HORROR: Cop Tied to Child Murder

Police car with flashing red and blue lights at night — Photo: ANDRANIK HAKOBYAN / Shutterstock

Chicago police say a single preserved fingerprint, backed by modern DNA work, named one of their own as the child’s killer.

Story Snapshot

Detectives identified former Chicago police officer Thomas McInerney as the suspect in Gloria Kowalewicz’s 1960 murder.
A fingerprint on the 8-year-old’s purse strap matched McInerney’s 1959 job application prints.
Modern DNA methods and multi-agency forensic work supported the identification.
McInerney died in 2006; no charges or trial will follow.

What Police Say Finally Broke the Case

Chicago Police Department leaders announced that a carefully preserved fingerprint from Gloria Kowalewicz’s purse strap matched prints on Thomas McInerney’s 1959 Chicago Police Department employment application. Detectives said this latent print, protected for decades, gave them a direct link. Reporters described McInerney as a young officer at the time of the November 12, 1960 shooting death. Police added that newer DNA tools strengthened the case, giving them confidence to name a suspect after 65 years.

Chicago news outlets reported that the Chicago Police Department’s Forensic Services worked with the Illinois State Police and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to review evidence and run new tests. The agencies did not release lab packets, but they said the combination of fingerprint comparison and DNA analysis pointed to the same person. That convergence matters. A single clue can mislead. Two independent lanes that meet at the same name carry more weight for the public.

The Suspect’s Link To The Badge

Reports identified McInerney as a Chicago police officer who joined the department in 1959 and later became a homicide detective. That timeline placed him in uniform near the time of the crime, which shocked a South Side neighborhood and haunted the department. The case file included the girl’s purse, which held the latent print police preserved. The Chicago Tribune described McInerney as 24 years old at the time of the killing, reinforcing the sense that the suspect moved within the original investigative world.

The identification also echoes a broader shift in cold case work. Genetic genealogy and improved lab methods have helped police name suspects after decades, as seen in the Golden State Killer case, where leads from genealogy later met courtroom proof through a guilty plea. Chicago’s announcement follows the same playbook of re-testing old evidence with new tools, but without the trial piece here, because the suspect died years ago.

How The Evidence Was Framed For The Public

Reporters highlighted three lanes: fingerprint, DNA, and references to firearm or ballistics review. NBC News led with the purse-strap print that matched the 1959 application card, a rare instance where a personnel file becomes a cold case key. CBS Chicago stressed the multi-agency lab work and the timing of McInerney’s entry into the force, shortly before the murder. The Chicago Tribune’s account underscored the age of the case and the shock of naming a former officer as the suspect.

Chicago police find killer in 65-year-old cold case murder of little girl — one of their own
DNA technology that didn’t exist when Gloria Kowalewicz, 8, was killed in 1960 led investigators to Thomas F. McInerney Jr., who was a homicide detective for the Chicago Police Department… pic.twitter.com/C10aWUagwo

— Alvarezz & Rosie (@alvarezzis6) October 13, 2026

One clear caveat remains simple and factual: McInerney died in 2006, so a jury will never weigh the state’s case. That means closure is moral, not legal. Still, the evidence claims are specific: a preserved latent print matched to a known set, and modern DNA methods that reinforced the match. For many readers, that alignment checks two conservative boxes—respect for victims’ families and for forensic work done by named agencies—while also insisting that public institutions face hard truths when they arise.

Why This Case Resonates Beyond Chicago

Cold cases live or die on what was saved and how it was stored. Here, the purse strap became a time capsule. The use of employment fingerprints shows how records built for hiring can serve justice later. The addition of DNA tools shows how science stretches the reach of accountability. When those elements converge, communities see that time does not always bury the truth. It waits for better light, steadier hands, and the will to look again.