Ex-Chicago detective identified as killing child in 65-year cold case
Police used recently discovered DNA to pin murder of eight-year-old girl on Thomas McInerney, who died in 2006
TL;DR
- Chicago police identified Thomas McInerney, a former homicide detective, as the killer of eight-year-old Gloria Kowalewicz.
- The murder occurred in 1960 and was solved over six decades later using DNA evidence from a genetic ancestry website.
- McInerney died in 2006, having retired from the police force in 1987 and later working as an investigator for federal public defender's offices in Nevada.
- Gloria Kowalewicz was abducted on her way to church and found shot to death in a forest preserve.
- Despite extensive investigations at the time, including interviews and lie-detector tests, no suspect was identified.
- McInerney was approximately 25 years old at the time of the murder and lived near the victim.
- Gloria's family expressed relief at the identification but frustration that McInerney never faced justice while alive.