By MELISSA CHAPMAN
Cataloging Supervisor, Warsaw Public Library

WARSAW — One of my favorite genres to read is true crime. I have always been interested in criminology, especially cold cases. While watching the Investigation Discovery Network I watched a couple of shows about the solving of one of the oldest cold cases in U.S. history. I found the case very interesting and was pleased to learn that a book was written about the case. I was also pleasantly surprised to learn that the Warsaw Community Public Library had a copy of said book, titled, “Footsteps in the Snow,” by Charles Lachman. I checked it out and from the moment I started reading I was hooked.

“Footsteps” is the story of the kidnapping and murder of seven year old Maria Ridulph. On Dec. 3, 1957, little Maria was taken while playing with a friend on a street corner in Sycamore, Ill. In 1957, America was very different than it is now and in the small, quiet town of Sycamore everyone felt safe and doors were rarely locked. This case haunted the Sycamore community for decades.

Interest was so great that the FBI stepped in and came up with a leading suspect. The problem with this suspect was that even though he fit the description, he had an alibi and had supposedly passed a polygraph test. He was dismissed as a suspect and after the passage of time with no new leads, the case went cold.

For five decades, law enforcement agents struggled to uncover the truth. Events that led up to the solving of the murder of Maria are almost unbelievable, from a deathbed confession by a suspect’s mother to investigators neglecting to show the lone witness (Maria’s friend Kathy) a picture of the killer and original suspect in 1958. The truth can sometimes be stranger than fiction.

Ann Rule is the standard to which I judge every true-crime book I read, and Lachman does an outstanding job of making the resolution of a horrific, cold-case murder into a gripping page turner.

If you love a true crime thriller and want a break from the Investigation Discovery Channel, come to the library and check out, “Footsteps in the Snow,” by Charles Lachman. If you fancy true crime author Ann Rule, the library has over 35 titles you can choose from. I’ve read most of them and I’d recommend them all.

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