Chicago police say the man who shot and killed an 8-year-old girl in 1960 was one of their own officers, identified 65 years later through a fingerprint he left behind on her purse strap.
Quick Take
- Gloria Kowalewicz, 8, was murdered in Chicago on November 12, 1960.
- Chicago police named Thomas Francis McInerney, a former officer and homicide detective, as her killer.
- Investigators matched a preserved fingerprint from the crime scene to McInerney’s 1959 police job application.
- Modern DNA technology, unavailable in 1960, helped confirm the identification.
- McInerney died in 2006 and will never face trial.
A Preserved Fingerprint Breaks a 65-Year Silence
Gloria Kowalewicz was walking in her Chicago neighborhood when she was abducted and killed in November 1960. For decades, her murder sat unsolved, a painful mystery for her family and a stubborn gap in the city’s history of unanswered crimes. Chicago police say that changed this year when old evidence finally spoke.
The break came from a fingerprint lifted from the strap of Gloria’s purse at the time of the murder. Investigators called it a “carefully preserved fingerprint,” one that survived more than six decades in storage. That print became the thread that led straight back to a Chicago police officer.
Detectives compared the purse-strap print to fingerprints already on file with the department. Those records belonged to Thomas Francis McInerney, who joined the Chicago Police Department in 1959, just a year before Gloria was killed. The match connected a man who spent his career investigating crimes to one he apparently committed himself.
DNA Technology Closed the Gap Old Tools Could Not
Fingerprints alone did not crack the case. Police say DNA technology, something that simply did not exist in 1960, gave investigators a second line of confirmation. The Chicago Police Department’s Forensic Services division worked alongside the Illinois State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to run that analysis.
This kind of pairing, old physical evidence combined with new genetic science, has cracked other infamous cases before. The most well-known example is Joseph James DeAngelo, the former police officer identified in 2018 as the Golden State Killer through genetic genealogy. DeAngelo later pleaded guilty to 13 murders and was sentenced to life without parole.
That earlier case shows how genetic leads typically work. They point investigators toward a person, but the full weight of proof usually gets tested later, in court, through cross-examination and expert review. McInerney will never face that process. He died in 2006, two decades before police publicly named him.
An Officer Hidden in Plain Sight for Decades
McInerney was not some anonymous suspect who slipped through the cracks. Reports describe him as a 24-year-old Chicago police officer at the time of Gloria’s murder, a man who went on to serve as a homicide detective himself. He spent years working cases, possibly including ones like the one he caused.
That detail is what makes this case sting in a particular way. A man sworn to protect the public and solve crimes allegedly committed one of the city’s most heartbreaking unsolved murders. For a department built on public trust, naming one of its former detectives as a child’s killer is not a small announcement.
Chicago police find killer in 65-year-old cold case murder of little girl — one of their own
DNA technology that didn’t exist when Gloria Kowalewicz, 8, was killed in 1960 led investigators to Thomas F. McInerney Jr., who was a homicide detective for the Chicago Police Department… pic.twitter.com/C10aWUagwo— Alvarezz & Rosie (@alvarezzis6) October 13, 2026
Because McInerney died before he could be charged, there was no arrest, no trial, and no jury verdict testing the evidence against him. The identification stands as a police determination, not a courtroom conviction, since he cannot answer for it in court.
For Gloria Kowalewicz’s family, the announcement still offers something rare in a cold case this old: a name. After 65 years without answers, Chicago police say the fingerprint on a little girl’s purse strap, paired with modern DNA science, finally told them who took her life. Closure, even decades late, carries real weight for a family that waited six and a half decades to hear it.
Sources:
nbcnews.com, nbcboston.com, cbsnews.com, chicagotribune.com, ibtimes.co.uk, link.springer.com
