Marie
Daughter, if you don't remember us...who will?
- Joined
- Sep 28, 2005
- Messages
- 1,291
- Reaction score
- 85
There were several different suspects listed in the news articles I found about Maria; I'm going to take a look at all of them again and try to make a list of names.
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I searched and read 128 articles. These are the important points I found -
The street where the 2 little girls were playing was heavily traveled. Maria had auburn colored hair.
Cathy Sigman, the other little girl, was guarded 24/7 by two police officers.
Postcards were sent to all area resisents requiring them to search their properties.
Decorah, Iowa authorities were going to be contacted about a bundle of burned clothing found on a farm there. Some of Maria's clothing was missing from the site where her body was found. Time, cause and place of death were undetermined. Her parents identified her by a lock of hair and a t-shirt (undershirt) - she was found with only the shirt, a plaid jacket & brown socks. She was the youngest of their 4 children.
Authorities questioned all known sex deviants and ex-convicts in Northern Illinois (questioning a total of 1,500 persons) - this yeilded no clues.
The Police Cheif was convinced it was a man "from the outside" who took Maria, because "we don't have anyone in Sycamore we can classify as a child abductor."
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SUSPECTS and POI:
Suspect described by 8yo witness as: Possibly curly-haired, blond, tall, young, around age 23/24 (he told them he was 21yo), nice looking, called himself "Johnny", and offered the girls a "piggy back ride", and also asked the girls to ride with him in either a car, truck or bus.
Maria's rubber doll was found near a garage, 300 feet from where "Johnny" spoke to the girls. FBI (50 agents on the case, diguised as farmers, businessmen & telephone repairmen) speculated that it may have been deliberately planted there, and called for the person who did so to come forward; no one did.
A pastor 5 miles away in DeKalb saw a man matching, "Johnny's" description, in his church 3 hours after Maria vanished, banging his head on the pew and moaning, "My God, why did I do it? Why did I?"
The Hazel Green, Wisconsin (9 miles north of Galena where Maria's body was found) town Marshall allowed a "dead-ringer" for the suspect, a tall, nervous, blond man, to take shelter in the town hall on the night of Dec. 4 or 5. The man said he was a hitchhiker, had been in Dubeque, Iowa and worked as a church janitor in Amboy, IL. A restaurant owner gave the man a free breakfast. The Marshall was never able to identify any photo's of suspects as the man he helped.
Donald Arbuckle: ex-convict, found around Dec 12 with a missing 9yo girl (found alive & sleeping in his car) whom he admitted molesting. His home was stocked with obscene pornographic nude photos of girls.
A vagrant, Robert Hardin of Elgin, IL, told a waitress he killed Maria. Police arrested him and he then claimed that he met the real killer on a prison farm in Vandalia, IL. Hardin had served 11 sentences for vagrancy and drunkeness. He said he made the false claim in order to get himself put in jail (food & bed); police considered him unreliable suspect but planned to give him a lie detector test and research the name of the other prisoner/"real killer".
In late December, Wendell G. Howes, Jr. age 21, pled innoncent to the kidnapping and abduction of a 10yo girl (found alive); he did admit the abduction, stating it was "on impluse". He was questioned and denied any involvement in Maria's case.
Fromer mental patient Richard Dorcas was cleared in Maria's case. He had abducted 7yo Chicago girl Linda Beatty in May 1958. Cathy Sigman failed to identify him in a line-up as Maria's abducter. He was not given a lie dector test because he was coming off a drinking binge.
The warden of Stateville Prison in May 1958 turned over a "best tip yet" from the inmate grapvine about a night club organist with a sex offender record. The person named in the tip had been jailed in Galena sometime in 1957. His name was not given.
_______________________
I searched and read 128 articles. These are the important points I found -
The street where the 2 little girls were playing was heavily traveled. Maria had auburn colored hair.
Cathy Sigman, the other little girl, was guarded 24/7 by two police officers.
Postcards were sent to all area resisents requiring them to search their properties.
Decorah, Iowa authorities were going to be contacted about a bundle of burned clothing found on a farm there. Some of Maria's clothing was missing from the site where her body was found. Time, cause and place of death were undetermined. Her parents identified her by a lock of hair and a t-shirt (undershirt) - she was found with only the shirt, a plaid jacket & brown socks. She was the youngest of their 4 children.
Authorities questioned all known sex deviants and ex-convicts in Northern Illinois (questioning a total of 1,500 persons) - this yeilded no clues.
The Police Cheif was convinced it was a man "from the outside" who took Maria, because "we don't have anyone in Sycamore we can classify as a child abductor."
___________________
SUSPECTS and POI:
Suspect described by 8yo witness as: Possibly curly-haired, blond, tall, young, around age 23/24 (he told them he was 21yo), nice looking, called himself "Johnny", and offered the girls a "piggy back ride", and also asked the girls to ride with him in either a car, truck or bus.
Maria's rubber doll was found near a garage, 300 feet from where "Johnny" spoke to the girls. FBI (50 agents on the case, diguised as farmers, businessmen & telephone repairmen) speculated that it may have been deliberately planted there, and called for the person who did so to come forward; no one did.
A pastor 5 miles away in DeKalb saw a man matching, "Johnny's" description, in his church 3 hours after Maria vanished, banging his head on the pew and moaning, "My God, why did I do it? Why did I?"
The Hazel Green, Wisconsin (9 miles north of Galena where Maria's body was found) town Marshall allowed a "dead-ringer" for the suspect, a tall, nervous, blond man, to take shelter in the town hall on the night of Dec. 4 or 5. The man said he was a hitchhiker, had been in Dubeque, Iowa and worked as a church janitor in Amboy, IL. A restaurant owner gave the man a free breakfast. The Marshall was never able to identify any photo's of suspects as the man he helped.
Donald Arbuckle: ex-convict, found around Dec 12 with a missing 9yo girl (found alive & sleeping in his car) whom he admitted molesting. His home was stocked with obscene pornographic nude photos of girls.
A vagrant, Robert Hardin of Elgin, IL, told a waitress he killed Maria. Police arrested him and he then claimed that he met the real killer on a prison farm in Vandalia, IL. Hardin had served 11 sentences for vagrancy and drunkeness. He said he made the false claim in order to get himself put in jail (food & bed); police considered him unreliable suspect but planned to give him a lie detector test and research the name of the other prisoner/"real killer".
In late December, Wendell G. Howes, Jr. age 21, pled innoncent to the kidnapping and abduction of a 10yo girl (found alive); he did admit the abduction, stating it was "on impluse". He was questioned and denied any involvement in Maria's case.
Fromer mental patient Richard Dorcas was cleared in Maria's case. He had abducted 7yo Chicago girl Linda Beatty in May 1958. Cathy Sigman failed to identify him in a line-up as Maria's abducter. He was not given a lie dector test because he was coming off a drinking binge.
The warden of Stateville Prison in May 1958 turned over a "best tip yet" from the inmate grapvine about a night club organist with a sex offender record. The person named in the tip had been jailed in Galena sometime in 1957. His name was not given.
