Little Girl’s 65-Year-Old Cold Case Finally Cracked, With DNA Pointing To Homicide Detective

For 65 years, the Kowalewicz family knew where 8-year-old Gloria’s short walk to church had ended. They knew she had been taken from a Chicago street on November 12, 1960, and found hours later in woods more than 15 miles from home. What they never knew was who had taken her there. Gloria’s parents spent the rest of their lives without an answer. Her younger brother, Adam, grew up with the case hanging over the family. Then, in October 2026, Chicago police finally named the man responsible: Thomas F. McInerney Jr. The revelation will forever taint the department’s name. McInerney had joined the Chicago Police Department a year before Gloria disappeared. He later became a homicide detective, spent 28 years on the force and lived out his life without facing a charge for what he had done. He passed away in 2006. “McInerney should never have worn the CPD star,” the department said. Find a Grave Gloria was born in the early 1950s to Edward and Esther Kowalewicz. By 1960, she was the older of their two children, living at 2002 W. 67th Place in Chicago’s West Englewood neighborhood. Her baby brother, Adam, had arrived only a few months earlier. Edward, a World War II veteran, ran a gas station at 63rd and Hoyne. Gloria was in third grade at St. Mary of Mount Carmel. Her school and church were less than half a mile from the family’s back door. She had recently received her First Holy Communion. A nun had asked Gloria and her classmates to attend Mass every day for two weeks so the ritual would stay with them. Saturday, November 12, was the final day. Find a Grave Edward needed the family car that morning, so Gloria would walk the roughly three and a half blocks to church. Esther dressed her in a pink-and-brown checkered dress and a blue leotard. She kissed her daughter goodbye, then watched from the porch as Gloria headed north on Damen Avenue. Little did she know she would never kiss Gloria again. The 8-year-old turned east onto Marquette Road, passed a gas station and disappeared from her mother’s view. She never reached St. Mary of Mount Carmel. Chicago Police Department Witnesses later told investigators they had seen a girl who resembled Gloria with a man shortly after she left home. They estimated his age at somewhere between 25 and 40. Still, no one could give her family a name. The man police eventually identified was 24-year-old McInerney, an Army veteran who had entered the Chicago Police Department in 1959. His parents lived about three-quarters of a mile from the Kowalewicz home. Anton Atanasov/Pexels (not the actual photo) More than 15 miles southwest of the Kowalewicz home, a laundry-company driver stopped along 104th Avenue near a wooded area of Palos Park. He was checking his afternoon route and eating lunch when a patch of color caught his attention in a ravine, about 20 feet from the road. It was the pink-and-brown dress Esther had chosen that morning. The driver went down to the child and found no pulse. He drove to a nearby tavern to call the Cook County sheriff’s office. By the time investigators reached the ravine, Gloria’s brief absence from church had become a homicide investigation. She had two bullet wounds to her head and bruises on her neck. San Photography/Pexels (not the actual photo) The blood at the scene led investigators to conclude that she had been brought to the woods alive and attacked there. A trail ran from the road toward the ravine and Officers made casts of tire impressions, then searched the surrounding dirt and vegetation. Gloria’s shoes and white communion purse were found a few feet away. Inside the purse was her prayer book. Her coat turned up several miles from the scene, while police recovered a spent cartridge casing near the ravine. They also lifted her little fingerprints from the purse strap and from her Bible. In the middle of the horror, one detail would make things even worse: Later laboratory work found male seminal material on her clothing. Edward was brought to the area that same day. Find a Grave By the next day, officers were knocking on doors throughout Gloria’s neighborhood. The Cook County sheriff’s office, Illinois State Police and Chicago police worked the case together. Firefighters joined the effort, as did veterans and Boy Scouts. Investigators questioned local offenders and appealed for anyone who had seen Gloria that morning to come forward. They followed the physical trail, too. Divers searched waterways, including the Cal-Sag Channel, for the firearm. The fingerprints, cartridge casing, clothing and purse were kept as evidence. Nothing they learned gave Edward and Esther the answer they needed. Find a Grave On November 16, more than 1,000 people gathered at St. Mary of Mount Carmel for Gloria’s funeral. Six girls from her First Communion class served as pallbearers. Chicago police provided an escort as Edward