Oldest ever cold case prosecuted from Illinois featured on '48 Hours'

A little over 60 miles west of Chicago is a town called Sycamore. Back in 1957 it was the center of attention for something it never wanted. And now "48 Hours: Cold as Ice" takes us back to that time and to the present day in their latest installment.

The case is that of Maria Ridulph, a 7-year-old girl who in 1957 was taken from a street in Sycamore, Illinois. She was found dead five months later. The investigation caught the eye President Dwight D. Eisenhower and FBI head J. Edgar Hoover. Over the years, the case grew cold, very cold.

According to the CBS press release, Erin Moriarty and the "48 Hours" team go inside the investigation of what authorities say was the oldest cold case ever to be prosecuted in United States history in “Cold as Ice,” to be broadcast Saturday, March 9 at 9 p.m. CT on CBS.

“It’s probably one of the most challenging murder prosecutions in American history,” DeKalb County State's Attorney Clay Campbell told "48 Hours."

According to the show and he release, the case was opened again for this reason. In 1994, when a Ridulph neighbor made a deathbed confession to her daughter that her son, John Tessier, was responsible for the girl’s murder. But Tessier had been investigated in 1957 by the FBI and he had an alibi. More than a decade after the deathbed confession, the daughter convinced Illinois State Police Special Agent Brion Hanley to look into Tessier. Hanley tracked Tessier to Seattle, where he was a former police officer and family man living under the name John McCullough.

All of this will be explored in the show and will one aspect that raise some eyebrows. The questions about the Statute of Limitations will be raised - for murder. It suggests "how long is too long to rely on old information."

CBS was also home to a popular series titled "Cold Case." Each week, it blended in the past and present while solving a case.