Sixty-five years after 8-year-old Gloria Kowalewicz set out on a short walk to church and never came home, Chicago police have named the man they believe killed her, and he wore their own badge.
Story Snapshot
- Police named the late Thomas Francis McInerney, a Chicago officer for 28 years, as the man they believe killed Gloria, and closed the 1960 case.
- DNA from her dress and a fingerprint on her purse strap matched him, police say. The print matched his own 1959 job application to the force.
- McInerney died in Las Vegas in 2006. He was never charged and will never face a trial.
- Her brother, Adam Kowalewicz, says simply: “He never paid his dues.”
The department made the name public on Sunday, Oct. 11, saying modern DNA science and an old fingerprint card had finally solved a 65-year-old child murder. Chief of Detectives Kevin Bruno, who leads all detective work for the Chicago Police Department, did not soften his words. “As far as we’re concerned, he’s a murderer who was acting as a police officer,” he said.
A Brother Who Waited 65 Years
Adam Kowalewicz, Gloria’s brother, waited 65 years to learn a name. The answer came with no arrest attached. The man police named kept his job for decades and died without ever answering for the crime in court. “He never paid his dues,” Adam said.
The Morning She Disappeared
On November 12, 1960, Gloria left her home in the West Englewood neighborhood to walk about three and a half blocks to St. Mary of Mount Carmel Church. She planned to receive communion, the Catholic rite of receiving consecrated bread at Mass.
Shortly before noon, a laundry company driver found her body in a secluded spot in Palos Park, about 15 miles southwest of the city. She had been shot twice in the head. Police questioned more than 1,300 people in the months that followed, but no one was charged, and the file went cold.
The Clues That Pointed to a Cop
Police had kept evidence from the case for decades. In 2024, they sent her coat to the FBI for genetic genealogy. That method compares DNA from a crime scene with DNA that ordinary people share on family-history websites. It points detectives to relatives of the unknown person, and from there to one family tree. In July 2026, police confirmed McInerney as the source of the DNA on her dress.
Two more clues lined up behind it. A print lifted from the strap of Gloria’s purse matched the fingerprint card McInerney filled out in 1959 when he applied to join the force. Records also showed he owned three Colt revolvers of the type used in the killing. Police said he had no known earlier contact with Gloria and was not suspected in other crimes.
Who He Was
McInerney was a 24-year-old Army veteran and a young Chicago officer when Gloria was killed. He stayed with the department until 1987. He died in Las Vegas in 2006, years before investigators linked him to the case. Because he is dead, there will be no arrest and no courtroom. Police have not given a motive.
Why It Matters
Parents everywhere teach their children that a police officer is the safest person to turn to. That trust is exactly what this case tests, and it is why naming him matters. Chicago detectives followed the evidence to their own ranks and said so in public. Keeping old evidence, funding cold-case work and telling the truth, even when it hurts the badge, is how a city earns back trust and gives a family its answer.
Sources:
nypost.com, chicagotribune.com