Missing on Christmas Eve: Lisa Solomon’s Story | The Christmas Killings hosted by Nancy Grace | Forensic Files

NANCY GRACE: Huntington, Long Island, 1987. Newlyweds Lisa and Matthew Solomon so excited to spend their very first Christmas together.
Christmas was always a big event. Lisa loved Christmas. They were still young, so every little event
was a big deal. NANCY GRACE: But a mysterious disappearance ruins Christmas for the family.
He said, "oh, my God, something horrible happened." I need all the people I can get.
I need everybody out there. NANCY GRACE: A heartbroken husband organizes a search in the bitter cold.
We don't know where she is, but I want her to come home. This is becoming very possible.
This guy abducted Lisa. This was a perfect opportunity to snatch and grab. NANCY GRACE: In the days after Christmas,
a family desperate for answers. We went to the local gun store and he bought a Mossberg pistol grip shotgun.
All I can say is that for whoever is involved right now and whoever has her for their sake.
The police should find him before we do. [theme music] [intriguing music] Hello, I'm Nancy Grace.
This is "The Christmas Killings." New York City, a magical place during the Christmas season.
They light a giant tree in Rockefeller Center. Holiday decorations are everywhere.
On nearby Long Island, there's a more quaint Christmas scene. There, you find a scattering of coastal villages
that light up during the holidays. December, 25, 1987 should be especially exciting for 22-year-old Lisa Solomon of Huntington.
Lisa and her brand new husband, Matthew, are set to celebrate their very first Christmas
as a married couple. Christmas was always a big event. We set up a Christmas tree and all that stuff.
It was just a big, happy family. Lisa loved Christmas. And of course, when she went missing,
it just blew the whole family apart. NANCY GRACE: At 7:00 AM, Christmas morning,
Suffolk County Police received a distressing call from Matthew Solomon saying his wife Lisa is gone,
she's missing. A police officer goes straight to the Solomon home and takes Matthew's statement.
And Matthew said on Christmas Eve that they had planned a dinner to have at home
a lobster champagne dinner. DR. KIMBERLIE MASSNICK: Lisa was so excited to come home
and have this special dinner. They were still young, so every little event was a big deal.
NORMAN REIN: They had been married two months earlier, and it was more than just celebrating
their first Christmas together, but they were also celebrating their one-year anniversary
of their engagement. And the table was decorated in such a way that it was festive.
They had three bottles of champagne and they consumed a good part of that. So it gives Lisa the feeling that everything's wonderful.
They're celebrating. And look at this guy, he loves me so much. The evening just doesn't continue you on the way
that it started. Christmas Eve is obviously a very special time of year. Matthew at some point, apparently after drinking,
had fallen asleep, which upset her very much. NORMAN REIN: And they got into an argument
and Lisa was very upset and said, "I got to cool off." She went outside not wearing any outerwear,
didn't have her asthma medication, nor her purse, nor keys. DR. KIMBERLIE MASSNICK: So she went out ill-prepared.
And again, you have to remember, it was Christmas Eve. And we're looking at Long Island.
It's cold. So maybe she didn't think she'd be gone long. And maybe she ran into somebody that might have
had ill-intentions towards her. And we just don't know. NORMAN REIN: Matthew's expectation
was that she was going to walk up and down the block and then come back in a few minutes and she never came back.
NANCY GRACE: Matthew Solomon spends the entire night driving around looking for his new bride, Lisa.
As the sun comes up Christmas morning, he is frantic and calls police. NORMAN REIN: There was a rule that police would not
get involved for the first 24 hours, because most of the times the person would come back or communicate that they were OK.
However, in this case, the husband, Matthew, was not going to wait 24 hours. NANCY GRACE: Husband Matthew Solomon reaches out to Lisa's
close-knit family for help. So on Christmas morning, I got a phone call from my brother
Eric that Lisa had gone missing and that this is serious and that I needed to come down to Huntington
to help look around for her and find out what happened to Lisa. When I got to the house, the living room
was filled with people. My father was there. My brothers were there. My Auntie Diane was there.
Lisa's mother and Matthew was explaining that Lisa had gone out for a walk and never returned.
Lisa's mother was crying. She was just panicking to find Lisa. I mean, as any mother would.
