Michael Columbo was 13 and a student at Elk Grove Junior High School when he was killed in his family’s home in Elk Grove, Illinois, on May 7, 1976. His parents, Frank and Mary Columbo, were also murdered that night. The family was of Italian descent.

Investigators concluded Michael’s sister, Patricia Columbo, then 19, and her boyfriend, Frank DeLuca, then 36, entered the home and carried out the killings. Frank and Mary Columbo were shot. Michael was bludgeoned with a bowling trophy and stabbed nearly 100 times with scissors. Patricia had left the family home two years earlier to live with DeLuca; the pair allegedly conspired to kill the family to inherit their wealth, not knowing Patricia had been written out of the will years earlier.

Patricia and DeLuca were arrested ten days after the murders. The investigation reported DeLuca was seen washing and burning bloodstained clothes the day after, threatened employees to keep them silent, and attempted to have witnesses killed while in custody, a plot that was reportedly stopped by another inmate. Both Patricia Columbo and Frank DeLuca were later convicted and received lengthy prison sentences.