Chicago police on Monday announced that newly discovered DNA evidence has linked a former homicide detective to the 1960 murder of an eight-year-old girl, solving a case that had remained open for more than six decades. Thomas McInerney had been dead for roughly two decades by the time authorities identified him as the perpetrator in the killing of Gloria Kowalewicz. He had long since retired from both the Chicago Police Department and federal public defender offices in Nevada, where he worked as an investigator.
In an official statement, the Chicago Police Department expressed hope that the breakthrough brings a measure of closure to those who knew Gloria and her story, while condemning the former officer. The department stated that McInerney should never have worn a police star and noted it was devastating to accept that he was never identified or held accountable during his lifetime.
Gloria was last seen alive on the morning of November 12, 1960, while walking from her home in the West Englewood neighborhood to attend mass at a nearby church. She never arrived at the service. She was abducted along the way, fatally shot, and her body was discovered within hours in a ditch at a forest preserve southwest of the city.
Investigators recovered several items at the scene, including a bullet, her coat, a white communion purse containing a prayer book, and a fingerprint lifted from the purse strap. At the time, law enforcement organized a massive search involving firefighters, Boy Scouts, and military veterans, and a dedicated task force interviewed approximately 1,300 individuals. However, those initial efforts failed to produce a suspect.
The breakthrough came earlier in the year when DNA submitted to a genetic ancestry website allowed the FBI to connect McInerney to the crime scene. Subsequent DNA, fingerprint, and ballistic evaluations confirmed that McInerney, a US army veteran who resided around the corner from the victim, was responsible for the murder.
McInerney joined the police force in 1959 and was nearing his 25th birthday when the killing occurred. He eventually retired from the agency as a homicide investigator in 1987 before moving on to work for federal public defender offices in Las Vegas and Reno until 2004. He passed away on August 30, 2006, leaving behind a family and an obituary highlighting numerous professional commendations.
Authorities noted that Gloria's parents passed away without ever learning who killed their daughter. Gloria's brother expressed relief that the case was finally resolved but voiced frustration that the perpetrator escaped earthly justice. He remarked that the former detective never paid his dues in life, leaving those answers to a higher power.