SYCAMORE – Although Jan Barone does not recall the details, she doesn't doubt the accuracy of a Sept. 11, 1964, story in the Daily Chronicle that reported she assisted at the reception for Katheran Tessier and Wayne Fetzer.
After all, Barone was a friend of the bride's mother, Eileen Tessier.
"She was a very, very lovely lady," Barone said.
Some 200 guests were received at the reception, held at the Sycamore Memorial Veterans Home. Not included in that number, though, was John Tessier, who left Sycamore seven years earlier.
The families of Jan Barone, who still lives in Sycamore, and Eileen Tessier became more intertwined when Barone's oldest son, Michael, married Eileen Tessier's second daughter, Jeanne. The marriage did not last, but the friendship between Barone and Eileen Tessier lasted until Tessier's death at age 74 in 1994.
That friendship made it all the more surprising for Barone when she learned last week that John Tessier, now known as Jack Daniel McCullough, had been arrested for the 1957 slaying and abduction of Maria Ridulph, a 7-year-old Sycamore girl whose Dec. 3 abduction triggered a massive search effort before her body was found months later in Jo Daviess County.
"I was so shocked when I read this," Barone said. "I was a very good friend of Eileen's, but nothing like that was ever brought up."
Ridulph's death has been a mystery for decades. According to documents filed Wednesday at the DeKalb County Courthouse, the case was reopened in October 2008 because of new leads. The arrest last week of the 71-year-old McCullough in Seattle attempts to solve one long-standing mystery, but it also raises questions about Tessier and his departure from Sycamore in December 1957.
McCullough was born John Cherry on Nov. 27, 1939, to Eileen McCullough Cherry. Born in Belfast, Ireland, Eileen was serving during World War II as one of the first female airplane spotters with England's Royal Air Force when she met Ralph Tessier, who was serving with the 8th Army-Air Force in Bovington, England.
Barone said Eileen had lost her first husband, John's father, in the war. She said John stayed on a rural farm, and his mother would go see him whenever she was able.
Eileen married Ralph Tessier on Nov. 18, 1944, in Boxmoor Station, England. In 1946, after Tessier had come home from the war, Eileen joined him in Sycamore, bringing with her 6-year-old John and a newborn, Katheran, the first child born to Ralph and Eileen Tessier.
Ralph Tessier grew up on the east side of Sycamore, an "eastender" in the parlance of the time, said Pete Johnson. Johnson, a "westender," was one year behind Tessier at Sycamore High School. He remembers Tessier – whose nickname was "Popeye" – as a friendly person who was the go-to guy when anyone in town needed a sign painted.
Johnson also recalls when Maria Ridulph was abducted Dec. 3, 1957.
"I remember it very vividly because I had daughters 5 and 7 at the time," Johnson said. "The loudspeakers were all over town scaring everybody."
John Tessier was 18 at the time, but he was listed as a sophomore in the 1957 edition of Leaves, the Sycamore High School yearbook. He is pictured as a freshman in 1955 and a sophomore in the 1956 and 1957 editions.
Johnson was a coach and coordinated the school's co-op program at that time. He said the Tessiers were a normal family, and he recalled little of John Tessier, who was not involved in football or the co-op program. He also does not recall Tessier causing any problems that might have drawn attention.
Tessier is not pictured in the 1958 yearbook, apparently having left Sycamore. Charging documents filed last week at the DeKalb County Courthouse claim that the statute of limitations on two offenses he is charged with – kidnapping and abduction of an infant – were tolled Dec. 11, 1957, presumably the date in which he is believed to have left the state.
According to a story in the Daily Chronicle on that same day, roadblocks had been established throughout the state Dec. 10 in an effort to find Ridulph's body.
"A complete search of all automobile trunks turned up nothing," the story reported.
Barone said she heard little about John Tessier over the years.
She believes that is in large part because he was several years older than the other Tessier children, whose ages were closer to her own children.
"I remember [Eileen] telling me he was going into the Army," Barone said. "After that, we just didn't talk that much about him."
Barone did recall hearing that he had signed up for a second enlistment in the Army, and that he once returned to Illinois to marry a woman in Rockford. Barone did not attend the wedding.
Barone did attend Eileen's funeral. John Tessier did not attend.
In Eileen's obituary, survivors include a son, John Tessier of Seattle, Wash. According to an Associated Press story, his stepdaughter said it was after Eileen died that Tessier took his mother's maiden name and changed his name to Jack Daniel McCullough.
Barone said Ralph Tessier moved to Minnesota not long after his wife died. When he died in 2006, neither John Tessier nor Jack McCullough were listed among the survivors.
Among those who are listed are three of Ralph Tessier's grandchildren, who also are the grandchildren of Barone. Since the arrest was made last week, Barone said she has talked to one of the grandchildren, Shelly Barone, of Fort Wayne, Ind.
"She just seemed shocked with the whole thing," Barone said. "To think of what life can be like behind closed doors. It's all very upsetting."
