The Strange Case of The Unusual Clown Murder
— Are You Afraid Of Clowns?
Clown Killer. What comes to mind when you hear those two words? Perhaps you think of Pennywise from Stephen King’s It.
During a Google search, many results featured the infamous serial killer John Wayne Gacy. It’s strange how he’s known as the Clown Killer, seeing as how he never actually committed murders as a clown. Pogo the Clown, his alter ego, was merely a side job. Who would have thought that such a small part of his life would become what he’s famous for? There’s something creepy about that famous smiling photo, innocently snapped at a party.
In 2016, a series of sinister clown scare pranks occured around the country. People videotaped scary looking clowns coming out of the woods, walking down dark roads, and randomly appearing on doorsteps.
What freaks us out about clowns? Coulrophobia, the fear of clowns, affects about 7% of adults in the United States…and that’s just reported cases. The real number could be much higher.
Whatever the thing is, Sheila Keen Warren exploited this common fear when she allegedly murdered Marlene Warren in 1990…dressed as a clown.
Background
Was Marlene Warren known to be afraid of clowns? Quite the opposite. She grew up in a family that adored clowns. They love clowns so much that her mother keeps an entire room dedicated to clown paraphernalia. Her collection includes clown paintings created by Marlene at the age of 14.
At the age of 22, Marlene married 19-year-old Michael Warren. She had two young sons from a previous marriage, who Michael seemed to accept as his own. Together, they acquired many businesses, including a used-car dealership for Michael. From their many sources of income, they were able to live a comfortable lifestyle.
It was so comfortable that they were able to afford a 6,500-square-foot home in Wellington, Florida’s exclusive Aero Club community. The homes in this neighborhood have their own airplane hanger and runway to allow residents to fly their private planes at their leisure.
The Warrens seemed to have it all, but everything wasn’t as it seemed. In 1983, Michael ran into legal issues at his car dealership. Customers accused him of odometer tampering and courts charged him with a felony. As a result, he was sentenced to 18 months of probation.
By 1990, it was no secret that the Warrens were having marital problems. There were also rumors that Michael was having an affair with one of his employees, Sheila Keen. While both Sheila and Michael denied the rumors, they were enough to convince Sheila’s husband, who left her.
The Crime
On the morning of May 26, 1990, a White Chrysler LeBaron with no license plate drove down Take Off Place, the street where the Warrens lived. Marlene and a friend were in the kitchen when they spotted someone dressed as a clown walk up to the front door with a basket holding flowers and balloons.
Marlene hurried to the front door to greet her visitor. Her son, who was also in the house, remembered his mother saying, “How pretty.” Moments later, the home’s occupants heard a ‘POP’. They told 48 Hours that they initially believed the sound to be a balloon popping, but they saw Marlene fall to the ground.
The clown casually walked back to the car, leaving the flowers and balloons. Marlene’s son tried to pursue the clown, but he was slowed by a cast on his leg. He recalled yelling obscenities to get the clown to turn around. The clown did turn and looked at him with big brown eyes. There was no expression on its face. The clown hopped back in the LeBaron and drove away.
The only description witnesses could give was that Marlene was shot by someone in a clown costume with brown eyes. They couldn’t even tell if the clown was male or female.
The Investigation
Marlene’s son had several friends over at the time of the shooting. Her son and a friend attempted to follow the LeBaron in their own car, but lost it. Marlene was rushed to the hospital, but she’d been shot at point-blank range in the face. She hung on for two days before passing away.
Michael was not home at the time, but he had an air-tight alibi. He was traveling with friends to a racetrack in Miami when he received word. He quickly returned home to provide comfort to the family. He answered investigators questions but he wasn’t a suspect.
The police were baffled. Palm Beach County sheriff’s spokesman told The Sun Sentinel, “This is the strangest thing I’ve seen in all my 19 years in law enforcement.”
About two hours after the shooting, police recieved a great lead. An anonymous woman called and said: “You might want to ask Michael Warren and Sheila Keen a few questions.” But she hung up before she could offer anymore information.
Even though Michael was on the road at the time of the murder, Sheila was in town. She claimed that she was working at the time, but she worked as a repo person for Michael’s car dealership. Her alibi wasn’t exactly air tight.
Two clerks at a local costume shop, The Spotlight, reported a strange encounter two nights earlier. Just as they were locking up, a woman with “chocolate-brown” hair appeared and begged to be let inside. The clerks told her they were closed and suggested that she return the next day. The woman told them that she needed a costume that night.
It was an odd request. It wasn’t Halloween, but nearing Labor Day weekend. Still, the clerks felt sorry for her and let her in. She purchased a a clown suit, an orange afro wig, white gloves, a red nose, and white makeup. Later, the clerks picked Sheila out of a photo lineup, saying that they were pretty sure she was the customer.
