Cynthia Angela Warren

Cynthia Angela Warren, a 23-year-old Black woman and mother of two, was remembered by her mother as "a very good person." In 1980, she was living at the Crestwood Hotel in Detroit, Michigan, and had fallen into a difficult life that included prostitution. She often worked along the city's infamous Eight Mile Road strip, caught in circumstances that would place her in the path of a predator during a time of great fear in the city.

On the morning of October 23, 1980, a person walking just a few blocks from Eight Mile Road made a devastating discovery and quickly flagged down a passing police car. In a vacant lot lay the body of Cynthia Warren. An autopsy would determine that she had been brutally bludgeoned to death. Her murder was one of a terrifying series of killings targeting prostitutes in Detroit, creating a climate of intense pressure on law enforcement to find the person responsible.

The investigation into Cynthia’s death was complicated and initially went down the wrong path. In November 1980, police arrested a 23-year-old local girls' basketball coach, David J. Payton, and publicly named him as a suspect in several of the murders, including Cynthia's. Under immense pressure during a 56-hour interrogation where he was denied access to his lawyer, Payton gave a false confession. His family and friends never believed he was guilty, and he was eventually exonerated and acquitted of all charges when the true killer was found.

The crucial break in the case came from the extraordinary courage of a survivor. On December 13, 1980, a 24-year-old woman named Cheryl Harris was abducted by a man posing as a police officer. He drove her past her home, held her at knifepoint, and brutally assaulted her before leaving her for dead. Despite being nude with her hands tied behind her back, Harris managed to crawl to a nearby house for help. She provided investigators with a detailed description of her attacker and his vehicle, a yellow Chrysler New Yorker.

Her testimony led police directly to Donald Murphy, a 36-year-old father of five who lived on Schaefer Avenue. Murphy was a convicted sex offender and bank robber who was on probation for a weapons charge. When investigators searched his property, they found a pickaxe handle in the trunk of his car. This was determined to be the weapon used to kill Cynthia Warren. Hair samples found on the handle were also a match to another victim, Betty Jean Rembert.

Following his arrest, Donald Murphy admitted to killing at least ten women in the city. He told investigators that he was usually heavily intoxicated during the attacks and would only have hazy memories of what he had done, realizing the horror of his actions after seeing reports on the news. According to his confession, he had picked Cynthia up on October 22, had sex with her in his car near Prest Street, and then forced her into a vacant parking lot. He reassured her that he wasn't going to hurt her before he stabbed and beat her to death with the pickaxe handle.

Despite his confession to numerous murders, prosecutors determined they only had enough evidence to charge Murphy with the deaths of Cynthia Warren and one other woman, Cecilia Marie Knott. On January 7, 1982, as part of a plea bargain, Murphy formally confessed in court to the two murders. He quoted passages from the Bible and asked for forgiveness from God and the families of his victims. He was convicted of two counts of second-degree murder.

For the murder of Cynthia Warren and Cecilia Knott, Donald Murphy received concurrent sentences of 15 to 30 years in prison for each count. The investigation led to personnel changes within the Detroit Police Department's Homicide Squad. The case is considered solved. Murphy's sentence has since expired, and it is not publicly known whether he was eventually released or died while incarcerated.