Chicago police say DNA ties a former detective to decades-old unsolved
killing of 8-year-old girl
[October 14, 2026]
By CYBELE MAYES-OSTERMAN
CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago police say DNA evidence ties one of their former
homicide detectives to the decades-old murder of an 8-year-old girl who
was abducted as she was walking to church more than 65 years ago.
Gloria Kowalewicz was found shot dead in a ditch in 1960, just hours
after she went missing. Chicago police say new technology allowed them
to match a fingerprint and DNA from the crime scene to Thomas F.
McInerney Jr., who joined the department in 1959. He eventually became a
homicide detective working on violent crimes.
“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,” police said in a statement provided to The Associated Press on
Tuesday.
The State's Attorney's Office in Cook County, where the murder took
place, is “making efforts to identify cases that may have involved”
McInerney, the office said in a statement emailed to The AP on Tuesday.
Gloria was walking just a few blocks from her home to a morning Mass on
Nov. 12, 1960, but she never made it, according to police. She was found
around four hours later, her body dumped in a forest preserve in
southwest Chicago.
Authorities formed a task force to investigate. They “knocked on
hundreds of doors,” interviewed more than 1,300 people and questioned
more than a dozen people under polygraph, according to the statement.
Police collected and preserved a bullet, Gloria’s coat and shoes, and a
white communion purse that held her prayer book. Using modern forensic
technology and with assistance from the FBI and Illinois State Police,
investigators linked DNA found on those items and a “carefully
preserved” fingerprint lifted from Gloria's purse strap to McInerney.
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Adam Kowalewicz holds a photo of his slain sister, Gloria, as
he displays family photos during an interview with the Chicago
Tribune on Oct. 9, 2026. (Antonio Perez /Chicago Tribune via AP)
The FBI said in a statement to The AP that it was “pursuing every
investigative lead that may bring closure on other potential
unsolved crimes that occurred during that time period in our area.”
The technology used to identify McInerney allows federal and local
law enforcement agencies to compare evidence with genetic profiles
on genealogical websites. It was previously used to identify the
Golden State Killer more than four decades after the case was first
opened by identifying DNA from a tissue left in a trash can. The
technology has prompted privacy concerns.
McInerney retired in 1987, police said. He then worked for the
Federal Public Defender's Office in Reno and Las Vegas until he
retired in 2004, according to a Chicago Tribune obituary. He died in
2006.
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