Tagged: Maria Ridulph

One of the nation’s oldest criminal cases will have two new faces when the trial begins Sept. 20 in DeKalb County Circuit Court.

Kane County Associate Judge James Hallock will preside over the bench trial and decide the fate of Jack D. McCullough, who waived a jury trial last week on charges of kidnapping and killing 7-year-old Maria Ridulph. The Sycamore girl was abducted from her neighborhood Dec. 3, 1957.

The other new figure in the case is Geneva attorney Tom McCulloch, who was named interim public defender replacing Regina Harris, who resigned in June after five years to start a private practice.

The remains of Maria Ridulph, a 7-year-old Sycamore girl kidnapped and killed in 1957, will be returned to her family under a court order granted Wednesday.

The child was abducted from her Sycamore neighborhood Dec. 3, 1957. Her remains were found nearly five months later in rural Jo Daviess County.

Jack D. McCullough, 72, of Seattle, has been charged with murder, felony kidnapping and felony abduction of an infant in the case.