Who was Betty Jeanne Solomon? The ‘Fatal Attraction’ murder victim of Westchester County

Betty Jeanne Solomon from New York was brutally murdered in 1989, and circumstances of the case led the crime to be called the Fatal Attraction murder after the 1987 movie starring Glenn Close and Michael Douglas. Her tragic death aside, Betty Jeanne has a fascinating story to tell all her own.

According to New York Magazine, Betty Jeanne was the eldest of four daughters born in a New York City suburb. In 1970, she married Paul Solomon, with whom she had one daughter. Around that same time, those close to couple reportedly described Paul as “possessive and domineering.” Betty Jeanne’s sibling, however, said their sister always saw the best in people. Though their marriage was never perfect, and Betty Jeanne considered leaving Paul on at least one occasion, when it came to her own husband Paul, Betty Jeanne may have only found out the truth when it was too late.

By 1987, Paul was teaching at a local New York elementary school in Westchester County. While there, Paul met Carolyn Warmus, a young fellow teacher with whom Paul struck up an affair. Illustrating Betty’s Jeanne’s siblings statement that their sister saw the best in people, Warmus reportedly accompanied the Solomon’s daughter, Kristan, on a skiing trip about a year before Kristan’s mother died.

Betty Jeanne Solomon was shot nine times

At nearly midnight on Jan. 15, 1989, Paul Solomon said he returned home to find his wife, Betty Jeanne Solomon dead. it was Paul’s girlfriend, Carolyn Warmus, who would be convicted of Betty Jeanne’s murder. She had been shot nine times in her back and arms, the Chicago Tribune reported. As per New York news outlet The Journal News, Betty Jeanne survived long enough to call 911, but whether or not she told the dispatch that “she” or “he” was trying to kill her was unclear. Because of an error associated with the address of the call, emergency first responders didn’t arrive in time to save her (via Lohud.com).

For her part, Betty Jeanne was known to have affairs of her own, but reportedly, none were ongoing when she she was killed. However, whether one of Betty Jeanne’s lovers might be responsible for her death remains an unanswered question in the case.

Nonetheless, shortly after Betty Jeanne’s murder, Warmus, who had been with Paul that night, was arrested and in 1992, she was convicted and given 25-years-to-life. Maintaining her innocence, Warmus was paroled in 2019, and in 2021, new DNA tests were approved on pieces of evidenced gathered at the crime scene that might once and for all prove who is was that killed Betty Jeanne all those years earlier.