And, uh, and we told her we're going to find Lisa. NANCY GRACE: In Lisa and Matthew Solomon's community,
there is a sudden outpouring of charity and goodwill. Neighbors, friends, even strangers
they don't know leave their Christmas celebrations at home to join the search for Lisa.
NORMAN REIN: They made posters and broke out a number of maps, and assigned people to search in certain areas
and try to keep track of who was going where. They used the CB radios to communicate with one another.
STEVE KLERK: Matthew, put it out to the media that you know, "we needed help to find Lisa."
I need all the people I can get. I need everybody out there. NORMAN REIN: The fact that Lisa was missing on Christmas
was a huge element in attracting people. She can't get to us and we can't find her.
And we don't know where she is. But I want her to come home. I know she's alive.
I just know. There was a lot of people. Hundreds of people at one point were involved in the search.
Every friend this girl has in the world is out looking for her right now. This is Lisa.
This is someone that we love. NANCY GRACE: Christmas night, Lisa now officially missing 24 hours, so police
launch an investigation. The chief detective came to our office and said, "it's time that the homicide squad is involved
in this investigation." And then I became the lead detective. NANCY GRACE: Investigators examined the initial police
report from husband Matthew. Next, they head to the home of Lisa's mother, Diane Weaver.
NORMAN REIN: Diane Weaver was very distraught. I knew that it would be troubling to say that I was
from the homicide squad, because it comes with the inference that we're looking for a dead person.
And so I explained that we're here because we have more experience, a greater skill set, and greater resources to get into this investigation.
Diane said that she and her daughter Lisa, were going to go to midnight mass, and that Lisa was going to pick her up at about 11:00 at night.
DR. KIMBERLIE MASSNICK: Matthew and Lisa shared different faiths and didn't celebrate in the same way.
Her mother was waiting for her, dressed up to go to mass to celebrate the Christmas holiday.
And at some point in the evening, falling asleep. [phone ringing] She woke up Christmas Day to a phone call
from Matthew saying that Lisa was missing. Lisa Solomon never comes to pick up her mom.
It's the holidays where people are drinking, where people might be depressed because they don't have somebody to celebrate with.
And so, Lisa might have run across somebody like that. That person might not have been a good person.
And so this was a perfect opportunity to snatch and grab and fulfill whatever it was that that person
needed at the moment. NORMAN REIN: You think about what possibilities it might be.
She could have gone into a nearby convenience store and been swept away by someone, and foul play was involved.
A lot of possibilities could happen. Realistic or not, Diane Weaver was very hopeful
that her daughter would be found safe. She knew that the prospects of surviving that cold weather
were not good. But Diane said that Lisa was going to come home to me. She had such a very, very close relationship with the daughter,
and she described her daughter in very loving terms as vivacious, independent, a strong, capable person.
NANCY GRACE: Lisa Solomon a treasured member of a large, loving family. We grew up together.
We were a very tight family. We'd all get together and have dinners just about every weekend.
[soft music] We spent vacations together, Summers together, every holiday together.
My sons were her big brothers, there was no question. And I was like a dad more than anything else.
When she was in high school, she was a cheerleader. And she was very popular with the other students.
DR. KIMBERLIE MASSNICK: She was very attractive. She was described as the fun girl, the smart girl.
Everybody wanted to be around her. She did not lack for any male attention. NANCY GRACE: In 1983, 18-year-old Lisa
catches the eye of Matthew Solomon, who goes on to win her heart. [soft music] HOWARD KLERK: She was walking past the gas station
and he came running out and introduced himself to her, and that's how she met him.
And there were a few years together before they finally got engaged. The day they got married, her dad was dying at the time,
he had cancer. He couldn't make it out anymore. So I had to take his place. And I walked her down the aisle.
You know, of course, we had to tell Matthew we're entrusting her to you. I remember we did say that to him,
and kind of in a kidding nice way. It's his wedding, of course. HOWARD KLERK: My God, she's just so happy.
It's unbelievable. It was probably the happiest that I've ever seen her. NANCY GRACE: After their wedding,
the newlyweds move into an apartment there in Huntington. Lisa, working as a loan processor at a bank,
while Matthew has a job as a sheet metal worker in downtown Manhattan. Two months later, Christmas Eve, Lisa Solomon
vanishes, seemingly into thin air. [intriguing music] NORMAN REIN: Matthew agreed to meet us at the precinct.