The flowers and balloons came from a grocery store located near the apartment where Sheila lived at the time. Grocery store employees also picked Sheila from a photo lineup.
There was then the question of the getaway car, the LeBaron. Michael claimed that he knew nothing about the car. His dealership only sold Chevrolets. However, his biggest competitor, Payless, had a Chrysler. Michael had clashed with Payless in the past, particularly over an ad his dealership placed featuring the word “Payless”, an alleged effort to confuse customers.
Payless rented out their white Chrysler LeBaron to an out-of-town customer. When it came time to return the car, the customer looked up the number for Payless but called Michael’s dealership instead. The customer said they were told to leave the car outside the dealership with the keys in the visor. Later, the car disappeared. Four days after the murder, the LeBaron was abandoned in a grocery store parking lot.
Upon searching the car, police found orange synthetic fibers, like those from a clown wig. They also found long, brown hairs. At the time of the murder, Sheila Keen had long, brown hair. When searching her apartment, police collected more orange synthetic hair fibers.
It seemed like an open and shut case, right? Not so much.
The Aftermath
Michael and Sheila denied any involvement and refused to talk to police without a lawyer. In 1990, DNA testing was in it’s infancy. All of their evidence was circumstantial.
While the case of Marlene’s murder went cold, Michael’s legal troubles heated up. Michael’s illegal business activities came to the surface while police investigated the murder. Police found evidence of more odometer tampering and overcharging customers. Michael turned himself in after an employee was arrested.
Michael’s case went to trial in 1992 and he went to jail for four years. A few years after his release in 2002, Michael married Sheila Keen. The couple moved to Tennessee and started a new life, opening a restaurant. Sheila changed her name to Debbie, telling locals it was a childhood nickname.
Apparently, Michael is a talented businessman because his new restaurant took off. The success allowed the couple to live in Heron Pointe, a ritzy community near the Virginia-Tennessee border. They blended in well with their new neighbors and made many friends. Locals knew little about their past. Michael said that he’d been a restaurateur since he was a teenager.
Michael also benefited from Marlene’s death. He, not Marlene’s son, was her life insurance beneficiary. He pocketed over $50,000, leaving Marlene’s family with next to nothing.
The Arrest
Police had their suspicions, but they had no hard evidence. While they were immediately suspects, the case never made it to a grand jury.
Michael’s friends told police that they had observed fights between Marlene and Michael, that she had confronted Sheila about the affair, and that he didn’t seem very upset after Marlene’s death.
There were several pieces of the puzzle, someone just needed to put them together. The key to the case was DNA. In 1990, police gathered samples of Sheila’s hair and blood, but they had no means of testing it. The samples sat in a cooler for over 25 years.
In 2013, police were able to get a federal grant allowing them to reopen Marlene Warren’s cold case. They had attempted DNA testing before, but results came back inconclusive. Fortunately, technology advanced and provided enough evidence to bring charges against Sheila.
In September 2017, police stopped Michael and Sheila five-minutes away from their house on the road. They had no idea that the investigation had resumed. Police let them know that they had arrest warrant for Sheila Keen Warren, 27 years following the murder.
John Ahrens, Marlene’s son who was a teenager at the time, recalled it as being the “one of the worst days of my life.” Marlene’s mother, Shirley Twing, told Sun-Sentinel, “I didn’t think it would ever happen.”
Michael Warren continues to deny involvement for himself or Sheila. Peter Van Sant with 48 Hours was able to get a short interview with Michael. Michael responded “Definitely not.”, when asked if he had anything to do with his first wife’s murder. He added, “If I thought she had something to do with this, I wouldn’t have been with her.”
An attorney, Christopher DeSantis, told investigators about an interesting conversation he’d had with Michael before Marlene’s murder.
DeSantis reported that Michael asked him about consequenses if a husband murdered his wife, hypothetically of course. DeSantis remembered telling him that if a friend of the husband committed the murder and there was no way to tie the husband to the friend, the husband would get away with it. Interestingly, DeSantis also remembered telling Michael that if someone wore a clown suit, they would get off because there’d be no way to identify the perpetrator.
Despite this, police don’t have enough to charge Michael Warren with Marlene’s murder.
John Ahrens, Marlene’s son who was a teenager at the time, recalled it as being the “one of the worst days of my life.” He told 48 Hours that he was hoping that justice would be served, but he didn’t say if he believed Michael was involved. While Michael didn’t talk with 48 Hours very long, he asked Van Sant to pass a message.
He said, “Tell [Marlene’s son] I love him very much and still think about him all the time.”
Michael and Sheila’s love remained during her time in jail, exchanging many letters. Prosecutors are pursuing the death penalty against Sheila. Her trial date is set for January 2020.
