Parole denied again for Patricia Columbo, Frank DeLuca in Elk Grove murders
Convicted killers Patricia Columbo and Frank DeLuca - serving time for the murders of her family in their Elk Grove Village home - have again been denied parole by the Illinois Prisoner Review Board.
Board members Thursday voted 13 to 1 against release for Columbo, who was 19 in 1976 when she and DeLuca, then 37, murdered her parents and 13-year-old brother. Board members voted 14 to 0 against DeLuca's release.
Convicted in 1977, Columbo, now 64, and DeLuca, 82, were sentenced to more than 300 years for the murders of Frank and Mary Columbo and their son, Michael. Columbo and DeLuca will be eligible for another parole hearing in 2023, according to Jason Sweat, chief legal counsel for the prisoner review board.
Raymond Rose, the former Elk Grove Village deputy police chief who investigated the May 1976 triple homicide, has been attending review board hearings since 1984 to oppose parole. After the hearings, which were held in Springfield, Rose expressed relief at the outcome.
"We were able to accomplish what the family expected of us and what the community expected of us," said Rose, "to identify the reasons why the people who committed this heinous crime should remain in prison."
Rose, a former Mundelein police chief and Lake County undersheriff, and Elk Grove Village Police Chief Charles Walsh testified for nearly two hours Thursday.
"My sense this time was that they all agreed she's not ready to be released," Rose said, pointing to Columbo's lack of remorse.
Cook County State's Attorney Kimberly Foxx concurred in a letter to the review board, writing "(Columbo's) selective memory indicates that she has not taken full responsibility for this horrific crime and therefore, cannot being considered rehabilitated."
Nothing Columbo has done justifies her "being afforded the grace of parole," Foxx wrote.
According to Rose, Columbo instigated and planned the murders, even attempting to hire hit men. Eventually, she manipulated DeLuca, her married lover, into killing her family by falsely claiming her father planned to have her and DeLuca killed, Rose said.
Frank and Mary Columbo were bludgeoned and shot. Mary's throat was slit, and Frank was stabbed in the throat and chest. Michael Columbo was stabbed 87 times with scissors.
"That was the day Elk Grove residents started locking their doors," said Walsh, referencing a comment by Mayor Craig Johnson.
Like Rose, Walsh intends to continue speaking against the killers' release.
"We're the victims' voice now and that voice still needs to be heard," he said. "Mr. Columbo, Mrs. Columbo and Michael - their voice was silenced. We'll keep coming down here to be the voice of those victims."