Investigators at the time questioned McCullough, then a resident of the same Sycamore neighborhood as the Ridulphs and known as John Tessier. But authorities determined he was in Rockford near the time of the abduction and would have been unable to travel between there and Sycamore to commit the crime. In the 1980s McCullough was charged with statutory rape and accused of assaulting a 14-year-old girl but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge.