting his new life. He served several years in the air force and then transferred to the army. Presumably that spot on his lung wasn't such a big deal when the US finally needed soldiers for Vietnam. So John went on to fight in the Vietnam war.

He was awarded three bronze stars for exceptional bravery in a combat zone. He was honorably discharged. He got married. He had two kids. He then attended law enforcement academy in King County, Washington. And by the time he graduated in 1974 at the age of 35, John was basically the hero he always wanted to be. But to those who knew him, there were signs that he was not the noble soldier. He pretended to be on the outside. John's first marriage ended when he cheated on his wife.

Once he became a police officer, he used his badge to pick up multiple women. For example, he once arrested a woman for drunk driving and then talked her into moving in with him. He also arrested a sex worker and then took her to a holiday party. Like after he arrested her and after several incidents like this, John was reprimanded by the chief of police in Milton Washington. People say, wait. But he continued to work for the Milton Police Department

until the early eighties, when his behavior went from questionable to criminal. In 1981, 42 year old John, who was still a police officer, invited 15 year old runaway Michelle Wyman to move in with him. So he comes across her as a cop. She's a runaway and he's like, why don't you just live with me? You have nowhere to live. So he poses as he's always been a pedophile girls, heroic protector. He buys her clothes. He teaches her how to put makeup on, he makes

sure she goes to school. But then one night after she'd been staying with him for just a few weeks, Michelle woke up on the hide a bed in John's living room to find him performing oral sex on her. She's 15. He's 42. Shoot dude, lots of words. She was so scared. She just froze. But the next day she told a friend what had happened to her and the friend told a school

counselor and the counselor alerted police in another town. And this led to an investigation in which John was eventually charged with statutory rape. Now remember 25 years earlier, John had admitted to the FBI right after Maria went missing that he had engaged in sexual activity with children. But apparently no one now in Washington knew about this confession, knew that he had been somewhat of a suspect back then.

This is wild. So John was actually allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of communication with a minor for immoral purposes. Wait, wait. Yes. How does that even happen? How do you go from-

Honestly, I don't even think you need a history. ... raping a kid to communicating. With a child. He wasn't fired from the police department. He was asked to resign, which meant he was free to keep on reinventing himself. So he leaves the police department. He starts pursuing a business in photography. He begins taking photos of children, young aspiring models.

And then in 1983, he marries one of them, a woman named Denise Trexler. Denise was coming out of an abusive relationship. He pretended to be her hero once again, but after they married, he became emotionally abusive and controlling. He didn't just buy Denise clothes. He was telling her what to wear. He didn't just teach her how to put on makeup. He made her do it a certain way.

And Denise stayed with him. And during that time, she witnessed at least two things that would haunt her for years to come. One happened on a day when John's would haunt her for years to come. One happened on a day when John's daughter from his first marriage came to visit. She was only 12 years old. And Denise found John with her one morning in the kitchen and he was holding a banana and...

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The second incident was even more disturbing. One day Denise was looking for something in John's desk and she felt a drawer catching. So she lifted it up and she found something taped to the bottom of his drawer

and his office. And it was a photo John had taken of his daughter. She was naked, his 12 year old daughter, child pornography of his daughter, she was naked, his 12 year old daughter. Oh my God. Child pornography of his own child. This is, he's just a straight up, I mean he's a pervert, he's a pedophile, like. Yes, so Denise and John break up in 1989 and unfortunately she didn't report any of these things

for years to come. There better not be any pedophiles listening to this podcast. Turn it off right now. Go get help, sheesh. Don't go get help. Put him in prison, let other people take care of the issue and bada bing, bada boom.

So John keeps moving, his photography business never made enough to actually pay the bills. So in the early 90s, John got a job driving for a limo company in Seattle and he hooks up with the owner's daughter, Sue. And then in 1993, he proposes, Sue accepts, but before they get married, John made an interesting move. He told Sue he wanted to change his name from John Tessier to John McCullough. Now, if you remember, that's his mother's maiden name.

He said he wanted to honor his mother, and maybe that's true, but it's also possible that John had an ulterior motive. By now he was 54 years old. He was getting ready to settle down. Maybe he wanted to put some distance between himself and his sordid past. If so, John was about to be disappointed because while he was getting ready to start another new life in Seattle, back in Sycamore, his mom Eileen's life was coming to an end and she was about to blow the past on her son's life wide open. But also remember when you were like, if she knew this whole time and then-

Oh, she knew the entire time, didn't she? Oh yeah. And it finally cut up to her and she's dying and she's thinking- I'll say something now. I gotta tell the truth, which you know what? Screw you and she's thinking, I'll say something now. I gotta tell the truth, which you know what? Screw you. I'm sorry. I don't feel bad.

