245. The Piggyback Killer

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

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 0:29Speaker 01

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• 0:45Payton Moreland?

  You're listening to an Ono Media Podcast. Hey, everyone. Welcome back to the podcast. This is Murder with My Husband. I'm Peyton Morland.

• 0:53Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm Garrett Moreland.

• 0:54Payton Moreland?

  And he's the husband.

• 0:55Garrett Moreland?

  And I'm the husband.

• 0:56Payton Moreland?

  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. And we would record without seeing ourselves.

• 1:08Garrett Moreland?

  You just ate? I'm stuffed. I am stuffed. You know what I hate, honestly? Is this my 10 seconds?

• 1:16Payton Moreland?

  Sure.

• 1:16Garrett Moreland?

  We didn't make an announcement. 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 Peyton, and we love you. Okay, before we keep going, I will point out that Peyton has a new jacket on. And when she puts her arms out, it looks like bat wings. Not gonna lie. It's really cool. And it makes her really happy.

• 1:57Payton Moreland?

  I said to Garrett, I said, want to see what I got? And because when my arms are down, it looks like just another black sweatshirt. And he's like, oh, another black sweatshirt. Exactly what you need. I was like, no, just wait for it.

• 2:10Garrett Moreland?

  She put her arms out, started flying away, and I was like, holy crap.

• 2:15Payton Moreland?

  Anyways.

• 2:15Garrett Moreland?

  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 stuffed and I'm so stuffed right now.

• 2:50Payton Moreland?

  Really? Oh, you ate your whole meal?

• 2:54Garrett Moreland?

  You ate your whole meal, you freak?

• 2:58Garrett Moreland?

  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, 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

• 3:37Payton Moreland?

  So am I.

• 3:38Garrett Moreland?

  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.

• 3:47Payton Moreland?

  Our sources for this episode include CBSnews.com, CNN.com, DailyChronicle.com, NBC.com, The New York Times, The Pittsburgh Press and the National Registry of Exonerations. 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 24/7. 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

• 4:29Payton Moreland?

  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 Riddelf went out to play one night and never came home again.

• 5:01Garrett Moreland?

  Okay. I hate people. I hate people.

• 5:05Payton Moreland?

  I know, seven years old.

• 5:06Garrett Moreland?

  I hate people.

• 5:07Payton Moreland?

  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 Riddelf asked her mother, Frances, if she could go out after dinner. The first snow of the year was falling, and she wanted to play in it with her close friend Kathy from down the street.

• 5:51Payton Moreland?

  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 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.

• 6:22Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, okay, headlights.

• 6:23Payton Moreland?

  So, so it's around this time, as they're playing Duck the Cars, that a young blond 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."

• 6:42Garrett Moreland?

  What the freak, Johnny?

• 6:43Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 6:58Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 6:59Payton Moreland?

  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 Kathy if she wanted a piggyback ride. But Kathy said no, so they just sat there and waited for her friend to return. So by now, the snow was starting to fall and Kathy 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 going to run home and go get my mittens because my hands are cold. She was like, can you come with me? And Maria said, no, um, I'll just stay here. So Kathy goes home alone and when she comes back.

• 7:43Garrett Moreland?

  I can't listen to this.

• 7:45Payton Moreland?

  When she comes back a few minutes later, Maria and the adult blonde Johnny man are gone.

• 7:53Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 7:53Payton Moreland?

  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 Riddelf'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, Frances and Mike, that his little sister Maria was playing with Kathy and went missing with an older man.

• 8:39Payton Moreland?

  So at about the same time, the Riddelf's actually get a call from Kathy'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 learned from both parties that this is happening. And this is when the panic starts to set in. So Frances called the police to report their daughter missing. And Mike organized a search party and at around 8:00 PM, the search party went to a house of. 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.

• 9:23Payton Moreland?

  Now Ralph said he'd be right there and then he and his wife 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.