and Esther followed their daughter’s casket from the church. Ironically, the Rev. Angelo Della Vecchia spoke about the obligation of public officials to protect children. No one at the service knew that the culprit was already wearing a Chicago police star. Cottonbro Studio/Pexels (not the actual photo) The investigation continued. Detectives interviewed more than 1,300 people and questioned more than a dozen under polygraph. Witness accounts were checked, leads were pursued and suspects were ruled out. Six months later, a Chicago Tribune account described a search overwhelmed by tips. “The criminal still walks the streets,” it wrote. And McInerney did. Chicago Tribune He worked patrol on Chicago’s West Side until 1964, when he became a detective. His later assignments took him through burglary and vice cases, then investigations involving violent crimes and homicides. For the Kowalewiczes, on the other hand, the years kept passing without a result. For the Kowalewiczes, on the other hand, the years kept passing without a result. Edward passed away in his sleep in 1978, never knowing justice for his daughter. Esther, who had watched Gloria turn the corner that November morning, passed away in 2000 without learning who had taken her daughter. Kindel Media/Pexels (not the actual photo) McInerney peacefully retired from the police department in 1987, after 28 years of service. He moved to Nevada after leaving Chicago and worked as an investigator for the Federal Public Defender’s Office in Reno and Las Vegas. McInerneyeven received an outstanding investigator honor in 2003 and retired from that job in 2004. He passed away in Las Vegas in 2006, at age 70. True Crime Story Hour The original investigators had collected evidence they could not fully use in 1960. Decades later, that decision gave a new generation of detectives something to examine. In July 2010, Chicago police used grant funding to send Gloria’s dress for DNA testing. They also submitted the fingerprints taken from her purse strap and Bible. That December, laboratory work produced a male DNA profile from seminal material on the dress. Investigators entered the profile into CODIS, the FBI’s national DNA database. It generated possible leads, but subsequent saliva tests excluded those men. The case had gained a genetic profile without gaining its answer. Another 14 years went by. John Blanding/The Boston Globe via Getty Images In 2024, Chicago police sent Gloria’s coat to the FBI under an initiative that allowed investigators to pursue genetic genealogy. Rather than look only for a direct match in a criminal database, the technique could compare crime-scene DNA with profiles that people had submitted to participating family-tree websites. From relatives in those records, investigators could work toward an identity. In July 2026, that work finally pointed to Thomas McInerney. Investigators identified him as the source of the material recovered from Gloria’s dress. The discovery placed the former officer at the heart of a case that had remained open through his entire police career and for two decades after his passing. Detectives then returned to a record McInerney himself had given the department. When he applied to join the force in 1959, he submitted his fingerprints. Those prints matched one preserved on the strap of Gloria’s white communion purse. The department had the most important clue in their possession all along. Investigators also established that McInerney had owned three Colt revolvers consistent with the type of firearm involved in the case. The DNA and fingerprint match formed the decisive link announced by police, with assistance from the FBI and Illinois State Police. Scott Olson/Getty Images Chicago police publicly confirmed that McInerney was responsible for Gloria’s homicide. Chief of Detectives Kevin Bruno addressed the finding in an interview published by the Chicago Tribune on October 11, 2026. “The fact that he was a police officer is deeply troubling to all of us,” Bruno said. He credited the generations of investigators who kept working the case: “we don’t forget, and these guys never stopped.” Though her parents have since passed away... We hope that this news brings a measure of closure to all who knew Gloria and her story,” he added. True Crime Story Hour Adam, Gloria’s younger brother, received the news from detectives earlier in 2026. In an interview with the Tribune, he expressed gratitude for their work and the relief of finally having an answer. “Now I know my mom and dad’s souls can rest,” he said. “Gloria can rest.” That relief was mixed with anger. “[McInerney] never paid his dues.” The October announcement also raised questions beyond Gloria’s case, as The Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office said it was reviewing cases that might have involved McInerney. The FBI also said it was pursuing leads concerning other unsolved crimes from that period.