Chicago police name late detective as killer of girl, 8, in 1960 cold case

Mixed · 2The Chicago Police Department (CPD) says a 65-year-old cold case, the November 1960 murder of 8-year-old Gloria Kowalewicz, has been solved, and that the man responsible was Thomas F. McInerney, a former CPD homicide detective. 1 2 Mixed · 2Gloria left home on the morning of Saturday, Nov. 12, 1960, to walk to church on Chicago's South Side to receive communion, and was abducted on the way. She was shot twice in the head and her body was found in a ravine or ditch in a forest preserve southwest of the city, by a motorist who noticed her colourful dress. 1 2 Left · 1The killing prompted a citywide manhunt in which thousands of people were questioned and hundreds of leads followed, but no suspect was identified. Police preserved a bullet, Gloria's coat, her shoes and her communion purse, and lifted a fingerprint from the purse strap. 1

Mixed · 2According to NBC News, citing police, a male DNA profile built from semen on Gloria's clothes in 2010 produced no arrest. In 2024, at CPD's request, the FBI compared that DNA with samples on family-tree research websites and identified McInerney, and investigators then matched his fingerprints from a 1959 CPD job application to the print on the purse strap. The New York Post, citing the Chicago Tribune, says the FBI made the connection 'earlier this year' and that further DNA, fingerprint and ballistics testing led the department to its conclusion. 1 2 Left · 1NBC News reports that the CPD said it was July when this DNA technology, combined with 'a carefully preserved fingerprint', led investigators to McInerney; the outlet compares the method to that used to catch the Golden State Killer, Joseph James DeAngelo. 1 Mixed · 2McInerney was 24 and an Army veteran at the time of the killing and lived near Gloria's family; NBC News says his parents lived less than a mile away and that he was then a patrol officer on the west side, promoted to detective in 1964. He served 28 years with CPD, retiring in 1987, then worked as an investigator for the Federal Public Defender's Office in Nevada until 2004, and died in Las Vegas in 2006 at 70. 2 1

Mixed · 2Kevin Bruno, CPD's Chief of Detectives, told the Tribune that McInerney's having been a police officer was 'deeply troubling' but that the department would not 'minimize or shy away from' it. In a statement, CPD said McInerney 'should never have worn the CPD star'. 2 1 Mixed · 2Gloria's brother Adam Kowalewicz, who was an infant at the time, told the Tribune he was relieved and had hoped it would let their late parents 'rest', but that McInerney 'never paid his dues'. 2 1 Mixed · 2Open questions remain. Police have not said why McInerney targeted Gloria and say he does not appear to have had prior contact with her, and it was not immediately clear whether he was involved in the original investigation. His DNA is in the FBI's CODIS database, and the FBI says it is pursuing leads on other potential unsolved crimes from that period. The Post reports McInerney's family could not be reached for comment. 1 2