He was very cooperative and we spent some time interviewing him. He provided us with pretty much the same account
that we had heard. We asked about the relationship, and he had nothing but accolades
about his wife and their relationship and how loving they were. And he's just totally devastated and can't
believe this is happening. Matthew brought to our attention that there was a man named Rob who sought a loan from Lisa at the bank.
He tried to date her, he asked her out and Lisa told him on a few occasions, I'm engaged.
Who was Rob? Matthew didn't know. NANCY GRACE: Investigators go to Lisa's workplace, the Anchor
Bank in Huntington Station. We spoke to her supervisor and her colleagues. Lisa's last day of work was on Christmas Eve, Friday,
and the bank closed at 2:00. There was a small celebration at the bank and Lisa was talking about she and Matthew are
going to have a special dinner. She was very much in love with her husband and loved her new life as a married woman.
We asked about Rob. NANCY GRACE: Police learned a man named Rob is a client of Lisa, who seems obsessed with her.
She processes a loan for him to buy a flashy new car, a Corvette. STEVE KLERK: And he was very wealthy
and he didn't really even need the loan for the car. He just wanted to go through the loan process
to interact with Lisa. HOWARD KLERK: She was a very pretty girl. And I guess he figured she wasn't married.
So I guess he thought, well, maybe there's a chance I could get her as a girlfriend.
But of course, that didn't work. NANCY GRACE: No one remembers Rob's last name, so investigators must painstakingly search
through file folders full of paperwork to find Rob's application. We wanted them to go through their records.
They were not computerized, so we couldn't do a digital search. Remember, it's 1987.
Records are not digitized like they are today. Police must search through dozens and dozens of files.
Then they get a random phone tip. It's a call that startles them because of one detail, a chilling detail.
NORMAN REIN: A psychic called in a lead saying that they envisioned that Lisa was in the streets
and a Corvette came by. [tense music] NORMAN REIN: And offered her a ride, and she took it.
STEVE KLERK: So now Rob started becoming very real. Like, if this is true, then it's very possible
that Rob abducted Lisa. [tense music continues] NANCY GRACE: Christmas Eve, 1987.
Huntington, Long Island. Newlyweds Matthew and Lisa Solomon have an argument. Wife Lisa goes out for a walk.
She hasn't been seen since. Police launch an investigation. Has Lisa Solomon been picked up by a stranger?
Has someone been stalking her? So far, detectives have just a few clues. There is, however, one standout.
A psychic gives police a tip about a mysterious man in a Corvette. Police wonder, could it be that client of Lisa Solomon's,
the client named Rob? Then police learned something else that occurred Christmas morning.
[intriguing music] DR. KIMBERLIE MASSNICK: Christmas morning, Rob calls the mother's house.
Doesn't even ask for Lisa, asks for the mother, and the sister says she's not available.
And then gives this strange, ambiguous statement. "Well, tell her I said Merry Christmas."
And that's the end of the call. So you can perceive that in a lot of different ways.
But the one thing I can say is it's not normal. NORMAN REIN: Diane Weaver told us
she never met Rob and thought it very, very strange that he would call. Why would he be calling her?
Is there a motive behind that? Was this something very sick and sinister behind this phone call?
NANCY GRACE: Lisa Solomon's family continues a desperate search. STEVE KLERK: We stayed at that house with Matthew
for the entire time, slept on the floor, the couches. Every morning, got up and searched.
Every evening we searched. We searched the whole time. Well, everybody was coming in.
Police were coming in. Reporters were coming in. At this point, Lisa Solomon appears to have
vanished without a trace. She left behind her pocketbook, her keys, her money, even her asthma medication, which
Lisa needs to take twice a day. We were going around the clock. I mean, we were working hard.
NORMAN REIN: Matthew never expressed any doubt that she would be found alive. And be back in his arms again.
REPORTER: Do you think your wife's still alive? I have to think she is. Because when you give up hope, that's when
you, you stop doing anything. And I'll never stop doing it. So, yeah, she's alive.
She's alive somewhere. And I'm going to find her. DR. KIMBERLIE MASSNICK: The community that Lisa and Matthew
lived in was small, and people really did know one another and care about one another.
It's the holidays and Matthew is out there and he's begging, he's grieving. And so I think it was a lot of people coming together genuinely
wanting to ease Matthew's pain. [soft music] Please don't hurt her. Please don't do anything rash.
