Columbo to stay behind bars

SPRINGFIELD -- Nearly three decades of prison have not been enough for Patricia Columbo's role in murdering and mutilating her family in their Elk Grove Village home, a state parole board said Thursday.

The board voted 12-2 to deny her request for freedom, questioning whether the now 51-year-old Columbo has truly come to terms with what she did that fateful May day back in 1976. In addition, she needs to realize she may very well spend the rest of her life behind bars no matter how good a prisoner she's been.

"At this point, she's come a long way..." said board member Salvado Diaz, " but she has some more work to do."

Although her parole request -- her 15th -- was rejected, Columbo did maintain the ability to make her case next year. Some members didn't want to hear from Columbo for at least two years. That was voted down.

Columbo was not at the hearing, having testified earlier this year during proceedings inside the Dwight prison where she's incarcerated.

She was sent there almost 30 years ago after being convicted along with her 37-year-old married lover Frank DeLuca for the murders of her mother, father and 13-year-old brother. They were each sentenced to up to 300 years in prison.

State parole board records and testimony show Frank Columbo was shot repeatedly before his body was bludgeoned. Mary Columbo was shot in the head and stabbed numerous times with sewing scissors. Michael Columbo, Patricia's teenage brother, was shot in the head and stabbed by his sister upward of 87 times.

Diaz, who handled the parole request this year, offered competing versions of Columbo. There's the model prisoner who's received numerous academic degrees and certificates and counsels fellow inmates to improve their lives.

"All these things are well and good," said Diaz. "But now she has expectations she should be paroled."

In response, Diaz described a manipulative woman who used sex at a young age to get what she wanted, and who, even now, may be gaming the system.

Diaz said he thinks Columbo used her time behind bars to learn the jargon of a sexual assault victim to help build her case for freedom, offering the abuse story as a possible explanation for her out-of-control teenage behavior.

Other board members raised similar doubts.

"Today, it's my strong feeling she's not telling the truth," Robert Dunn said of the abuse tale. "I'm firmly convinced this is all pure, pure manufacturing."

But the single biggest hurdle standing between Columbo and freedom is the gruesome crime itself. Before the vote, Dunne urged anyone thinking of supporting Columbo's request to take another look at crime scene photos.

"They're beyond the pale," said Dunn.

However, for the second time in as many years, Columbo's parole request received two votes of support. Geraldine Tyler said she did so to give Columbo "hope."

"Maybe one day in the future, she will be paroled," said Tyler. "She is the essence of rehabilitation."