TRUE CRIME NEWSDetectives Say DNA From Genetic Ancestry Website Solved 65-Year-Old Murder of Chicago Girl by Former Cop
Gloria Kowalewicz, 8, disappeared while walking to church in November 1960 and was later found shot to death in a ravine.
Oct. 12 2026, Published 5:20 p.m. ET
The Chicago Police Department has officially closed a 65-year-old cold case, identifying former Chicago homicide detective Thomas Francis McInerney (also reported as McKinney in some early wire briefs) as the man who brutally murdered 8-year-old Gloria Kowalewicz in 1960, according to The Chicago Tribune.
On November 12, 1960, Kowalewicz left her home in West Englewood for communion at a nearby church.
She was abducted and later found dead in a ravine several miles away, having been shot twice in the head. Despite a massive manhunt involving local police, state police, firefighters, Boy Scouts and community volunteers, the investigation quickly bogged down and went cold.
Thomas Francis McInerney was a Chicago homicide detective.
At the time of the murder, McInerney was 24 years old, an Army veteran and lived around the corner from Gloria's family.
The Chicago Police Department hired him the year before. Over his 28-year career, he rose through the ranks to become a homicide and violent crimes detective, working assignments all over Chicago until his retirement in 1987. After leaving the department, he spent years working as an investigator for the Federal Public Defender's Office.
The decades-old mystery was finally unraveled in early 2026 through investigative genetic genealogy.
The FBI connected preserved crime-scene evidence to a family tree database.
The FBI initially linked McInerney to the preserved crime-scene evidence using genetic information uploaded to a family-tree ancestry database.
Following the genetic lead, investigators conducted direct forensic testing, which confirmed matches in DNA, fingerprints and ballistics.
Because McInerney died in 2006, he cannot face prosecution or legal justice for the crime.
- Ex-Homicide Detective William Baer Sentenced For Murder
- Cornell Professor Says 'I Believe Jane Doe' as She Criticizes Victim Blaming and Support for Accused Frat Members: 'What About Her Bright Future?'
- Alyssa Milano Rips 'Dumb' Megyn Kelly for Body-Shaming Cornell 7 Jane Doe and 'Promoting Misogyny': 'Pure, Unvarnished Degradation'
Want OK! each day? Sign up here!
Gloria Kowalewicz's Brother Relieved Case Is Finally Solved
8-year-old Gloria Kowalewicz was abducted and later found dead in a ravine several miles away.
Chicago Police Department Chief of Detectives Kevin Bruno expressed deep distress over the findings, stating, "The fact that he was a police officer is deeply troubling to all of us that have made a career out of this most noble profession. But at the same time, it's not something we're going to minimize or shy away from."
Gloria’s surviving brother, Adam Kowalewicz, shared relief that the case is finally solved for his late parents' sake, though he expressed heavy frustration that the killer spent his entire life escaping earthly justice.
DNA Technology Transforms Criminal Justice and Cold Cases
DNA technology has revolutionized criminal justice and cold cases.
DNA technology has fundamentally transformed criminal justice by turning biological material into the most accurate identifier in human history.
From its first forensic use in the 1980s to the era of consumer genealogy databases, DNA testing has systematically dismantled the barriers of time, decay and anonymity that once allowed criminals to escape justice.
"DNA is different. It's not a witness who might be mistaken, or a confession that might be coerced. It is an immutable, objective blueprint of identity. It didn’t just change how we catch the guilty; it fundamentally changed how we protect the innocent, exposing the flaws of our human systems with the absolute clarity of science,” said Peter Neufeld, co-founder of the Innocence Project, on the profound impact of genetic evidence on the justice system.