Please keep her warm and make sure she gets fed. And to whoever did it, no harm is going to come to them.
Just bring her home. These searches started to expand out into town, into some pretty bad areas down in Huntington.
There were cracked ends, banded buildings and warehouses and construction sites and fields.
Matthew thought that if somebody were to abduct Lisa, these would be the type of places they would take her to.
He said we needed to protect ourselves in these places we were going. So we went to the local gun store
and he bought a Mossberg pistol grip shotgun, which he carried in the trunk of the car.
The searches got more intense and they got real. All I can say is that whoever is involved right now
and whoever has her, for their sake, the police should find him before we do. NANCY GRACE: Police spend days looking through bank records.
They finally locate Rob's loan application. We're provided with his home address
and his place of employment, which was a car dealership nearby. And we reached out to him, made arrangements to speak to him.
We talked to him and asked him, among other things, why he didn't reach out to the police
and he said he heard about the case, but it was a Lisa Solomon who was missing and he didn't know who Lisa Solomon was.
He knew her as Lisa Weaver, so he didn't pay much attention to it. He confirmed that on Christmas Day,
he called the Weaver residence to wish Diane Weaver a Merry Christmas, not knowing
that her daughter was missing. And then we asked him about what he did that evening, where he
was, and he said he was with his family up in Connecticut and he wasn't here at all.
We checked out his story and other information he gave us, and we washed him out as being a suspect in this case.
NANCY GRACE: Christmas Day is now several days behind them, and police hit a wall with only one solid lead.
Lisa Solomon's family's struggling with the idea they will have to ring in a new year without her.
STEVE KLERK: There was a Christmas tree with unopened gifts. It was hard. I had anger and sadness at the same time.
When you go into six days of searching, each day's just there's a loss of hope. She's not coming back.
And we have to find her. NANCY GRACE: On the night of December 30, Steven Clark is part of another search party.
They're looking through two large fields of debris on either side of an industrial road.
STEVE KLERK: It was approaching 11:00 and I had a handheld CB and an 11:00 we were all supposed to check in.
So I called my father and said, dad, this is where we are and we're searching this field, but I'm
going to stay longer because there's a field directly across the street, and we're going to go there, too.
So we can rule these areas out. HOWARD KLERK: It was cold. It was about 20 below zero that night.
It was really, really cold. And I said, we're just going to have to knock it off.
He said, well, I got a couple of one or two places I just want to look at yet. STEVE KLERK: Where I was standing,
there was garbage bags all around me. There was a bunch of them. They were all black bags with leaves in them,
and I was kind of kicking them and moving them around as I was talking to my father on the CB.
One of the bags was hard and heavy. As soon as I got off the CB, I started ripping open the bag.
And all of a sudden I discovered an elbow, an arm. [intriguing music] I've never been in such a shock in my life.
NANCY GRACE: Newlywed Lisa Solomon goes missing Christmas Eve, 1987. Scores of neighbors in Huntington, Long Island
joined the search with her family and friends, and they all pray for a Christmas miracle
that Lisa will be found alive. Six days after Lisa and her new husband toast Christmas
Eve with champagne, her cousin, Steven Clark, discovers human remains in a trash bag
left in the middle of a field. I was standing still and the world was turning around me like the air was sucked right out of me.
I started to tear the bags open further till I saw my cousin's face. [somber music]
I saw Lisa in the bag. It was kind of a surreal moment, standing alone in the field,
with my cousin laying there, naked in the bag, just thrown away like garbage. [somber music continues]
STEVE KLERK: So I got on the CB and I called my father. HOWARD KLERK: He said, "I found Lisa."
I said, "is she alive?" He says, "no, she's dead." [sirens wailing] They were detectives, I guess, close by.
They had to be because it was within a minute, somebody pulled up. The Detective, he started putting up crime tape.
And right at that moment, Matthew pulled up with his father, Jack, and he jumped out of the car and said,
"Steve, where's Lisa? Lisa, where's Lisa? Is she over here? I need to find Lisa.
I want to find Lisa." And with that, he started running across the field in a diagonal straight for Lisa's body.
He was going to contaminate the crime scene, so I ran after him. I grabbed him by the back of the jacket.
His feet went out from under him, and I brought him to the ground and tackled him.