• 10:09Garrett Moreland?

  What?

• 10:10Payton Moreland?

  Yep, so John Tessier was born John Cherry in Belfast, Ireland in the year 1939. And his mother Eileen, whose maiden name was Mikola, 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 to America to Sycamore in 1946, where our case is taking place,

• 10:54Payton Moreland?

  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 because 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.

• 11:39Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 11:40Payton Moreland?

  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 liked. And that was a particular American song he loved, When Johnny Comes Marching Home. Hmm. Most of us has probably heard this.

• 11:58Garrett Moreland?

  Is it when the saints, when the saints, when the saints go marching? That's that can't be it. It's got to be a different song.

• 12:12Payton Moreland?

  Okay, I just played the song a little bit for you and as well as Garovit.

• 12:17Garrett Moreland?

  Garovit?

• 12:19Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 13:05Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 13:47Payton Moreland?

  So he argued with the recruiters until they agreed to let him come back the next day and take the exam again. 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 12:00 PM on December 3rd, 1957. And back in Sycamore on this exact day, Maria Riddolf 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.

• 14:18Garrett Moreland?

  I mean, obviously pieces are starting to fall together and make sense. I just don't understand. I mean, I'm sure we'll get to motive. It's just confusing.

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• 14:53Payton Moreland?

  All right, guys, we're jumping into an ad and if you are like me, protecting the people inside your home is a top priority. I have Daisy at home, I'm about to have a baby at home, and Garrett and me. And there are a lot of times where I've thought about our safety, but that is where SimpliSafe comes in and has had my back honestly for years. Unlike traditional security systems that only alert you after a break in is already underway, SimpliSafe is built to stop it before it starts, which is exactly what I'm looking for. I don't even want someone in my home. I want it stopped before the alarm has even gone off. Smart AI-powered cameras watch for potential threats and alert a live US-based

• 15:38Payton Moreland?

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• 16:19Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 16:32Garrett Moreland?

  Over, basically.

• 16:33Payton Moreland?

  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 PM. 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."

• 17:16Payton Moreland?

  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, there's a sliver of time from the time he left the office.

• 17:31Garrett Moreland?

  Yep.

• 17:32Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 17:41Garrett Moreland?

  How did the police figure this out so fast? Like it seems like they knew exactly where to go.

• 17:45Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 17:53Garrett Moreland?

  Got it.

• 17:53Payton Moreland?

  I'm just telling you after the fact.

• 17:55Garrett Moreland?

  Because even, I mean, but they went to somebody's house like right, his house right away.

• 18:00Payton Moreland?

  They were asking that his parents are the owners of the local hardware store and they said, hey, we need flashlights to search.

• 18:08Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, understand.

• 18:09Payton Moreland?

  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?

• 18:19Garrett Moreland?

  So it's all going to intertwine with each other.

• 18:21Payton Moreland?

  Yes. And I'm just going to 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 fifty five years. So this case is not getting

• 18:38Garrett Moreland?

  Two thousand and twelve?

• 18:39Payton Moreland?

  Not getting solved right away.

• 18:41Garrett Moreland?

  Get out of here.

• 18:43Payton Moreland?

  So by eight P M.

• 18:44Garrett Moreland?

  Fifty five years.

• 18:46Payton Moreland?

  By eight P M. On the night of December third, 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

• 19:30Payton Moreland?

  as early as the next day, word had gotten around that eighteen 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 fourth, 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.

• 19:59Garrett Moreland?

  Because he wasn't home.

• 20:01Payton Moreland?

  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, um, like we, we need to talk to you. But the, 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.

• 20:34Garrett Moreland?

  Crazy. So, uh, it's even crazier if she knows about it and it's just like, uh, sorry.

• 20:39Payton Moreland?

  Right.

• 20:40Garrett Moreland?

  Her own kid to her other own kid.

• 20:43Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 20:44Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah. Ironic.

• 20:45Payton Moreland?

