Chicago cold case solved after 65 years: homicide detective identified as killer of 8-year-old girl
DNA technology and a preserved fingerprint have cracked the 1960 murder of Gloria Kowalewicz in Chicago. The killer was Thomas McInerney, a retired CPD homicide detective who died in 2006.
Retired Chicago detective unmasked as killer of eight-year-old girl 65 years after abduction
A 65-year-old cold case murder that had frustrated Chicago investigators for decades has been solved — and the man identified as the killer is a former homicide detective with the Chicago Police Department (CPD), nbcnews.com reports.
Gloria Kowalewicz, eight years old, was abducted on 12 November 1960 as she walked to morning mass at St. Mary of Mount Carmel Church on Chicago's South Side. She never arrived. Her body was found by a passing motorist in a ditch in a forest preserve southwest of the city; she had been shot twice in the head. Her colourful dress — a pink-and-brown checkered pattern — had caught the motorist's eye.
The morning Gloria disappeared, she had left home just before 8 a.m., dressed in the clothes her mother had chosen: the checkered dress, a blue leotard, and white communion purse containing her prayer book. She was a third-grader who had recently celebrated her First Communion.
Citywide manhunt, no arrest
The abduction and murder triggered a months-long citywide manhunt. Thousands of people were questioned and hundreds of leads pursued, according to the CPD. Evidence was collected and preserved at the scene — a bullet, Gloria's coat, her shoes, and her purse — and investigators lifted a fingerprint from the strap of that purse. Four days after her death, more than 1,000 people attended her funeral at the same church she had been walking to.
Despite the investigative effort, no one was ever charged.
DNA and a 60-year-old fingerprint break the case
The first significant development came in 2010, when investigators built a male DNA profile from traces of semen found on Gloria's clothing. That profile did not produce any matches at the time.
The decisive step came in 2024, when the FBI — acting on a request from Chicago police — compared that DNA with genetic samples submitted to family tree research websites. The comparison identified Thomas F. McInerney Jr. Detectives then matched McInerney's fingerprints from his 1959 CPD job application with the fingerprint lifted from Gloria's purse strap more than six decades earlier.
"Identification was made through a fingerprint and DNA left behind at the crime scene," the CPD said in a statement.
The same genealogical DNA technology was previously used to identify Joseph James DeAngelo — the "Golden State Killer," a former California police officer convicted of 13 murders and multiple rapes committed between the mid-1970s and mid-1980s, now serving life in prison.
The suspect: a decorated law enforcement career
McInerney, at the time of the murder, was a 24-year-old patrol officer assigned to Chicago's west side. He was not promoted to detective until 1964. He retired from the CPD in 1987 after 28 years of service, then moved to Nevada, where he worked as an investigator for the Federal Public Defender's Office. He was named Outstanding Federal Defender Investigator in 2003 and retired from that role in 2004, according to his obituary in the Chicago Tribune. An Army veteran and father of five, McInerney died in Las Vegas in 2006 at the age of 70.
It remains unclear whether McInerney was ever directly involved in the investigation into Gloria's murder. Police also said he does not appear to have had any prior contact with the girl, despite his parents living less than a mile from the Kowalewicz family.
"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 CPD said in a statement issued Monday.
Family: "He never paid his dues"
Gloria's brother Adam Kowalewicz — who was an infant when his sister was killed — said the outcome was painful to process.
"The one thing that does play in my mind (is), unfortunately, he lived a decent life and passed on," Kowalewicz told the Chicago Tribune. "He never paid his dues. You hope he's going to pay his dues with the good lord."
Motive unknown; FBI checking for further victims
Police have not yet been able to establish why McInerney targeted Gloria. McInerney's DNA has been entered into CODIS, the FBI's Combined DNA Index System, and investigators are now examining whether there may be additional victims.
"Based on the evidence in the Kowalewicz case, and law enforcement's profiling of child predators and their victimology, we are pursuing every investigative lead that may bring closure on other potential unsolved crimes that occurred during that time period in our area," the FBI said in a statement.
The CPD stated that the case was never set aside, even as the decades passed and the evidence sat in storage.
"Even as the case seemed frozen in time, the Chicago Police Department never forgot the little girl and never stopped searching for her killer," the department said.
Source: Google News MT — Crime (en)