Deborah Fornuto: Six Mysterious Child Deaths and an Unsolved Murder
Deborah Fornuto, also known at different times as Deborah Anne Booe, Deborah Narbone, and Deborah Gedzius, is frequently described in true-crime accounts as a suspected serial killer. That description requires an important qualification: Fornuto was never convicted, never charged with murdering any of her children, and never charged with the murder of her estranged husband. The case against her remained circumstantial. Nevertheless, the deaths of all six of her children between 1972 and 1987 eventually became the subject of homicide investigations, and her husband's unsolved shooting in 1989 brought renewed scrutiny to the entire family history.
A Pattern of Deaths
Fornuto had six children by three different fathers. Every one of those children died before reaching the age of three. At first, the deaths appeared to be separate family tragedies. The first four were classified as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, commonly called SIDS, while the causes of the final two deaths were recorded as undetermined. Because Fornuto remarried, changed surnames, moved between addresses, and lived in areas covered by different police jurisdictions, authorities did not immediately recognize that the children all had the same mother.
The pattern became increasingly difficult to dismiss. Investigators eventually determined that the six child deaths had occurred in Cook County, Illinois, with contemporary reporting placing three in Chicago, two in Burbank, and one in Alsip. Available reporting does not consistently identify which individual child died in each municipality, so assigning a specific city to every child would go beyond what can be reliably established.
The Children
- Denise Booe — Denise was approximately five months old when she died on September 18, 1972. Her death occurred in Cook County, Illinois, and was originally attributed to SIDS. She was the first of Fornuto's six children to die.
- Jennifer Narbone — Jennifer was approximately four months old when she died on May 21, 1975, in Cook County, Illinois. Her death was also initially classified as SIDS.
- Barbara Jean Narbone — Barbara Jean was born on November 13, 1976, and died on December 27, 1976, making her approximately six weeks old. Some later summaries incorrectly describe her as six months old, but her reported birth and death dates establish that she lived for about six weeks. Her death occurred in Cook County and was initially classified as SIDS.
- Jason Gedzius — Jason died on September 5, 1980, at approximately one year of age, reportedly only days after his first birthday. His death occurred in Cook County, Illinois. It was initially classified as SIDS, but Jason's death became an important turning point because relatives began pressing authorities to consider the earlier deaths as part of the same pattern.
- Delos Gedzius Jr. — Delos Jr. was two years old when he died on February 11, 1984, in Cook County, Illinois. According to accounts of the investigation, Fornuto said that she discovered him dead after the two had been sleeping. Unlike the first four children's deaths, his death was ultimately recorded as undetermined rather than conclusively attributed to SIDS.
- Daniel "Danny" Gedzius — Daniel was approximately ten weeks old when he died on March 21, 1987, in Cook County, Illinois. He had reportedly been placed on a breathing monitor because of the family's history of unexplained infant deaths. His death was also classified as undetermined.
- Delos Gedzius Sr. — Fornuto's estranged husband and the father of Jason, Delos Jr., and Daniel was 33 when he was killed in April 1989. Investigators believed he may have been killed around April 21; his body was discovered on April 25, 1989, inside his apartment at 3052 W. 119th Street in Merrionette Park, Illinois. He had been shot in the left temple while apparently lying on his couch. Fornuto was investigated in connection with the killing but was never charged, and Delos Gedzius Sr. remains only a suspected victim in accounts linking his death to her.
Growing Suspicions
One of the earliest people to press authorities about the pattern was Harry Gedzius, the brother of Delos Gedzius Sr. After Jason's death in 1980, Harry contacted the Cook County medical examiner and drew attention to the fact that several of Fornuto's previous children had also died unexpectedly. Authorities conducted an investigation, but the medical evidence available at the time did not establish homicide. The belief that repeated cases of SIDS might occur within a single family also influenced how such cases were interpreted during that era.