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Starring Michael Fassbender and Richard Gere. Whatever it takes, make it invisible. The Agency, new series now streaming exclusively on Paramount Plus. So since Maria Riddle's disappearance in 1957, Ralph and Eileen Tessier had remained in Sycamore, but their children had mostly gone their separate ways. One who remained in her parents orbit, however, was their daughter Janet. Now Janet had only been a year older than Maria when Maria disappeared, but she felt like

she lived her whole life under the shadow of that kidnapping, of that trauma. She grew up with a kind of constant low grade fear and that anxiety extended to relationships with her family. It wasn't just her family. She felt like her DNA was screwed up. She would tell people, I just break everything I touch. Now, despite this black sheep status, or maybe because of it, when Janet's mother Eileen got cancer in the early 90s,

Janet became one of her caretakers. So one day in late 1993, Janet was staying with her mother when all of a sudden Eileen, her mother, is calling her name. And Janet rushes to her mother's bedside, and she was concerned by the urgency in Eileen's voice. She suddenly felt her mom's hand clamp down on her wrist and Eileen pulled Janet close.

She said, those two little girls and the one that disappeared, John did it, John did it and you have to tell someone. Now Janet is shocked because right away she knows that her mom is talking about Maria Riddle. And you have to imagine. It's her daughter. I became terrified of being kidnapped when I heard about Elizabeth smart, who

lived an entire state away from me. Imagine a girl you knew who was just a year younger than you who lived in your neighborhood goes missing. She's terrified by this. And now her mom is telling her that, Hey, all these years you've lived in terror and worried about this girl. It was your brother. I don't know what everyone would call it.

Right. She was so rattled by Eileen's tone that she didn't even know how to respond. She just told her mom, okay, don't worry. I'll take care of it. And then Eileen fell back against the pillow and it looked like to Janet, a huge burden had just been lifted off her mother. A few weeks later on January 23rd, 1994, she passes away and Janet's like, okay,

I'm going to do it. I'm going to go to police and tell them what my mom said. She knew beyond a doubt that her mother was telling the truth. Again, she thinks her family's messed up. Yeah. She wanted to fulfill her promise by convincing officials to reopen the case and look into her brother. Now that turned out to be a lot more difficult than Janet imagined. She started by calling the Sycamore police, telling them, I have a lead in this murder kidnapping.

And Sycamore PD give her the run around. So she tries calling the FBI in Chicago and they're like, no, you need to call Sycamore. So she tries Sycamore again. And like literally no one will listen to her for years. Nothing happens. And then one day in October, 1997, a detective named Patrick Solar, who'd recently graduated from the FBI Academy, announces to the media that he had solved this case. Using an FBI offender database,

Patrick had connected Maria's murder to a string of similar crimes committed by a transient truck driver in the 50s. This truck driver apparently resembled Kathy's description of Johnny from that day, and he's dead now, so there's no trial, no further investigation. Case closed. And Janet's like, no, there's absolutely no way this case is closed for years. She's like, how did I have this wrong? How did my mom have this wrong?

And so Janet also remembers, Hey, me and my siblings clearly remember my mother lying to police that night and we thought it was strange and we were going to tell them, but then we never got a chance to talk to them and we were just like, okay. So finally in 2007, half a century after Maria's disappearance, Janet met a true crime author who'd written a book about a cold case. She couldn't help asking, Hey, how do you go about reopening a case? And the author is like, listen, you just need to find the right investigator who's ready to look into this. And they'll reopen it, listen, you just need to find the right investigator who's

ready to look into this. And they'll reopen it. Yeah. Someone who wouldn't give up. So after all her years of effort, Janet wasn't sure that person existed in Sycamore, but she decided to give it a try. So in September, 2008, Janet sent an email to the Illinois state police and it said, Sycamore, Illinois, December, 1957, a seven-year-old child named Maria Riddle vanished. Her remains were found in another county several miles away. I still believe that John Samuel Tessier was and is responsible for her death. And this is the last time I'm going to mention it to anyone. So she's like, I'm done. I'm done trying. I'm going to send one last email and I'm going to relieve this weight. But this time it worked. A commander in the Illinois State Police called her after reading her email and he's like, Hey, I'm going to put one of my detectives on this.

And she was like, okay, maybe this is a sign. Maybe I'm fulfilling my mother's dying wish. So after that conversation between Janet Tessier and the commander in the Illinois State Police, two new detectives were now assigned to the cold case. Their first step was to re-interview witnesses. So they started with Janet and her siblings. So if you remember in the case notes, it shows that they have talked to her brother twice.

So they talked to Janet and her siblings and they find some eye-opening information. They learned that all of the kids knew their mother had lied to police. And they also heard other disturbing tells such as that John had actually sexually abused one of his sisters. Upon interviewing other witnesses, detectives also learned that there were contradictions in his timeline. Early reports estimated the time of disappearance at 7 p.m. However, witnesses are like, no, it actually happened between 5 50 and 6 20.

