Seven-year-old Maria Ridulph of Sycamore, Illinois, disappeared on December 3, 1957, after being last seen playing near her home with a friend when a man offered them a piggyback ride. Her disappearance drew national attention; President Dwight D. Eisenhower and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover took personal interest in the search. Her skeletal remains were found by two tourists searching for mushrooms on April 26, 1958, near Woodbine, Illinois, about 90 miles from Sycamore, and were identified by dental records and clothing matching what she had been wearing.

The case lay cold for decades. John Tessier, later known as Jack McCullough, lived near Maria at the time and was investigated early on but was removed from suspicion after providing an alibi. In 2012 he was convicted of abduction and murder, but that conviction was overturned in 2016 after review of evidence including an alibi placing Tessier in Rockford; the conviction was dismissed without prejudice and he was declared innocent in 2017. Investigators also considered carnival worker William Henry Redmond, but there was insufficient evidence to link him to the crime. The murder of Maria Ridulph remains unsolved.

Does anyone have memories, records, or information about Maria, her last day, or people in Sycamore in 1957 that could help reopen lines of inquiry?