Chicago Police Identify Former Homicide Detective as Killer in 65-Year-Old Cold Case

A Chicago police officer who went on to investigate homicides has been identified as the killer of an 8-year-old girl abducted and shot to death while walking to church in 1960. The breakthrough came more than six decades later, after investigators uncovered forensic evidence linking him to the murder.

A fingerprint recovered from Gloria Kowalewicz's purse matched prints Thomas F. McInerney Jr. submitted when applying to join the Chicago Police Department in 1959. Authorities publicly disclosed their findings on October 12, 2026, nearly 20 years after McInerney died in Las Vegas without facing criminal charges.

Gloria disappeared on November 12, 1960, after leaving her family's home on Chicago's South Side shortly before 8 a.m. to attend Mass at St. Mary of Mount Carmel Church, just three blocks away. The third-grader had recently received her First Communion and was carrying a small white purse containing her prayer book.

She never reached the church. Her body was discovered in a forest preserve southwest of Chicago, where she had been shot twice in the head. Investigators also documented bruising around her neck. A motorist spotted her clothing in a ditch and stopped to investigate.

The killing triggered a citywide search that continued for months. Chicago police formed a task force, pursued hundreds of leads and interviewed more than 1,300 people, including over a dozen who underwent polygraph examinations. More than 1,000 mourners attended Gloria's funeral four days after her death.

Detectives collected evidence from the crime scene and along the highway leading back toward Chicago, including a bullet, Gloria's coat, shoes and communion purse.

McInerney, then 24, was already a Chicago patrol officer when Gloria was murdered, having joined the department the previous year. He became a detective in 1964 and later worked in units investigating homicides and sex crimes. Authorities have not established whether he participated in the original investigation or had any prior connection to the child.

In 2010, forensic testing recovered a male DNA profile from semen preserved on Gloria's clothing. Investigators entered the profile into the FBI's Combined DNA Index System, known as CODIS, generating potential leads that were subsequently ruled out through additional testing.

Chicago police sought the FBI's assistance in 2024 through a sexual assault kit initiative to examine the preserved evidence using investigative genetic genealogy. The technique compares crime-scene DNA with genetic information in participating genealogy databases, allowing investigators to identify potential relatives and narrow their search through family records.

By July 2026, genetic genealogy had led investigators to McInerney, whose 1959 police employment records provided further corroboration.

Authorities also determined that McInerney had owned three Colt revolvers consistent with the type of firearm used in the killing. The DNA identification, fingerprint comparison and firearm evidence led Chicago police to conclude that he was responsible for Gloria's murder.

McInerney died in 2006 at age 70, preventing prosecutors from pursuing criminal charges. The case has been resolved through a police investigation rather than a criminal trial, leaving the department's findings without a judicial determination of guilt.

He had retired from the Chicago Police Department in 1987 after 28 years of service, including assignments investigating violent crimes. McInerney subsequently moved to Nevada and worked as an investigator for the Federal Public Defender's Office. He received an Outstanding Federal Defender Investigator award in 2003 before retiring from that position the following year.

The Chicago Police Department said McInerney should never have been permitted to wear a police badge and described his death before investigators identified him as a devastating failure of accountability. His later work investigating serious crimes has drawn particular attention, although authorities have presented no evidence that he interfered with the investigation into Gloria's murder.

Gloria's parents died before learning who killed their daughter. Her younger brother, Adam Kowalewicz, who was an infant at the time, expressed relief that the case had been solved but frustration that McInerney had lived the remainder of his life without facing prosecution.

The motive remains unknown. McInerney's parents lived less than a mile from Gloria's family in 1960, but investigators have identified no confirmed relationship between the former officer and the girl.

The FBI has entered McInerney's genetic information into its national DNA database and is examining whether he may be connected to other unsolved crimes. Federal investigators are pursuing leads involving possible additional victims from the same period.