Hey friends, Nina here. You might be hearing some unusual ads before an episode of already gone.

Apologies, I'm doing my best to weed out political advertisements right now,

but sometimes our ad provider is tricked by the advertiser and these ad slip through,

so please bear with us as we get through another hectic election season.

As always, I do appreciate you listening.

And now, on with the show.

If you're a long time listener of already gone, you may have noticed that cold cases hold a special place in my heart.

There's just something about bringing old unsolved cases out of the dark and shining a light on a murder or disappearance.

One that can still be resolved if the right person comes forward.

Today we're looking at one of the best known cold cases in US history, the 1957 disappearance of Maria Rudolf from Sikomor, Illinois.

This case didn't just grip the community, it gripped the nation to the point that FBI director Jay Edgar Hoover was keeping the president up to date on developments in the case.

So come with me to a wintery evening in December of 1957 when seven year old Maria Rudolf is playing with her friend Kathy, just minutes before she disappears and Maria will never be seen alive again.

It all began on December 3rd at around 8 p.m. Mrs. Francis Rudolf, along with her 16 year old daughter Pat, they went to the police station in Sikomor to report that her seven year old daughter Maria was missing.

Maria had last been seen in the company of a stranger.

Fortunately for Francis, the desk sergeant that night was William Hindenburg, a former member of the fire department and the current chief of police.

Chief Hindenburg took the information from Francis and sprang into action.

Minutes after speaking with her, he placed a call over the radio telling patrol cars to be on the lookout for Maria.

He said she was last seen at 7 p.m. and that she was seven years old with short dark curly hair and was wearing black quarter-eye slacks.

Maria was carrying a doll wearing a red dress.

And that when she disappeared, she had been playing with an eight year old friend named Kathy Sigmund.

And while the two of them were playing, a white male named Johnny aged 22-24, he came up to the girls and offered to give them piggyback rides.

While the girls played with Johnny, Kathy went home to get her doll and when she returned both Johnny and Maria were gone.

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