Elk Grove Village woman up for parole

Thirty-five years after she helped her boyfriend murder and mutilate her parents in their Elk Grove Village home, Patricia Columbo is once again trying to convince a state parole board that she should go free.

Mundelein Police Chief Raymond Rose, who was the Elk Grove Village police department's lead investigator on the case, says he will do whatever he can to make sure that doesn't happen.

Columbo and her boyfriend, Frank DeLuca, were convicted of shooting her parents, Mary and Frank Columbo, slitting Mary Columbo's throat and stabbing Patricia's 13-year-old brother, Michael, dozens of times in 1976. She was 19 at the time.

DeLuca and Columbo each were sentenced to 200 to 300 years in prison for the three murders and the judge imposed another 150 years to both their sentences for conspiracy to commit murder. Columbo got an additional 50 years tacked onto her prison term for solicitation to commit murder “because she was going out trying to find people to do it,” Rose said.

“It seems pretty clear to me that when a judge imposes those kind of penalties

that the intent is to keep those people in prison for the rest of their life,” he added.

DeLuca and Patricia Columbo are both up for parole in May.

A preliminary parole hearing for Columbo, who has tried for parole at least 15 times, is scheduled Thursday before the Illinois Prisoner Review Board at the Dwight Correctional Center.

Rose, who spoke against DeLuca's release last month, sent a letter to the parole board detailing the crime.

“My concern is that because this crime occurred so many years ago, some of these folks may not be familiar with how heinous a tragedy this was,” Rose said, “So it's important to remind them how this family was mutilated after they were

murdered.

“It (the letter) kind of takes them through the event, through what the crime

scene looked like and what the impact of that was to the entire community and how significant it is that we don't forget what happened there” Rose added. “We can't forgive and we can't forget what took place in that home those years ago.”

Rose said he plans to make a presentation at Columbo's parole hearing May 18.

At least two parole board members have voted to allow Columbo's parole in her

last three attempts for release. Columbo, now 54, needs eight votes to win her

freedom.