@mckandelaria: CHICAGO (AP) — Chicago police say DNA evidence ties one of their former homicide detectives to the decades-old murder of an 8-year-old girl who was abducted as she was walking to church more than 65 years ago. Gloria Kowalewicz was found shot dead in a ditch in 1960, just hours after she went missing. Chicago police say new technology allowed them to match a fingerprint and DNA from the crime scene to Thomas F. McInerney Jr., then a detective working on violent crimes. “McInerney should never have worn the CPD star, and it is devastating to accept that he was never identified and held accountable while he was alive,” police said in a statement provided to The Associated Press on Tuesday. Gloria was walking just a few blocks from her home to a morning Mass on Nov. 12, 1960, but she never made it, according to police. She was found around four hours later, her body dumped in a forest preserve in southwest Chicago. Authorities formed a task force to investigate. They “knocked on hundreds of doors,” interviewed more than 1,300 people and questioned more than a dozen people under polygraph, according to the statement. Police collected and preserved a bullet, Gloria’s coat and shoes, and a white communion purse that held her prayer book. Using modern forensic technology and with assistance from the FBI and Illinois State Police, investigators linked DNA found on those items and a “carefully preserved” fingerprint lifted from Gloria’s purse strap to McInerney.

M.C. Kandelaria

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Sunday 01 November 2026 16:13:53 GMT