  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've done this. So they give the FBI a list of known sexual deviants in the area. This included homosexuals because it's 1957.

• 21:18Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 21:19Payton Moreland?

  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 Tresner in the neighborhood for the case. So the feds look into it and they found that John Tresner doesn't exist. But they do find John Tessier, who fits Kathy's description of the kidnapper. So the FBI now are also on to 18 year old John in a completely different way.

• 21:55Garrett Moreland?

  I don't understand how he doesn't get caught.

• 21:57Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 22:16Garrett Moreland?

  Wait, what?

• 22:17Payton Moreland?

  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 outgrowing.

• 22:29Garrett Moreland?

  What is, this is insane.

• 22:32Payton Moreland?

  He also lets them know, listen, I didn't even know Maria. I, 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 was enlisting in the military that night. And the polygraph showed he was telling the truth. So between the test and his alibi, the FBI are like, hey, he's cleared. Once again, he's cleared. Just like the local police, they move on.

• 22:56Garrett Moreland?

  Okay.

• 22:56Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 23:38Garrett Moreland?

  I always, I think about this quite a bit. Um, for some of the cases we do where bodies have never been found.

• 23:44Payton Moreland?

  Mm hmm. They gotta be somewhere.

• 23:46Garrett Moreland?

  Crazy how just years later, like hiking trails come up or more houses are built, civilizations growing.

• 23:54Payton Moreland?

  Lakes begin to drain.

• 23:55Garrett Moreland?

  And all of a sudden bodies are just found.

• 23:58Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 23:59Garrett Moreland?

  That have been there for decades.

• 24:01Payton Moreland?

  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 Riddelf's worst fear.

• 24:43Payton Moreland?

  It was Maria. So now, even though they knew that Maria was dead, they were, 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.

• 25:03Garrett Moreland?

  What?

• 25:03Payton Moreland?

  Nor did they determine an exact cause of death. The autopsy just said suspected foul play.

• 25:09Garrett Moreland?

  Because they were just over the case?

• 25:11Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 25:52Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 26:36Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 26:47Garrett Moreland?

  I was gonna say, wait.

• 26:48Payton Moreland?

  But he continued to work for the Milton Police Department until the early eighties, when his behavior went from questionable to criminal. In 1981, forty-two-year-old John, who was still a police officer, invited fifteen-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 this-

• 27:15Garrett Moreland?

  So he's always been a pedophile.

• 27:17Payton Moreland?

  Girl's 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 fifteen. He's forty-two.

• 27:37Garrett Moreland?

  Shoot, dude. Lots of words.

• 27:40Payton Moreland?

  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, twenty-five years earlier, John had admitted to the FBI, ri- 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.

• 28:14Garrett Moreland?

  This is wild.

• 28:15Payton Moreland?

  So John was actually allowed to plead guilty to a lesser charge of communication with a minor for immoral purposes.

• 28:23Garrett Moreland?

  Wait, wait.

• 28:24Payton Moreland?

  Yes.

• 28:25Garrett Moreland?

  How does it even happen? How do you go from

• 28:27Payton Moreland?

  Honestly, I don't even think you need a history.

• 28:29Garrett Moreland?

  A kid to commu- communicating.

• 28:33Payton Moreland?

  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

• 28:50Garrett Moreland?

  Children.

• 28:50Payton Moreland?

  Young aspiring models. And then in nineteen eighty-three, 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. Um, 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 daughter from his first marriage came to visit. She was only twelve years old.

• 29:28Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, no.

• 29:29Payton Moreland?

  And Denise found John with her one morning in the kitchen and he was holding a banana. And

• 29:36Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah, okay.

• 29:37Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 29:39Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 29:39Payton Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 29:40Garrett Moreland?

  Uh huh.

• 29:40Payton Moreland?

  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 in his office. And it was a photo John had taken of his daughter. She was naked, his twelve-year-old daughter.

• 30:02Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, my.

