Abhijit Patel, age 28, of Schaumburg has been charged with first-degree murder in the killing of his father, Anupam Patel, age 67, Saturday morning, November 29, 2025 at the family’s single-family home in the block of 1100 South Salem Drive in Schaumburg.
Anupam Patel typically called his wife at work at 8 a.m. to check in with her, but he didn’t call her Saturday morning.
According to Assistant Cook County State’s Attorney Nicolas Attia at a hearing Monday, December 1, 2025, Anupam Patel’s wife attempted to call her husband and son Saturday morning “to make sure everything was all right.” There was no answer, so she returned home about 10:30 a.m. She was met at the family home by her son, who told her “he had taken care of his father, and she should go check” on him. She found her husband lying in bed covered in blood and immediately called 911, Attia told Cook County Judge Andreana Turano.
The prosecution told the judge that Abhijit Patel had a “history of threatening to kill the victim.” There was an active order of protection that prohibited Abhijit Patel from physically abusing, harassing, stalking, or having any unlawful contact with his father. The order was entered on January 3, 2025 with an expiration of January 4, 2027.
When Schaumburg police officers arrived, Abhijit Patel met the police officers, surrendering with his hands up. Abhijit Patel also had “apparent blood spatter” on his shirt. A sledgehammer was found next to the bed where his father was lying.
Abhijit Patel allegedly hit his father in the head at least two times with the sledge hammer, fracturing Anupam Patel’s skull and breaking his nose, according to Cook County prosecutors. Anupam Patel was pronounced dead at 11:06 a.m. Saturday, November 29, 2025, and his death was ruled a homicide. The death of Anupam Patel was ruled a homicide with blunt head trauma from an assault by the Cook County Medical Examiners Office.
Cook County Judge Andreana Turano ordered the pre-trial detention of Abhijit Patel, declaring the defendant’s history of psychiatric hospitalization and violence, violation of the protective order, and his inability to “control his anger and violence toward others.” She also ordered that he have no contact with his mother, the victim’s wife.
Abhijit Patel previously had threatened to harm or kill his father, according to the petition for the order of protection. The petition also indicates that the defendant, Abhijit Patel, has schizophrenia and delusions that his father hurt him as a child, according to court records.
In November 2024, while a student at the University of Illinois Chicago, Abhijit Patel sent social media posts and group chats to other students that were disturbing in nature. He was subsequently removed from campus and told he had to see a psychiatrist before he could return to the University of Illinois, according to the prosecution.
Abhijit Patel was booked at Cook County Jail (Housing Location Division 8) on December 1, 2025, and is scheduled for his next court hearing at Cook County Circuit Court Rolling Meadows on Friday, December 19, 2025. If convicted, he faces a sentencing between 20 and 60 years in prison.
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