Warmus earned good grades, played basketball and graduated from Seaholm High School in Birmingham. In 1981, she enrolled at the University of Michigan. After graduating with a degree in psychology, Warmus moved to New York City. Soon after, she earned a master's degree in elementary education from Teachers College, Columbia University and landed a job in September 1987 at Greenville Elementary School in Scarsdale, New York. There, she met soon-to-be lover Paul Solomon, a fifth-grade teacher, along with his family, wife Betty Jeanne and daughter Kristan.