Suspicion increased after Delos Jr. died in 1984 and Daniel died in 1987. Autopsies had not revealed diseases or injuries that clearly explained the children's deaths. The children also had different biological fathers, making a single inherited condition less obvious as an explanation. Investigators examining the cases later emphasized another disturbing similarity: according to authorities, Fornuto reported finding each child unresponsive, after which emergency personnel were unable to revive them.
The Murder of Delos Gedzius Sr.
The shooting of Delos Gedzius Sr. dramatically changed the investigation. He and Fornuto were separated, and Delos was living alone in Merrionette Park. Neighbors noticed his television and radio playing continuously for several days and observed that his automobile had not moved. On April 25, 1989, a maintenance worker entered the apartment, detected the odor of decomposition, and contacted police. Officers found Delos on a living-room couch with a single gunshot wound to his left temple.
Police reported no obvious signs of forced entry or a struggle. Investigators believed the weapon had been either a .38-caliber or .357-caliber handgun. Four days before the body was discovered, Delos and Deborah had reportedly eaten dinner together at a restaurant in Crestwood while discussing the division of their property. Investigators believed Delos was killed around that period. Fornuto denied killing him and said she was elsewhere with a police officer when the shooting occurred. Police investigated her as well as other possibilities, but no one was charged with the murder.
Medical Examiners Reconsider the Children
Delos Sr.'s murder caused investigators to reopen the questions surrounding all six children. Dr. Mary Jumbelic of the Cook County medical examiner's office examined the cases and recommended that the deaths be regarded as suffocations rather than natural SIDS deaths. On April 27, 1990, Cook County Medical Examiner Dr. Robert Stein wrote to the Cook County State's Attorney's Office stating his professional opinion that all six children had died from suffocation and that the manner of death was homicide.
The medical theory was significant because deliberate suffocation of a very young child can sometimes leave little or no obvious external injury. That meant the original autopsies could not necessarily distinguish between an unexplained failure to breathe and intentional obstruction of breathing. Investigators therefore had powerful suspicions but little direct physical evidence showing who, if anyone, had caused the deaths.
Why No Murder Charges Were Filed
A grand jury examined evidence connected with the deaths, and Fornuto underwent extensive questioning. She consistently maintained her innocence. Prosecutors faced a fundamental problem: suspicion, unusual statistics, and revised medical opinions did not establish beyond a reasonable doubt that Fornuto had personally suffocated the children. There was no confession, no known eyewitness to a killing, and little physical evidence that could identify a particular person as responsible.
The scientific understanding of repeated SIDS deaths also changed significantly during the 1990s. Earlier research had suggested that unexplained infant breathing problems might run in families, providing a seemingly plausible explanation for repeated deaths. Later criminal cases and medical reassessments undermined some of that thinking. In 1997, the Gedzius children's deaths were investigated again, and the Cook County medical examiner ultimately classified them as undetermined. A second grand jury examined the circumstances, but once again the evidence did not result in criminal charges.
Death of Deborah Fornuto
Fornuto eventually left Illinois, remarried, and lived in Nevada. She died at the age of 47 on July 11, 2002, in a traffic collision in Las Vegas. Her death effectively removed the possibility that she could ever be prosecuted or questioned again about what happened to her children or Delos Gedzius Sr.
An Unresolved Case
The Deborah Fornuto case remains notable because it sits uneasily between medical mystery and suspected serial murder. Six children from the same mother died in less than fifteen years, all at extremely young ages and without a convincing medical explanation. A county medical examiner eventually expressed the opinion that the six deaths were suffocation homicides, yet prosecutors never obtained the evidence needed to prove who was responsible. The subsequent unsolved shooting of Fornuto's estranged husband made the pattern even more disturbing but likewise produced no conviction.
For that reason, describing Deborah Fornuto simply as a convicted serial killer would be inaccurate. She is more precisely described as a woman suspected by investigators and medical experts of involvement in multiple possible homicides. The verified deaths of Denise Booe, Jennifer Narbone, Barbara Jean Narbone, Jason Gedzius, Delos Gedzius Jr., and Daniel Gedzius remain at the center of a troubling case in which strong suspicion was never transformed into a criminal verdict.