So John being somewhere and then being somewhere else doesn't really matter because that time frame could still be there. He could have kidnapped Marie at 6 15, killed her and then got into Rockford by 7 to make that call at home. Detectives knew they were onto something, but they needed more. So in September of 2010, they tracked down Marie's old friend, Kathy, which was probably absolutely insane to her. And they show her a series of photos.

They're like, Hey, we've reopened the case. We have some photos from back in that time. Do any of these men look like the guy? She's now 61 years old. She looks at all the pictures and she points to John Tessier and says, that's him. That's the guy who took her. Holy crap.

So by now, John was going by Jack. He was 71 years old. He was living in Seattle with his wife, Sue. He worked as a night watchman for an upscale retirement home. So one morning after his shift, the Illinois State Police Detectives approached him along with a couple of colleagues from Seattle PD. They told John, hey, we need your assistance on a break-in

that has happened at a building that he worked. And John's like, okay. But when they get him to the police station, they're like, actually, we wanna discuss this little girl who went missing years ago when you were just 18 years old. They conduct an eight hour interrogation during which John not only admitted to knowing Maria, but he actually expressed like this kind of worship.

Yeah, for her. He was like, she's lovely. She was so lovely. She looked like a little Barbie doll. What? That's so disgusting. He never, he never confesses. That is so gross, man.

Get out of here. Yeah. To kidnapping or murdering her. But prosecutors who reviewed the tape were certain he was guilty. And on July 1st, 2011, John was arrested and charged with kidnapping and murder. He was transported to Sycamore. The judge understood the gravity of the case and he was like, listen, this is a trial that this community

has wanted for 55 years. This was such a big deal. So he makes the rules clear up front. He says, hearsay, hearsay evidence inadmissible. So this meant FBI documents from the first investigation couldn't be used in trial because the agents who created them were dead. You had to have actual first-person testimony. But this was actually a blow to the defense as it meant they couldn't use the report that stated John had been interviewed and cleared back then.

So meanwhile, the prosecution had their own concerns. They had zero physical evidence, No DNA, no weapon. Even Maria's doll had been lost in evidence in the past 50 years. So this entire case hinged on a witness testimony. And that was Kathy, who was there when her friend was kidnapped. And luckily he was found guilty. The people in this community finally had the answers they'd been seeking for over 50 years. Crazy. So after the conviction John who's now 73 was sentenced to life in prison but his wife

and stepdaughter continued to believe he was innocent. Oh, get them. They were like we've never seen him be abusive or show interest in young girls. And they believe he'd been given an unfair trial. And in 2015, his daughter succeeded in convincing state attorney Richard Schmack to review the case. Richard went back to the original FBI files, the ones that weren't admitted during trial. He disregarded witness statements indicating that Maria was abducted at an earlier time. And he's like, this time that they first were told was 7 PM. And if that's true, we know that John couldn't have done this because he was calling home. So he's like, John was wrongfully convicted.

Richard sent John's case to a different judge who agreed with him. And on April 15th, 2016, that judge vacated the conviction and declared John innocent of Maria's murder. What the? So only four years after this community thought the case was closed, it was open again. And according to reporters, Maria's family showed little emotion after this verdict,

probably not a big surprise. They knew the world could be a terrible place. And as of this recording, Holy sh. John Tessier is still alive and still free. And is still a pervert. And Maria. You're the family consuming, he is a pervert.

I don't, that's not up for debate. There was a picture of his daughter naked taped to his desk. There's so many things that he's a pedophile. And he raped a 15 year old girl. Insane. At 42 years old. And they're like, oh, I don't think he could take to his desk. There's so many things that he's a pedophile. And he raped a 15 year old girl. Insane. At 42 years old. And they're like, oh, I don't think he could have done it. Get out of here, man.

He was literally charged for that rape. Get out of here. I mean, all of you, you suck. And Maria Riddle's case remains unsolved. I mean, yes. Like it's officially unsolved. Officially unsolved. So allegedly. Every single one of us listening to this. No, it is solved injustice has not been served not

Allegedly did John rape a 15 year old girl, but allegedly he murdered Maria Back then insane and that is the case of Maria Riddle. Honestly Gross, I don't know. I mean, I guess we don't have all of the information Because why do some people say the girls were playing at five and some people say they were playing at seven? I'm really confused on how that was because it was 1957 no offense, right? Just saying either way This man still is a pedophile.

Yeah, so I mean, it is a tough case though. I mean. Allegedly. Is it just a case where there's not enough evidence? Do they have the wrong person? No. I mean, why did his mother lie to police and then tell the daughter that he did it?

Why would she even have lied for him the next day? And Maria was found 200 miles away. So that didn't happen that night. She was dumped later, in my opinion, if it was drunk. All right, you guys, that is our case and we will see you next time with another one. I love it. And I hate it. Goodbye.