• 30:03Payton Moreland?

  Child pornography of his own child.

• 30:05Garrett Moreland?

  This is

• 30:06Payton Moreland?

  So

• 30:07Garrett Moreland?

  He's just a straight up, I mean, he's a pervert. He's a pedophile, like.

• 30:10Payton Moreland?

  Yes. So Denise and John break up in nineteen eighty-nine and unfortunately she didn't report any of these things for years to come.

• 30:17Garrett Moreland?

  There better not be any pedophiles listening to this podcast. Turn it off right now.

• 30:22Payton Moreland?

  Go get help. Sheesh.

• 30:24Garrett Moreland?

  Don't go get help. Put him in prison. Let other people take care of the issue and bada bing bada boom.

• 30:31Payton Moreland?

  So John keeps moving. His photography business never made enough to actually pay the bills. So in the early nineties, 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 McCola. 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.

• 31:13Payton Moreland?

  Um, 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.

• 31:35Garrett Moreland?

  Oh, she knew the entire time, didn't she?

• 31:37Payton Moreland?

  Oh, yeah.

• 31:38Garrett Moreland?

  And it finally caught up to her and she's dying and she's thinking.

• 31:42Payton Moreland?

  I'll say something now.

• 31:43Garrett Moreland?

  I gotta tell the truth, which you know what? Screw you. I'm sorry. I don't feel bad. Like, that's ridiculous.

• 31:48Payton Moreland?

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• 32:31Payton Moreland?

  Paycheck to paycheck and earning would have been so nice for me to get access to the money I've already worked for and earned in between those pay periods.

• 32:41Garrett Moreland?

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• 33:10Payton Moreland?

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• 33:55Payton Moreland?

  But it's also they have verified Christmas trees. They have holiday sales going on, fireside faves, uh, space saving party picks. Like anything that you're looking for, you're going to find over on Wayfair. And when refreshing your home this holiday season, Wayfair delivers exactly what you need. Head to wayfair.com to shop all things homes. That's wayfair, W A Y F A I R dot com.

• 34:26Payton Moreland?

  So since Maria Riddolf'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

• 35:07Payton Moreland?

  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."

• 35:42Garrett Moreland?

  What?

• 35:42Payton Moreland?

  Now Janet is shocked, because right away, she knows that her mom is talking about Maria Riddolf. And you have to imagine-

• 35:50Garrett Moreland?

  It's her daughter, though, too.

• 35:51Payton Moreland?

  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."

• 36:09Garrett Moreland?

  Stepbrother, whatever you want to call it.

• 36:11Payton Moreland?

  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 23, 1994, she passes away.

• 36:33Payton Moreland?

  And Janet's like, okay, I'm gonna do it. I'm gonna 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.

• 36:42Garrett Moreland?

  Yeah.

• 36:42Payton Moreland?

  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 runaround. 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.

• 37:22Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 37:44Garrett Moreland?

  This is so confusing.

• 37:46Payton Moreland?

  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?

• 37:54Garrett Moreland?

  No.

• 37:55Payton Moreland?

  And so Janet also remembers, hey, me and my siblings clearly remember my mother lying to police that night.

• 38:03Garrett Moreland?

  Yep.

• 38:03Payton Moreland?

  And we thought it was strange and we were gonna 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's like, listen, you just need to find the right investigator who's ready to look into this.

• 38:27Garrett Moreland?

  And they'll reopen it.

• 38:28Payton Moreland?

  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 Riddolf 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

• 39:07Payton Moreland?

  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 gonna 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.

• 39:50Payton Moreland?

  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 7:00 PM. 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 timeframe could still be there. He could have kidnapped Maria at 6:15, killed her and then got into Rockford by 7:00 to make that call at home. Detectives knew they were on to something, but they needed more. So in September of 2010, they tracked down Maria's old friend Kathy,

• 40:33Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 40:58Garrett Moreland?

