DNA Links Ex-Chicago Detective to 1960 Murder of 8-Year-Old Girl After 65 Years
Updated
Updated · Fox News · Oct 13
DNA Links Ex-Chicago Detective to 1960 Murder of 8-Year-Old Girl After 65 Years
3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Oct 13
Summary
Chicago police said DNA evidence and a preserved fingerprint identified former detective Thomas F. McInerney Jr. as the killer of 8-year-old Gloria Kowalewicz, more than 65 years after her 1960 abduction and murder.
McInerney joined the department in 1959, later became a homicide detective and retired in 1987; investigators matched him through evidence preserved from the scene, including Gloria's communion purse and other items.
Gloria disappeared on Nov. 12, 1960, while walking to morning Mass, and her body was found about four hours later in a forest preserve ditch southwest of Chicago after she had been shot.
More than 1,300 interviews and hundreds of door knocks failed to solve the case at the time, and McInerney died in 2006 without charges.
The Cook County State's Attorney's Office is now reviewing whether McInerney may have been involved in other cases, widening the implications beyond the long-unsolved child killing.