SYCAMORE – Testimony ended Thursday in the trial of a man charged in the 1957 murder of a Sycamore girl, and both sides rested after four days focused on childhood memories and a deathbed accusation.

Seven-year-old Maria Ridulph was abducted while playing outside, and her death horrified the community and unsettled parents nationwide. Even then-President Dwight Eisenhower asked to be kept up to date on the case.

Just before public defenders rested Thursday afternoon, the judge asked Jack McCullough, the 72-year-old defendant from Seattle, if he had decided to testify.