More than six decades after 8-year-old Gloria Kowalewicz vanished on her way to church, Chicago authorities have identified a former homicide detective as her killer and are reviewing other cases that may be connected to him.
Thomas F. McInerney Jr. joined the Chicago Police Department in 1959, a year before Gloria was abducted and murdered. He later became a detective assigned to violent-crime investigations and remained on the force until retiring in 1987.
Chicago police told News Media that advances in DNA analysis, combined with a fingerprint preserved from the crime scene, led investigators to McInerney more than 65 years after the killing. McInerney died in 2006 at age 70.
A Chicago Police Department building. Authorities identified a former department detective as the killer of 8-year-old Gloria Kowalewicz, who was murdered in 1960. (Getty Images)
Gloria left her home shortly before 8 a.m. on Nov. 12, 1960, to attend morning Mass at St. Mary of Mt. Carmel Church, only a few blocks away. About four hours later, her body was found in a ditch at a forest preserve southwest of Chicago. She had been shot and killed.
The case triggered a sweeping investigation. Police questioned more than 1,300 people and went door to door across the area, but the murder remained unsolved for decades.
Evidence collected from the crime scene and nearby area was preserved, including a bullet, Gloria’s coat and shoes, and a white communion purse that held her prayer book. Investigators also recovered a fingerprint from the purse’s strap.
Staff prepare samples for DNA sequencing at the new offices and laboratories of Othram, a DNA forensics lab, in The Woodlands, Texas, on Nov. 6, 2023. (Michael Wyke/Houston Chronicle)
With assistance from the FBI and Illinois State Police, investigators used modern forensic methods to connect DNA evidence and the preserved fingerprint to McInerney, the department said.
“McInerney should never have worn the CPD star, and it is devastating to accept that he was never identified and held accountable while he was alive,” Chicago police said in a statement provided to News Media.
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office is now examining whether McInerney may have been involved in other cases, according to The Associated Press.
The Chicago Police Department said DNA evidence and a preserved fingerprint helped identify the killer of 8-year-old Gloria Kowalewicz more than 65 years after her murder. (Talia Sprague/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Gloria’s parents died before learning who was responsible for their daughter’s murder. Police said they hope the identification of McInerney provides some measure of closure to those who knew her.
According to the AP, McInerney later worked for the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Nevada and retired in 2004. He died two years later without ever being charged in Gloria’s killing.