SYCAMORE – Seven-year-old Maria Ridulph was kidnapped almost 55 years ago, but Cheryl Crain said the day is as vivid in her memory as the day President John F. Kennedy was assassinated.

As one of prosecutors’ first witnesses on Day One of the kidnapping and murder trial of Jack D. McCullough, Crain said she was with McCullough’s girlfriend Dec. 3, 1957, the evening Maria disappeared. The two were decorating the girlfriend’s father’s hobby shop in downtown Sycamore, and McCullough was supposed to pick them up afterward.

Crain, of Sycamore, said she never saw McCullough that night. Instead, Crain’s father took the girls home. Crain said she was then on “lockdown” in the days that followed, as people continued to search for Maria.