And I had my arm around him. And Matthew started hyperventilating and crying that Lisa was dead.
REPORTER: The search for Lisa Solomon ended just before midnight. Searchers found her body in a field about a mile
from her home in Huntington Station. Family members say they were not prepared for the bad news.
Lisa's husband, Matthew, collapsed and had to be taken to a hospital. NORMAN REIN: The joy of Christmas and the prospect
and hopefulness of a new coming year was sadly taken away from her family and friends in a moment.
Now the scene, I went over and I saw the part of the body in the bag, frozen in the fetal position.
It was almost a sterile scene. Garbage bags, a body in the garbage bags. And that was it.
After the forensic unit had finished their work at the scene, the body was removed
to the morgue for an autopsy. This missing person case now turned into a homicide case.
REPORTER: Her husband and an estimated 200 friends had been combing the woods and fields nearby.
Posters have gone up all over the area. But now, Lisa Solomon is missing no longer.
We just want to say Thanks to everyone who came out and that's all we can really say.
And the police have taken the matters in and with the help of the family, know they're going to catch this guy.
And when they catch them, I hope he rots in hell. HOWARD KLERK: The police, in the meantime,
said to Steve, come on, you're going to come with us. You know you're going to have to talk to us.
So they hauled him off to the police station. STEVE KLERK: I had to go to their precinct
where they took a statement. I was there for a couple of hours. I took my boots and my gloves, and I was still in total shock.
NORMAN REIN: The post-mortem examination had to be delayed until the body was thawed out.
And so it took perhaps to the next day until they actually examined her body. The medical examiner determined that the cause of death
was strangulation, and he found that the hyoid bone in the throat was fractured.
And that usually happens when someone puts a stranglehold on another person. The M.E. said she could have died
within two or three minutes. She suffered an unbelievable, slow, torturous death,
in my opinion. HOWARD KLERK: Lisa was abducted. Lisa was strangled. Lisa was thrown into a garbage bag
and dumped in a field along with bags of leaves. Nobody deserves to be thrown away like a sack of garbage.
The garbage bags. The ties on the garbage bag are forensically checked. There were red fibers on the garbage bags,
and there was also hairs. We were very interested in those red fibers. And where did they come from.
This is now a homicide case. And Suffolk County detectives began interviewing family and friends.
It's S.O.P. Standard Operating Procedure. Spouses are the first people police consider as possible suspects, but Lisa and Matthew are
basically still on a honeymoon. They're newlyweds. Husband Matthew seems genuinely grief stricken during the search
for his missing wife. NORMAN REIN: Diane. Weaver loved Matthew, thought that he very much loved
her daughter, and was very protective of her, and she was crediting Matthew with the efforts
that he was making, appealing to the public and leading the searches and being the husband that she
would hope he would be for her. She was saying, well, I lost my daughter, I lost Lisa,
but at least I have her husband, I have Matthew, but I didn't like him. At one time, my son Eric was talking to Lisa
and he put his arm around her. Matthew came along and threw his arm off Lisa and really threatened him.
I mean, they were like brother and sister. And even at their wedding, she was sitting on my lap
at one point and we were talking and carrying on and laughing, and he was off to the side and glaring at us.
I took her off to the side and I tried to talk her out of it. He just didn't see it that way.
NANCY GRACE: Stephen Clark agrees with his father. He repeats concerns about husband Matthew when
he's interviewed by detectives. STEVE KLERK: They had some ups and downs in their relationship.
He was very controlling. He was very possessive. When they went out to eat or went to places together,
Matthew would escort her to the bathroom, stand outside the door and wait. In other words, he didn't even let Lisa
go to the bathroom on her own. They went on to tell us that there were times when
Lisa was still living at home. Before she went to work, he would stop by in the morning
and check to see what she was wearing that day, and that he would object if he thought
it was something that would be attractive to other people. NANCY GRACE: Stephen Clark has reservations about husband
Matthew, but he doesn't think Matthew is capable of murdering his new bride. But then he remembers one moment in time that changes his mind.
It's when Lisa's body is discovered in that trash bag. [intriguing music] [sirens wailing]
First detective that pulled up. He started putting up crime tape. But we're on the wrong side of the road.
So I was telling him, listen, Lisa is over here on the other side of the road. And that's when Matthew pulled up.
