SYCAMORE – Jack McCullough's defense team took a hit Tuesday after a judge's ruling prohibited them from using FBI records as evidence in his murder trial.

Kane County Associate Judge James Hallock also said he would allow prosecutors to use statements made by McCullough during a police interrogation after his arrest in July 2011 in the 1957 kidnapping and killing of 7-year-old Maria Ridulph of Sycamore. Ridulph disappeared from her Sycamore neighborhood on Dec. 3, 1957. Her remains were found five months later in rural Jo Daviess County.

Robert Carlson, a defense attorney for McCullough, argued FBI records that indicated McCullough was in Chicago and Rockford at the time of Ridulph's disappearance should be permitted, as they could be the only accurate account of events that occurred 55 years ago, with witnesses having died or forgotten details.