  Holy crap.

• 40:59Payton Moreland?

  So by now, John was going by Jack. He was seventy one 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 colleagues from Seattle PD. They told John, hey, uh, 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 want to discuss this little girl who went missing years ago when you were just eighteen years old. They conducted an eight hour interrogation during which John not only admitted to knowing Maria, but he actually expressed

• 41:38Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 41:46Garrett Moreland?

  What? That's so disgusting. That is so gross, man.

• 41:50Payton Moreland?

  Never confesses.

• 41:51Garrett Moreland?

  Get out of here.

• 41:52Payton Moreland?

  Yeah, to kidnapping or murdering her. But prosecutors who reviewed the tape were certain he was guilty. And on July first, two thousand and eleven, 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 could, that this community has wanted for fifty five years. This was such a big deal. So he makes the rules clear upfront. He says hearsay, hearsay evidence and admissible. 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.

• 42:33Payton Moreland?

  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 fifty years.

• 42:52Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 43:11Garrett Moreland?

  Crazy.

• 43:12Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 43:21Garrett Moreland?

  Oh.

• 43:22Payton Moreland?

  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 7:00 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.

• 44:00Payton Moreland?

  And on April 15th, 2016, that judge vacated the conviction and declared John innocent of Maria's murder.

• 44:08Garrett Moreland?

  What the?

• 44:10Payton Moreland?

  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.

• 44:26Garrett Moreland?

  Holy sh.

• 44:28Payton Moreland?

  John Tessier is still alive and still free.

• 44:31Garrett Moreland?

  And is still a pervert.

• 44:32Payton Moreland?

  And Maria.

• 44:34Garrett Moreland?

  They're his, the family consuming. He is a pervert.

• 44:37Payton Moreland?

  I don't, that's not up for debate. There was a picture of his daughter naked taped to his desk.

• 44:42Garrett Moreland?

  There's so many things that he's a pedophile.

• 44:44Payton Moreland?

  A 15 year old girl.

• 44:46Garrett Moreland?

  Insane.

• 44:47Payton Moreland?

  At 42 years old.

• 44:48Garrett Moreland?

  And they're like, oh, I don't think he could have done it. Get out of here, man.

• 44:51Payton Moreland?

  He was literally charged for that rape. I mean.

• 44:55Garrett Moreland?

  All of you, you suck.

• 44:57Payton Moreland?

  And Maria Riddle's case remains unsolved.

• 45:01Garrett Moreland?

  I mean.

• 45:01Payton Moreland?

  Like it's officially unsolved.

• 45:03Garrett Moreland?

  Officially unsolved.

• 45:04Payton Moreland?

  So allegedly.

• 45:06Garrett Moreland?

  Every single one of us listening to this know it is solved and justice has not been served.

• 45:11Payton Moreland?

  Not allegedly did John rape a 15 year old girl, but allegedly he murdered Maria back then.

• 45:21Garrett Moreland?

  Insane.

• 45:21Payton Moreland?

  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 even.

• 45:39Garrett Moreland?

  It was 1957, no offense.

• 45:41Payton Moreland?

  Right.

• 45:42Garrett Moreland?

  Just saying.

• 45:43Payton Moreland?

  Either way, this man still.

• 45:46Garrett Moreland?

  Is a pedophile.

• 45:47Payton Moreland?

  Yeah. So I mean, it is a tough case though. I mean.

• 45:50Garrett Moreland?

  Allegedly.

• 45:51Payton Moreland?

  Is it just a case where there's not enough evidence? Do they have the wrong person?

• 45:55Garrett Moreland?

  No.

• 45:56Payton Moreland?

  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. That she was dumped later, in my opinion, if it was John. All right, you guys, that is our case and we will see you next time with another one. I love it.

• 46:18Garrett Moreland?

  And I hate it.

• 46:18Payton Moreland?

  Goodbye.

• 46:27Speaker 01

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