And he started running that way towards Lisa's body. We were standing on the opposite side of the road.
How would he to run there? Why would you pick that spot, of all spots in this entire two fields on both sides of the road?
Lisa could have been anywhere, but he knew where to run. It was like a bolt of lightning went through me.
Matthew killed Lisa. New Year's Eve 1987, New Yorkers celebrating in Times Square in nearby Huntington, Long Island.
Lisa Solomon's family are making plans for her wake and funeral. There's a massive turnout of family and friends
for Lisa's wake. Suffolk County PD is also there. NORMAN REIN: An element of most every homicide
investigation is to attend the wake of the victim. It's an opportunity to talk to people
that may something that if they're willing to talk to us. [melancholic music] We went to the funeral.
And Matthew was there. Lisa's casket was open. He came in, looked at her and ran out, ran across the street,
bought a case of beer, went downstairs and started drinking beer. And a couple of his friends came in,
they were having a party downstairs in the funeral home. In the meantime, we were up in the room with Lisa's body.
[soft dramatic music] Everybody behaves differently than he did as well. He did not put himself up front and greet people.
He rather stood behind what was going on and drinking and trying to wish that night away.
That was my opinion. He didn't even go in the room where Lisa was. Didn't even go up to the casket.
Didn't show any remorse. He bought beer, and him and his buddies sat in the parking lot
and drank beer. NANCY GRACE: From that very first moment when husband Matthew Solomon runs to his wife Lisa's body in that trash
bag out in the field, Lisa's cousin, Steven Clark, is suspicious. And now he doubts everything Matthew
Solomon has ever said or done. We gave him enough of the benefit of the doubt. Six days with nothing, you know.
But the story wasn't really panning out. Like, why would Lisa leave and walk out the door
and go for a walk with nothing on Christmas Eve? Lisa wouldn't do these things. Well, if Lisa was to leave the house, she would have a coat on.
She would have her bag, her medication, everything. Lisa was not willy-nilly. She was very meticulous about everything.
NANCY GRACE: Stephen Clark immediately tells his concerns to Detective Norman Rein.
Stephen was convinced that Matthew murdered Lisa. We didn't accept it and we didn't discredit it,
but we went deep into the investigation and to see if there was anything more we should know about.
The relationship between him and Lisa, we talked to Gerald Clark a number of times, the youngest son of Howard Clark,
cousin of Lisa, and he was the one that was staying in the apartment with Matthew.
They were together 24 hours a day, and then at one point, Gerry, he goes in the bathroom,
and Matthew was just coming out of the shower at the time, and he noticed a huge bite on his arm.
So he had wore long sleeve shirts. But later on when-- You know, we slept in the living room,
so we got to see him in his t-shirt later, and he had a bruise on his arm and had a scratch
on the side of his face. Police began to focus on husband Matthew's bruises. Could they show Matthew and Lisa had a physical altercation
leading to her murder? NORMAN REIN: And it was very troubling to us. Matthew said that we had a disagreement,
she walked out of the house. Now we're hearing that something physical took place.
NANCY GRACE: Investigators keep looking for hard evidence. We are hoping that anyone who has seen anything that would
indicate any activities of the deceased would contact the Suffolk County Homicide Squad.
NORMAN REIN: Every investigation includes a neighborhood search. Who saw anything.
Who heard anything. We had to go back several times to the homes of people who were out of town during the holidays.
It's amazing the clues a neighbor might notice. Clues that can crack a case wide open.
Matthew and Lisa Solomon's downstairs neighbors are home on Christmas Eve. They tell police what they heard from upstairs.
NORMAN REIN: Matthew and Lisa were living in an apartment that was occupied on the first floor, and so we
talked to the husband and the wife and asked them, were their attention drawn to anything
different on that evening? They both said that later in the evening they heard noise upstairs.
Sounded like an argument, mostly Matthew talking very loud, maybe even shouting.
And then they heard someone was running across the floor. They didn't say that they heard Lisa's footsteps going down
and the front door opening. They heard a thud. And then there was silence. NANCY GRACE: Do the downstairs neighbors
hear the very moment Lisa is killed when her body falls to the floor? We knew Matthew was lying, and we knew he was involved.
