Carolyn Warmus

Carolyn Warmus (born January 8, 1964) is an American former elementary schoolteacher who was convicted at age 28 of the 1989 murder of her lover's wife, 40-year-old Betty Jeanne Solomon. After a hung jury at her first trial in 1991, Warmus was convicted of second degree murder and illegal possession of a firearm at her second trial in 1992. She served 27 years for the murder and was released from prison on parole on June 17, 2019. Warmus was incarcerated at the Bedford Hills Correctional Facility for Women, Westchester County, New York. She received multiple affirmed disciplinary events, which were referenced during her first parole denial in early 2017. That same year, Warmus, claiming her innocence, asked that glove evidence discovered by her ex-lover Paul Solomon, the victim's husband, between the first and second trials be tested for DNA. In May 2021, Westchester County prosecutors consented to DNA testing of the glove, as well as semen recovered from the victim and blood recovered from Solomon's tote bag. None of the evidence ever underwent DNA testing. The murder case attracted national media attention and led to comparisons with the 1987 film Fatal Attraction, about a love affair that turns deadly. The Warmus case went on to inspire made-for-TV movies, six different episodes across multiple television broadcasters and at least one book. Carolyn Warmus was born in 1964 in Troy, Michigan, and grew up in Birmingham, an affluent suburb of Detroit. Her father, Thomas A. Warmus, was a self-made multi-millionaire who accumulated his fortune in the insurance business, founding the American Way Life Insurance Company of Southfield. In 1989, Thomas's assets were estimated at $150 million; he owned eight jets, two yachts, estates in Michigan, Florida, Arizona, and New York, and fifteen cars. In 1970, Thomas's wife Elizabeth filed for divorce and, after two years, won custody of Warmus and her two younger siblings. The divorce decree was handed down when Warmus was aged 8.