What happened to Carolyn Warmus’ face?

You might not know her by name, but Carolyn Warmus is one of the most famous pop culture true crime women around. Her story was so popular that it inspired numerous TV movies, a book and striking comparisons to the movie Fatal Attraction. Recently, she appeared in a documentary called The Fatal Attraction Murder, and her appearance is… different, to say the least. So what happened? 

Let’s start from the beginning. Warmus was a 28-year-old schoolteacher when she was convicted of murdering 40-year-old Jeanne Solomon, the wife of her lover. She served 27 years in prison and was released on parole in 2019.

One thing people noticed the most was how different she looked recently, and how her face seemed to slouch to one side. According to Wamus, she was diagnosed with a brain tumor and has had to undergo numerous surgeries on her face, eyes and brain.

When she had been in prison for 25 years, she revealed the brain tumor and told CNN at the time that she would probably die in prison and never see “the light of day again.” She said she had been jailed for about 24 years when she noticed terrible headaches but, fortunately, her facility had an MRI.

The diagnosis? A “massive” brain tumor. She said it was so big that surgeons didn’t even want to touch it. She said it was “right on top of my brainstem.” At one point, she could have admitted to the murder and probably saved her own life, but one thing she’s stuck to all these years is her innocence.

This is one of the linchpins in the Warmus saga, no matter what happened over the years, she still claims she was framed. The victim, Betty Jeane, was shot nine times in her home. Police first suspected her husband Paul, but became aware of Warmus from tailing him.

Paul actually used Warmus as his alibi, saying he couldn’t have killed his wife because he went bowling and then went to meet Warmus at a hotel in Yonkers. That night, the pair had sex in the car and then when he went upstairs his wife was dead.

He broke up with Warmus and she stalked him continuously after that. Eventually, police arrested her for the murder, although there was no physical evidence tying her to the crime. Her first trial ended in a hung jury but a second trial brought her down. To her credit, she never admitted to the murder.

As for how she is now after all the surgeries, she said she feels like “Humpty Dumpty being put back together again,” and that she’ll never be back to the way she used to be. She also stated that the tumor isn’t cancerous, but that it keeps getting bigger over time.