It was just a matter of how much was he involved and what exactly happened. NANCY GRACE: Now, Lisa's cousin, Gerald remembers something
that could be critical. NORMAN REIN: He remembered that at some point, Matthew put the shotgun in the trunk of the car,
and when Gerald saw the trunk of the car, he thought, this is a man who works with tools and other things,
and it's clean. It's sterile. It's just got this red carpet in there. NANCY GRACE: Red fibers in the trunk of husband
Matthew Solomon's car. And red fibers in the bag with Lisa's body. Are they both from the rug in Matthew Solomon's car?
NORMAN REIN: We knew that we wanted not only to search his apartment, but to search his vehicle as well.
Certainly we could have gotten a search warrant, but it's just because I'm going to Texas
with my brother who lived there and just spend a little time away. I'll leave you fellas the key.
You don't have to break in. And he readily gave us that consent. Matthew left. We searched the apartment.
We found nothing that was of evidential value to the investigation. We went out to his car and we opened the trunk.
And there was a red carpet. So when the lab tested the fibers that were found on the bags that the body was put into
and the fibers that came from the trunk of his car, it was an absolute match. [intriguing music]
NANCY GRACE: For newlywed Lisa Solomon, Christmas Eve 1987 begins with a champagne toast
and a lobster dinner with her brand new husband, Matthew Solomon. It ends tragically when she Lisa, ends up
violently strangled, dumped in a field in a trash bag, abandoned. The evidence points to Lisa's husband of less than two
months, Matthew Solomon. Police wonder how could a Christmas Eve celebration end in murder?
Things like this should never happen at any time of the year, but certainly all the more egregious on Christmas Eve.
NANCY GRACE: Police obtained an arrest warrant for Matthew Solomon, and detectives have a plan
to take him into custody. Matthew was back in New York, and we had learned that he was
going to go to work the next day at around 4:30, 05:00 in the morning. Our squad, in many different vehicles,
gathered around the route that Matthew would take. A couple of minutes later, Matthew's car came.
We surround him with a traffic light. We get him out of the car, we put him in the back of my squad car.
HOWARD KLERK: He got into the car, the police car, and one of the first words out of his mouth
was, how are you doing with Rob? I mean, he just never took responsibility for what he did.
It was unbelievable. REPORTER: Suffolk detectives arrested Matthew Solomon at 06:20 this morning as he left for work.
Police say Solomon gave up without a fight. NANCY GRACE: While in custody, he breaks and tells detectives a different version of what
happens on Christmas Eve. NORMAN REIN: Matthew said he had fallen asleep and she was annoyed with him and that she got argumentative.
He said we both had been drinking and it just got out of hand. She was going to run out of the house
and I grabbed her and she was screaming and yelling. It's possible because we only have Matthew's word on what
happened that evening, that Matthew was the one that was upset and jealous that Lisa had made plans with her mother.
Lisa had said that she was going to midnight mass with her mother and he said no.
And Lisa said, I'm going to take my mother to midnight mass. It's already been arranged.
And she went for the door and he grabbed her, and then it became a scuffle. I just wanted her to stop, but I was begging her to stop.
Stop what? Stop fighting and stop yelling and crying. He says I just put my arm around her to calm her down
and that she would relax. And then we could talk about this. And he says she was dead.
How long did you did you grab her around the neck? It happened for a couple of minutes.
NORMAN REIN: He wanted to call his father. I had him call his father. We recorded it.
NORMAN REIN: He said, "I undressed her, put her in the bags, put her in the car,
and I drove to the empty field and I dumped her." TIMOTHY MAZZEI: He tried to convince
us that he didn't mean it. It wasn't his fault. It was an accident. Except the problem is, if it really was an accident,
he would have called the police right away and said, oh, my god, something horrible happened.
I held her too tight. I didn't mean to do it, but please come and help me. But that didn't happen.
So he was choking her with a bar armed chokehold, hard enough to break the bones in her neck and then
throw her out on the side of the road like garbage. And then take the family out on the search
for a week in the cold. REPORTER: Matthew led an estimated 200 volunteers on a search for Lisa, telling anyone who would listen
that the family needed help finding her, and that Matthew was sure she was still alive.
He knew damn well she was dead. He killed her. Or he's one hell of an actor. So there's Matthew at the funeral.
So we had to go to the funeral with the killer and watch him carry on the charade the whole entire time.
Every step of the way, was the worst part. But I think this was really the worst part.
