Fingerprint links retired Chicago cop to 1960 girl's murder

Chicago police identified Thomas F. McInerney Jr. as the killer of Gloria Kowalewicz, an 8-year-old girl abducted and shot on Nov. 12, 1960. The former detective, who died in 2006, was linked to the cold case through a fingerprint lifted from the strap of Kowalewicz's communion purse. This evidence, preserved for more than six decades, allowed investigators to match the suspect after recent advances in technology.

Kowalewicz was walking to St. Mary of Mt. Carmel Church just before 8 a.m. when she disappeared. Her body was found approximately four hours later in a ditch within a forest preserve southwest of Chicago. Investigators recovered a bullet, her coat, her shoes, and her white communion purse containing a prayer book at the scene and along a highway back to the city. Despite these physical clues, the perpetrator was never identified during the initial investigation.

The Chicago Police Department formed a task force to continue the search, interviewing more than 1,300 people and questioning over a dozen suspects under polygraph. McInerney, a violent crimes detective at the time of the killing, remained within the department for 28 years before retiring to Las Vegas. He died at age 70, two decades ago. The department stated that detectives never stopped searching, working alongside the Illinois State Police and the FBI to preserve DNA and fingerprint evidence until technology caught up with the case.

Michael Gould, a founding member of the New York Police Department's K-9 unit, commented on the investigative methods used during the 1960s. He noted that law enforcement was not incompetent but lacked sophisticated tools. Gould suggested that K-9 teams could have tracked the killer's scent to his residence or flight path, a method not widely adopted until the mid-1980s. He described dogs as providing "X-ray vision" to detect evidence invisible to the naked eye.

Gould expressed concern that McInerney may have committed other crimes. He predicted there would be other victims linked to McInerney, stating he did not believe this was a sole act. Gould characterized the killing as a planned and intentional act, arguing that serial murderers rarely commit such acts only once and often escalate after success. He highlighted the horror of an officer potentially using his influence to lure a child into his vehicle, exploiting the public trust placed in law enforcement.

The Chicago Police Department issued a statement describing McInerney's actions as abhorrent, noting they left Kowalewicz's parents shattered while they searched for answers. The department acknowledged that McInerney should never have worn the CPD star and expressed devastation that he was not held accountable during his lifetime. Although Kowalewicz's parents have since passed away and did not receive justice in their daughter's murder, the department stated its hope that this identification brings closure to those who knew Gloria Kowalewicz.

The Kowalewicz family's spokeswoman and attorney did not respond to requests for comment from Fox News Digital.