What to know

Lisa Schwartzkopf and Cheryl Kemp were found dead inside a Warren home in June 1981.

In 1988, Warren police destroyed pieces of evidence because of a misconception that the complaint involved a suicide.

Now Warren police and Michigan State Police are taking another look at the case.

WARREN, Mich. - For 45 years, the family of Lisa Schwartzkopf believes someone has lived with a secret.

Someone knows what happened inside a Warren home in the early morning hours of June 12, 1981, when two young women were brutally killed.

But there's another problem: police back in 1988 mistakenly destroyed several pieces of evidence because of what the report called  the misconception that the complaint involved a suicide. 

 We don't really have a good reason why it was destroyed,  Warren Police told Local 4.  Evidence is held. It's our policy. 

How did Lisa Schwartzkopf and Cheryl Kemp die?

Lisa was just 20 years old when she was shot multiple times and left for dead.

Her friend, 22-year-old Cheryl Kemp, was also killed - strangled and stabbed with scissors.

 There's no conscience,  said Laura Welsh, the fiancée of Lisa's nephew.  Someone's out there that brutalized and killed two people and is just living their life with no repercussions. 

Now, nearly 200 pages of police records obtained by Local 4 are getting fresh eyes on them, as Warren police work with Michigan State Police to take another look at the case.


The killings happened at a home on Cyman, just south of Nine Mile, where Lisa and Cheryl had been house-sitting for Cheryl's brother.

The night before the killings, Cheryl had gone out to the old Main Act bar in Roseville.

Lisa stayed home because she was sick.

Are there any leads?

One theory documented in the original investigation was that Cheryl may have met a man at the bar and that he may have gone back to the Warren home with her.

Acc

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