DNA ties Thomas F. McInerney Jr. to 1960 Chicago murder
Chicago police say DNA evidence has tied former detective Thomas F. McInerney Jr. to the 1960 murder of 8-year-old Gloria Kowalewicz.
Thomas F. McInerney Jr. has been tied by DNA evidence to a 1960 Chicago homicide, police say. The findings link the former detective to the fatal shooting of an 8-year-old girl who was abducted while walking to church. McInerney died in 2006 and was never charged during his lifetime.
Investigators used modern technology to match evidence from the scene to McInerney, police said. He worked violent crime cases as a detective at the time of the killing.
Gloria was walking to a morning Mass on Nov. 12, 1960, according to police. She went missing just blocks from her home. Searchers found her body about four hours later in a ditch in a forest preserve in southwest Chicago. She had been shot dead.
A task force formed to investigate the case, according to a police statement. Officers interviewed more than 1,300 people. They also questioned more than a dozen individuals under polygraph.
Police preserved several pieces of evidence from the original scene. These items included:
- A bullet
- The victim’s coat and shoes
- A white communion purse that held her prayer book
Investigators used genetic testing with help from the FBI and Illinois State Police. They linked DNA on the preserved items to McInerney, police said. A fingerprint lifted from the purse strap also matched him.
“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,” police said in a statement.
The FBI confirmed it is now pursuing leads on other unsolved cases in the area from that era. Forensic genealogical matching checks crime scene genetic evidence against profiles on public genealogy websites. The method has drawn privacy concerns from civil liberties groups.
McInerney joined the Chicago Police Department in 1959. He retired from the department in 1987, according to police records. A Chicago Tribune obituary stated he later worked for the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Reno and Las Vegas until 2004.
Forensic genetic genealogy allows law enforcement agencies to compare crime scene samples with family tree databases. When potential relatives are identified, detectives build family trees to find possible suspects. Investigators then seek direct reference samples to confirm any match.
The investigation into other potential unsolved crimes from that period remains ongoing.
