Chicago police say DNA evidence and a preserved fingerprint have identified a former homicide detective as the killer of 8-year-old Gloria Kowalewicz, who was abducted and murdered in 1960, Fox News reports.
Thomas F. McInerney Jr. joined the Chicago Police Department in 1959, a year before the killing, and later became a detective investigating violent crimes.
He retired from the department in 1987 and died in 2006 at age 70. He was never charged in Gloria’s death.
Gloria disappeared on Nov. 12, 1960, after leaving home to attend morning Mass at a church a few blocks away.
Her body was found about four hours later at a forest preserve southwest of Chicago. Police interviewed more than 1,300 people, but the case went unsolved for decades.
Investigators had preserved evidence from the scene, including a fingerprint recovered from the strap of her communion purse.
Working with the FBI and Illinois State Police, they used modern forensic technology to link the DNA and the print to McInerney.
“McInerney should never have worn the CPD star,” police said in a statement.
Gloria’s parents died without learning who killed her. According to The Associated Press, the Cook County State’s Attorney’s Office is working to identify other cases that may have involved McInerney.
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