On November 20, 2019, 43-year-old Sophie Solless (also referred to as Sophie Cis) failed to appear for a planned outing with friends in St. Petersburg, Florida. After her friends received a suspicious text message from her 57-year-old boyfriend, Warren Brown, claiming she was asleep, they went to her home and found it ransacked with blood on the walls. Inside the trunk of Brown's Cadillac parked outside, they discovered Sophie's body, deceased from blunt force trauma and multiple stab wounds. Police arrested Brown on November 23, 2019. During interrogation, after initially feigning memory loss and blaming the victim, Brown confessed to beating her with a leather slapjack, stabbing her with a boning knife, putting her body in the trunk, and attempting to clean and conceal evidence. Brown subsequently accepted a plea deal and was sentenced to 27 years for second-degree murder and 5 years for a prior aggravated assault.
Country: United States
State/Province: Florida, United States
City/Region: St. Petersburg
Incident Type: Domestic Violence Homicide
Relationship Status: Live-in relationship
Relationship Duration: Almost 1 year
Incident Date: Nov. 20, 2019
Relationship Origins:
Relationship Stages:
Contributing Factors:
Red Flags:
Motives:
Relationship Outcomes:
How the relationship or connection began.
Almost 1 year
Important relationship phases recorded for this case.
Reported red flags or early concern points.
Contributing factors and possible motives from the available sources.
2019-11-20
Recorded relationship or case outcome.
English labels are shown first. Original-language titles are preserved for source verification.
Tangled Web Interrogations · Original language: English
Killer Husband Realizes Police Found His Wife’s Body
Domestic Violence
The relationship exhibited a classic severe domestic violence pattern marked by frequent police interventions, escalation, bodily harm, and coercive control. Police responded to the household up to 18 times in 2019 prior to the murder, with incidents escalating from attempted eviction to physical assault with a fist and later a knife attack on November 9, 2019. Despite a court-issued no-contact order, the offender returned to the victim, culminating in a fatal violent episode triggered by minor interpersonal arguments and jealousy.
Police responded to the residence up to 18 times in 2019. On November 9, 2019, Warren Brown attacked Sophie with a knife and threatened to kill her, leading to charges for domestic battery and assault and a 500ft no-contact order. Brown violated this order. Following the murder on November 20, 2019, Brown attempted to stage memory loss, destroy evidence (putting Sophie's phone in a microwave and throwing it away), and flee. Brown eventually accepted a plea bargain in 2019, receiving 5 years for aggravated assault and 27 years for second-degree murder.
During interrogation, Warren Brown feigned memory loss regarding the timeframe of the murder and claimed he suffered a blackout due to taking sleeping pills. He also attempted to misdirect detectives by claiming the victim was evil, had ruined his life, and had 'killed' him emotionally.
On the night of November 19, 2019, Warren and Sophie visited neighbors Kim and Bill, where an argument erupted over suspected jealousy. The argument continued at home through the night. On the morning of November 20, 2019, another dispute occurred wherein Sophie allegedly threatened to sleep with their housemate Mike. Warren brutally attacked Sophie with a leather slapjack (mace/blackjack) and stabbed her with a boning knife. He then put her body in a wheelchair, moved her into the trunk of his Cadillac along with bloody towels, clothes, and weapons, and attempted to clean the home. He drove downtown, discarded her phone at a care facility, drank, and took sleeping pills before being transported to a hospital by his daughter.
The case displayed extreme high-risk lethality indicators including repeated prior domestic violence calls, physical assaults, a recent knife attack, violation of a protective order, substance use, and intense severe possessiveness. The trajectory escalated rapidly within a single year from verbal disputes to lethal weapon use.
Violations of pre-trial release no-contact orders after weapon-involved domestic assault present extreme lethality risks. Persistent domestic police calls (18 times within a year) highlight the rapid escalation trajectory in high-conflict relationships where non-fatal violence precedes intimate partner homicide.
Multiple police callouts (18 times in one year), physical assault in August 2019, and a severe knife attack on November 9, 2019, served as critical early warnings.
Blood spatter on ceilings and walls, fresh scratches on Warren's neck and chest, his car remaining at the residence while he was missing, and suspicious text messages sent from his phone.
The victim's body recovered from the trunk of Warren's Cadillac alongside the bloody slapjack, bloody tissues, personal items, and Warren's detailed confession during police interrogation.
Neighbors Kim and Bill reported ongoing domestic violence and arguments. Housemate Mike reported opening the car trunk and finding Sophie's deceased body.
Initial missing person concerns shifted rapidly to a murder investigation once the victim's body was discovered in the trunk, leading to Warren Brown's arrest and subsequent full confession.
The exact precise sequence of physical movement within the house during the fatal assault remains somewhat unclear due to the ransacked scene and Warren's shifting claims.