In 1992, Carolyn Warmus was convicted of killing Betty Jeanne Solomon, the wife of Warmus’ lover Paul Solomon. In 2021, evidence from the crime scene was tested using modern DNA technology — but were those DNA results ever released publicly?
It’s a story that sounds an awful lot like the popular 1987 movie Fatal Attraction, starring Michael Douglas and Glenn Close. In 1989, then 40-year-old Paul Solomon‘s wife, Betty Jeanne, was brutally murdered in New York. Arrested for the crime was then 28-year-old Warmus, Paul’s young lover. Her first trial ended in a hung jury, but Warmus was tried again, and that time, she was convicted of second-degree murder. In 1992, Warmus was sentenced to 25-years-to-life in prison for the crime, according to CNN.
As of 1992, however, DNA testing was still in its infancy, and several bits of evidence gathered at the scene of Betty Jeanne’s death were reportedly never examined, including, among other items, a glove with blood on it, according to New York news outlet The Journal News (via lohud.com). As of 2019, Warmus was paroled, but she still sought to prove her innocence. In doing so, she sought to have items from the Betty Jeanne crime scene reexamined using cutting-edge DNA testing technology.
Warmus’ DNA test results
In 2019, two years after Carolyn Warmus was paroled for the murder Betty Jeanne Solomon, New York State prosecutors agreed to have three items tested for DNA evidence that finally exonerate Warmus of Solomon’s murder. Those items included the aforementioned glove from the scene with traces of blood on it, blood samples from a tote bag also recovered at the scene, and semen traces which might possibly implicate Betty Jeanne’s lover. Also according to United Press International (UPI), Warmus’ defense maintained it was Paul Solomon, not Warmus that pulled the trigger on the day Betty Jeanne died.
Warmus had previously tried to have those times reevaluated, but her first request was denied, locking the issue up in the court of appeals. By the time the request was approved, in 2019, Warmus was a free woman, and though the DNA testing was approved, there’s no evidence the results were ever released publicly.
Reportedly, Warmus was paroled in 2017 with a life-threatening brain tumor, CBS New York reports. In 2022, NBC reported that Warmus underwent several surgeries to address the issue, leaving part of her face paralyzed. Thankfully, Warmus was still alive as of 2023, but whether those DNA tests on items from Betty Jeanne’s murder ever proved whether or not Warmus’ version of events was the truth, remains unclear.