More than six decades after 8-year-old Gloria Kowalewicz vanished on her way to church, authorities have identified a former Chicago homicide detective as the person responsible for her killing. Investigators are now reviewing other cases that may be connected to the officer.
Thomas F. McInerney Jr. joined the Chicago Police Department in 1959, a year before Gloria was abducted and murdered. He later served as a detective assigned to violent-crime investigations and remained on the force until retiring in 1987.
Chicago police told News Outlet that advances in DNA analysis, combined with a fingerprint preserved from the original investigation, led detectives to McInerney more than 65 years after the crime. 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 disappeared on Nov. 12, 1960, after leaving her home shortly before 8 a.m. for morning Mass at St. Mary of Mt. Carmel Church, located 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.
The case triggered a sweeping police effort. Investigators questioned more than 1,300 people and went door to door across the area, but the search for Gloria’s killer ultimately remained unresolved for decades.
Evidence collected at and near the crime scene was preserved, including a bullet, Gloria’s coat and shoes, and a white communion purse holding her prayer book. Investigators also recovered a fingerprint from the purse’s strap.
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Staff prepare DNA sequencing samples at the new offices and laboratories of Othram, a forensic genetics laboratory, in The Woodlands, Texas, on Nov. 6, 2023. (Michael Wyke/Houston Chronicle)
According to the department, Chicago investigators worked with the FBI and Illinois State Police to use contemporary forensic methods to connect DNA evidence and the preserved fingerprint to McInerney.
“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,” the Chicago Police Department said in a statement provided to News Outlet.
The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office is now examining whether McInerney may have been involved in other cases, The Associated Press reported.
The Chicago Police Department said DNA evidence and a preserved fingerprint enabled investigators to identify the killer of 8-year-old Gloria Kowalewicz more than 65 years after her death. (Talia Sprague/Chicago Tribune/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
Gloria’s parents died before learning who killed their daughter, police said. Authorities nevertheless expressed hope that identifying McInerney would offer at least some measure of closure to Gloria’s family and those who remembered her.
After leaving the Chicago Police Department, McInerney worked for the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Nevada and retired in 2004, according to the AP. He died two years later without ever being charged in Gloria’s murder.
