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To get this episode of Forensic Tales ad-free, please visit patreon.com slash Forensic Tales. Forensic Tales discusses topics that some listeners may find disturbing. The contents of this episode may not be suitable for everyone. Listener discretion is advised. It was another calm morning in Wellington, Florida, a wealthy community with its own private airstrip.
On the morning of May 26, 1990, Marlene was at home with her family when a knock came on the door. She wasn't expecting any guests. Marlene peeked outside and saw a clown holding balloons and flowers. She smiled and opened the door. In an instant, a single gunshot shattered the peace. The killer clown then calmly walked away, leaving a community in shock.
This is Forensic Tales, episode number 192, the story of the killer clown. ♪♪
Welcome to Forensic Tales. I'm your host, Courtney Fretwell-Ariola. Forensic Tales is a weekly true crime podcast covering real, spine-tingling stories with a forensic science twist. Some cases have been solved with forensic science, while others have turned cold. Every remarkable story sends us a chilling reminder that not all stories have happy endings.
As a one-woman show, your support helps me find new compelling cases, conduct in-depth fact-based research, and produce and edit this weekly show. You can support my work in two simple ways. Become a valued patron at patreon.com slash forensic tales and leave a positive review. Now, let's get to this week's episode.
On May 26, 1990, 40-year-old wife and mother Marlene Warren was at her Wellington, Florida home with her adult son Joey and a few of his friends. A few minutes before 11 a.m., a knock was on her front door. While Marlene's son and his friends stayed in the back of the house, Marlene went to open the front door. She wasn't expecting any visitors, so she didn't quite know what to expect.
When she opened the door that Saturday morning, a clown stood there holding a bouquet of red and white carnations and two balloons. One balloon said, you're the greatest. Marlene said, oh, how sweet, before she reached out to grab the flowers. Those were the last words Marlene ever spoke again. Before Marlene could even reach for the package, the clown pulled out a gun and shot her once in the face.
A single bullet entered her lip, fractured her teeth, punctured her tongue, and tracked into her neck. She immediately collapsed before realizing what had just happened. After hearing the single gunshot ring out, Marlene's 21-year-old son, Joey, bolted to the front door. But when he got there, he only saw his mom lying on the floor with blood pooling from her head. Balloons and flowers lay next to her on the ground.
Joey then watched from inside the house as the clown calmly walked down the driveway toward a white Chrysler LeBaron with no license plates parked in the front of the house. The clown stepped into the car and drove out of the neighborhood just as quietly as they had driven in a few minutes earlier. While Joey frantically tried to get his mom to say something, a few of his friends ran out of the house screaming for one of the neighbors to call 911.
One of Marlene's neighbors, who was out walking his dog, saw what was happening and ran back inside his house to call the police. Within minutes, dozens of police officers and EMS arrived at Marlene's home in the upscale neighborhood of Wellington. On any other Saturday morning, this was a peaceful neighborhood. The only commotion to happen would be if someone was landing their private airplane or helicopter on the town's own special runway.
Besides that, this part of affluent Florida never saw much crime, especially violent crime with gunshots. Marlene was taken away by ambulance to Palms West Hospital, the nearest trauma center in the area that could handle gunshot wound victims. She wasn't talking or conscious, but she was still alive, which meant first responders still had a chance.
Back at the house, Marlene's son told investigators that he didn't get a good look at the clown, but he did say that he was wearing a full costume, including an orange wig, red nose, and a painted happy face. The only thing he could remember was that he had big brown eyes and assumed it was a male. He also said they drove away in a white Chrysler LeBaron with no license plates. The clown didn't even bother taking the flowers or balloons with him.
He simply left them in front of Marlene's feet after he shot her in the face. Once the police were done questioning Joey, he rushed to the hospital to be with his mother. Marlene's husband, Michael Warren, also showed up. But there wasn't much they could do. Although she was still alive when she got to the emergency room, the gunshot caused too much damage. And two days later, 40-year-old Marlene Warren died from a single gunshot wound.
In 1990, Marlene and Michael Warren lived in an upscale community called Aero Club in Wellington, Florida, where homes had an airstrip nearby to land personal airplanes and helicopters. Many residents there had private docks to the nearby lake, complete with airplane hangars in their backyards. The Warrens certainly didn't live in the type of place where anyone feared they might be gunned down right on their front doorstep.
especially not by someone dressed up in a clown costume. Catching this killer clown became the police's first priority, but who exactly was behind the orange wig and red nose? Nothing about Marlene's murder screamed random attack. Everything seemed to be well-planned, from the clown costume to the flowers and balloons to the plateless getaway car. Everything indicated that this was premeditated,
But who would want Marlene Warren dead? A mother and wife who lived in an upscale Florida community. A woman who seemingly didn't have a single enemy. Hours after the shooting hit headline news in this part of Florida, workers at a local costume shop called the police with some information. They said a woman came into the store two days earlier wanting to buy a clown costume.