[somber music] TIMOTHY MAZZEI: Well, I was confident, but I was concerned going into the trial
because if you believed his video confession, he may be guilty of criminally negligent homicide or maybe
guilty of nothing, but he certainly wasn't guilty of murder. He said that they got into an argument
and that she started crying uncontrollably. And he grabbed her and he held her to try to calm her down.
And while squeezing her, she stopped breathing. We proved through the medical examiner that before she died,
she would have passed out and therefore any uncontrollable crying or struggling would have stopped.
But he continued to strangle her until she was dead. He wanted her dead, at least at that very moment.
NANCY GRACE: February, 1989, one year after newlywed Lisa Solomon's murder, the jury returned a verdict.
JUDGE: With respect to count two of the indictment the charge of murder in the second degree, that is,
depraved indifference murder. How do you find the defendant, Matthew Solomon? MEMBER OF THE JURY: Guilty.
TIMOTHY MAZZEI: He was convicted of murder in the second degree, what we call depraved indifference
murder, which was more of a reckless, negligent way. I didn't mean to kill her, but I was
aware of what I was doing could cause her death, and I continued to do it. The maximum penalty that he could have gotten
would have been 25 to life. And the judge decided on 18 years to life. NANCY GRACE: Matthew Solomon's family
is also pulled apart by the trial and the sentencing. Go ahead. You want pictures?
Here, take them. REPORTER: Matthew Solomon's father, Jack, ran out of the courtroom.
Frustration and anger that had built up for the past 11 months now rushed out of him.
You got your pound of flesh now. All right? I think what you got in that courtroom
today is nothing compared to what he'd get with me in five minutes. I mean, he's what kind of person
marries somebody two months later on Christmas Eve murders her. That's not a human being.
That's an animal. NORMAN REIN: Weddings, funerals, family holidays bring out the best and the worst in people.
My experience as a homicide detective was that just about every Christmas that I worked,
we dealt with someone's death. HOWARD KLERK: Something that I'll never, ever forget.
I walked her down the aisle and I lifted her veil. I kissed her, and I turned her over to the guy
who murdered her. NANCY GRACE: Lisa Solomon's family tries to keep husband Matthew in prison for the rest of his life.
He is eventually released in 2019, after serving just 31 years. He deserves to spend the rest of his life in prison.
But he didn't, he got out. There's no justice. Soft on crime is hard on victims.
Every Christmas, you think about where you were on that day when you went to that apartment and began that search.
[somber music] I never thought that I could ever enjoy a Christmas until my kids were born.
Seeing them on Christmas is what brought Christmas back. [somber music continues]
Even at Christmas, when most of us are counting our blessings, a beautiful, joyous and Holy time
can turn deadly. So it was for two newlyweds whose passion and anger could no longer be contained.
I'm Nancy Grace. Thank you for joining us here on "The Christmas Killings." [intriguing music]

After arguing with her new husband, Lisa Solomon leaves her home and vanishes into the cold night. When she doesn’t return, a desperate Matthew Solomon calls the police. Hours turn into days, and all roads lead to the darkest Christmas.

After arguing with her new husband, Lisa Solomon leaves her home and vanishes into the cold night. When she doesn’t return, a desperate Matthew Solomon calls the police. Hours turn into days, and all roads lead to the darkest Christmas.

Hosted by Nancy Grace, The Christmas Killings is a true crime docuseries that blends merry with mystery as it delves into holiday-season homicide investigations.

Brief Summary

Lisa Solomon goes missing on Christmas Eve 1987, leading to a tragic murder investigation involving her husband Matthew Solomon.

Key points

The Christmas Killings. A newlywed couple's first Christmas takes a dark turn when Lisa Solomon goes missing.
Desperate Search. Matthew Solomon organizes a frantic search for his missing wife, Lisa.
Tragic Discovery. Six days after Lisa's disappearance, her cousin finds her remains in a field.
The Search for Lisa Solomon. The search for Lisa ends tragically when her body is found in a field.
Matthew's Arrest. Matthew Solomon is arrested as detectives uncover the truth about Lisa's murder.
The Trial Verdict. Matthew Solomon is convicted of murder in the second degree for Lisa's death.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I want her to come home.

Matthew's plea for his missing wife.

0:38WatchMar 27, 2025

Tension

85/ 100High tension

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