A Teenager and Married Man's Relationship Led to the Murder of an Entire Family

In March 2026, retired police chief Raymond Rose appeared before the Illinois Prisoner Review Board, as he has for decades, to argue against the release of Patricia Columbo. But Patricia, who has pleaded her case before the parole board more than a dozen times, keeps trying.

The cycle began in May 1976 when Rose, then a young police officer, was investigating a potential car theft. The car was registered to Patricia’s father. When Rose arrived at the Columbo home, however, the front door was left open.

Inside, he found the bodies of Patricia’s parents, Frank and Mary, and her 13-year-old brother, Michael. Each of them shot, Frank had been beaten with a blunt object and stabbed; Mary’s throat was slashed; and Michael had been bludgeoned and stabbed dozens of times with a pair of scissors.

Trouble joined the Columbo family in 1972 when Patricia was 16. She had begun a sexual relationship with Frank DeLuca, a married 34-year-old father of five and the manager of a local Walgreens. The Columbo family wouldn’t know about this until after Patricia moved in with DeLuca and his family.

When Patricia told her family she wanted to live on her own, her parents found and funded her new apartment. However, they quickly found out DeLuca had left his wife for Patricia.

Her family, predictably, didn’t approve. Michael, DeLuca claimed, would visit the Walgreens and stare at him. Frank then confronted DeLuca himself, hitting him with a rifle and threatening to kill him. Patricia filed a complaint with police against her father but later dropped it.

The couple kept out of contact with the Columbo family for several months. During that time, Frank wrote Patricia out of his will. In March 1978, however, they regained contact, and Columbo discussed with her father her plans to marry DeLuca in June after his divorce was finalized. 

“She’ll be your problem now,” Frank reportedly told DeLuca.

Patricia and DeLuca never married. Before the wedding date, and before DeLuca’s divorce was finalized, her parents and her brother were murdered in their family home.

Though she was not immediately a suspect, Patricia’s behavior after the murders quickly raised suspicions. She attempted to link Frank to gangs in Chicago and was reportedly flirtatious with a police officer during the funeral. 

At the heart of the case against her and DeLuca sat Lanyon Mitchell, a man with whom Patricia also had a sexual relationship. Mitchell told police Patricia solicited him to kill her family and that she provided him with a dossier and diagram of the home to prepare. Police suspected that Patricia turned to DeLuca for help when Mitchell rejected the plan. 

Police arrested Patricia and DeLuca 11 days after the Columbo family’s murder. They were each found guilty of three counts of murder, conspiracy and solicitation. Each was sentenced to 200 to 300 years in prison.

Patricia continued to make headlines while serving time at the Dwight Correctional Center in Illinois. In 1979, Patricia became involved in a series of so-called “sex parties” with inmates and prison guards. When inmates said staff members sexually assaulted them, it unraveled a scandal accusing a chief investigative officer and security chief of forcing 300 inmates to perform sexual acts.

The inmates accused the two of using Patricia to coerce them into performing the sex acts. In return, the inmates alleged, Patricia received “unlimited phone privileges” and appeared to be able to move about the prison freely. Patricia denied the accusation.

The scandal forced the warden's resignation. Dwight would face several other sexual assault incidents before its closure in 2013. Patricia has since been moved to the Logan Correctional Center.

DeLuca made several attempts in prison to be paroled to live with his brother or son, but appeared to give up on the prospect later in life, indicating regret for his actions. In his later years, his health declined significantly. He had hip and prostate problems and walked with a cane. He died in prison in 2023.

Like he did with Patricia, Rose went to each of DeLuca’s parole hearings until his death to object to his release.

During parole hearings, Patricia’s lawyers have argued DeLuca groomed her and was a victim of his scheme. But Rose wants her, like DeLuca, to stay in prison. The parole board this year, as parole boards have for decades, agreed. In March, the board unanimously denied Patricia's release.