‘Fear rippled through the community’: 50 years later, Columbo murders still haunt Elk Grove

On May 7, 1976, Elk Grove Village police Detective Raymond J. Rose stepped into a Brantwood Avenue home and encountered one of the most shocking crimes in suburban Cook County history.

Frank Columbo, 52, his wife Mary, 50, and their 13-year-old son, Michael, were dead. Each had been shot, bludgeoned and stabbed.

Fifty years later, Rose's memories remain as vivid as ever.

“It was so horrific and out of the ordinary,” he said. “The smell of the house haunts me.”

Retired Elk Grove Police Chief Stephen F. Schmidt had been on the force for only a year when he was assigned to protect the scene of the worst crime in the community’s history.

“I thought: How could somebody do this to other people?” he said.

Ripple effects

A call from Chicago police to Elk Grove police about a red Ford Thunderbird registered to Frank Columbo found vandalized in the city prompted an officer to visit Columbo’s house. They found the mailbox overflowing and newspapers piled at the front door.

From the publication dates, investigators believed the murders took place three days earlier, on May 4.

The home appeared to be secure, said Rose. There was no forced entry, but the front door was ajar. The first officer on the scene entered, saw Frank Columbo's body and called for backup.

That was the day Elk Grove Village lost its innocence, said Rose.

“Fear rippled through the community,” he said.

A hardware store owner told police he couldn't keep up with homeowners' demands for outside lights.

“The whole town was lit up because everyone had their outside lights on at night,” recalled Rose, who later served as Elk Grove's deputy police chief.

“People started locking their doors,” added Schmidt, who retired from the police force in 2016 and has served as a village trustee since 2019.

On May 15, police arrested 19-year-old Patricia Columbo, Frank and Mary's estranged daughter, on charges of conspiracy, solicitation and murder. Two months later, authorities charged 37-year-old Frank DeLuca, a married father of five and Columbo's boyfriend, as her accomplice.

Columbo met DeLuca at the pharmacy where they worked. She was 16 and he was 34 when they began a relationship. Frank and Mary Columbo disapproved.

In 1974, Patty Columbo moved out of their home and into the home DeLuca shared with his family. Her relationship with her family remained strained, and a physical confrontation between Frank Columbo and DeLuca occurred in August 1975.

Months later, according to authorities, Patricia Columbo tried to enlist two men to kill her parents in exchange for sex. She provided the would-be hitmen with photos of her family, their daily schedules and floor plans of the Brantwood Avenue home.

When it became clear they did not intend to carry out the murders, authorities said, Columbo convinced DeLuca to do it instead, claiming her father intended to have them murdered.

Cook County Judge R. Eugene Pincham presided over the pair’s monthlong trial in 1977. As jury deliberations commenced, Rose worried: Are we going to be successful in putting them where they need to be for what they did?

Within two hours, he had his answer. He recalled tearing up when he heard the guilty verdicts.

“We did what we were supposed to do,” he said. “We represented this family and gave them a voice they didn't have.”

Pincham sentenced the killers to between 200 and 300 years in prison. DeLuca died behind bars in 2023 at age 84. Columbo, 69, is incarcerated at Logan Correctional Center.

Fond memories

Family members recall the Columbos in better times.

“Frank (Columbo) was the jokester,” recalled Brenda Pembleton, Mary Columbo's niece. “He was an awesome uncle. Our whole family loved him.”

“Mary was a sweetheart, a perfect homemaker,” she said.

“Michael loved sports. He loved baseball,” said Pembleton's sister, Phyllis Holly, who described the teen as a “precious soul.”

Pembleton last saw her aunt, uncle and cousin in February 1976, when they visited her mother, Erlene, and extended family in South Carolina. Pembleton introduced the couple to her 6-week old son, who promptly wet Frank Columbo's pants.

“He was full of laughter at the time,” she said. “It did my heart good to see them smiling.”

At the time, “Patty had gone off-the-charts wild,” Pembleton recalled, but “never in my life would I have thought she (Patricia) would have gone in that direction.”

Columbo has earned a college degree while behind bars.

“I'm glad she did something with her life,” Pembleton said. but “her place is in prison.”

Holly agrees.

“I'm a Christian,” Holly said. “I forgive her, but I never want her out of jail.”

A persistent reminder

Because Columbo and DeLuca committed the crimes before a 1978 change in state law, they received indeterminate sentences. As a result, Columbo appears every few years before the Illinois Prisoner Review Board in a bid for release. Her most recent hearing in March concluded with a unanimous vote to deny parole.

Rose has attended every hearing since 1984 to argue against her release, as he did for DeLuca before his death.

Even after leaving Elk Grove to serve as Mundelein police chief and later as Lake County undersheriff, Rose, 77, remained determined to honor his “obligation to represent the family and make sure that they have a voice in what's happening.”

“Ray talks about the crime scene and the investigation,” said Schmidt, 74. “I talk about Judge Pincham, who gave them those long sentences with the idea that they should never get out. I go to remind the parole board of the intentions of the judge.”

Columbo's supporters advocate for parole. They say she has spent her incarceration productively. She has worked as a clerk and secretary, tutored fellow inmates, counseled survivors of domestic violence and assisted with the prison chaplaincy.

Attorney Jed Stone, who represented Columbo during her 2024 parole hearing, called it “one of the great misunderstood cases of my career.” He blames DeLuca for destroying Columbo’s life.

“In a very real sense, Patricia Columbo was the victim of child sex abuse by Frank DeLuca,” said Stone, alleging the older man manipulated, abused and trafficked his onetime client. “We don't treat victims of child sexual abuse as criminals who deserve to spend the rest of their lives in prison.

“I'm not saying she was innocent of the crime and that she didn't deserve some punishment for the crime,” he added. “It was horrific.”

Stone said Columbo is not the person she was 50 years ago and deserves to go home.

Rose and Schmidt disagree.

“She made positive things happen in prison,” Schmidt said. “That doesn't negate what she did to her family.”

After more than 40 years of parole requests, no more than two of the 10 board members have voted to release Columbo. That doesn't ease Rose's mind.

“I think one day she probably will get out,” he said. “Unfortunately.”