Although the store was about to close for the night, the woman was persistent about buying the costume before they closed. She said she needed the costume right away. The outfit, the wig, the red nose, the makeup, everything, and she needed it now. The woman didn't mention why she needed the costume. She only said she needed it right away. But since this was a costume shop, the two workers didn't think too much about it.
This wasn't the first or the last time someone had come in with a strange request. So they sold her the clown outfit, wig, and makeup. It was only after they saw the news about the shooting that they decided to call the police. They couldn't stop wondering if the same person who popped into their shop was the killer clown. A couple of detectives immediately drove to the costume shop to speak with the two employees.
The costume shop workers were not only able to confirm that someone had purchased the same type of costume used in the shooting, but they also had some shocking news. The customer was a woman. Detectives zero in on their first big lead. But hold on. The killer clown isn't a man, but a woman. What kind of female would orchestrate such a sinister plot? Keep listening to find out.
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According to Joey, the clown looked like a guy. He was tall and had what he described as big hands, so he just assumed it was a male. But why did a woman buy the clown costume? Did she buy it for someone else? Or was Marlene's son mistaken about the clown being a male? Could the shooter actually be a female?
The costume shop employees described the woman as having long, dark brown hair. She wore big, black utility boots with jeans and a long-sleeved flannel shirt. Other than that, nothing about the woman's appearance stood out to them. She just seemed like an ordinary customer looking for a last-minute clown costume. Plus, the woman paid in cash, so there was no way of tracking the costume purchase to anyone in particular.
Then after figuring out where the costume was purchased, investigators started tracking down where the balloons and flowers came from. Besides a vague description of the car and the clown costume provided by Marlene's son, the police didn't have much information. But within a few days, the police learned that the balloons and flowers were purchased from a Publix grocery store at the corner of Community Drive and Military Trail in West Palm Beach, Florida.
They were able to track down the store so quickly because it was the only Publix grocery store that sold that particular brand of balloons, particularly the heart-shaped one that read, The flowers dropped outside the front door after the shooting were red and white carnations arranged in a basket.
Investigators also determined that they came from the same Publix grocery store in West Palm Beach, about a 30-minute drive from Marlene's home in Wellington. According to the store's receipts, the balloons and flowers were purchased 90 minutes before Marlene was killed. This meant the killer clown first stopped at the grocery store before driving to Marlene's house in Wellington. Just four days after the shooting, investigators got their first big lead.
A call came in about a similar-looking white Chrysler LeBaron parked in a Winn-Dixie parking lot off Royal Palm Beach Boulevard. This was the same type of car Marlene's son said the clown drove away in. But when the police got to the vehicle, there wasn't anything inside. No gun, no clown costume, nothing. The clown must have dumped the vehicle in the empty parking lot shortly after the shooting and took everything with them.
But finding the car wasn't a complete dead end. Instead of finding the gun or costume, they did find forensic evidence, including orange fibers and what looked like human hair. Most likely, the orange fibers came from the clown's wig, which probably wouldn't be much help to investigators. But what about the hair? Maybe it was the shooter's hair.
Many people, including investigators, suspected Marlene's husband, Michael Warren, might have been involved. If he wasn't the person actually wearing the clown costume, he might know who was. Not only was Michael considered a possible suspect because he was the husband, but also because of what the police learned about his marriage. According to Marlene's family and some of her friends, her marriage to Michael had been rocky in the months leading up to her murder.
There were even rumors that Michael was having an affair with a much younger woman, a woman from work. At the time of the shooting, Michael Warren managed a used car dealership called Bargain Motors on North Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach. The business performed really well, which explains why he and Marlene could afford that nice house in Wellington. They also owned several rental properties in the area worth about a million dollars.
So, the couple had impressive financial success in 1990. But the same couldn't be said about their marriage. Despite their 20-year relationship, rumors spread that Michael was dating one of his employees from the used car dealership, a woman named Sheila Keene. Although Sheila was about 15 years younger than Michael, the two of them allegedly had an affair when Marlene was shot and killed by the clown.
Michael owned the car dealership, and Sheila worked as a repossession agent. She was responsible for returning cars from customers who fell behind on their payments. Not only was Michael rumored to be having an affair with Sheila Keene, but he was also rumored to be paying for her apartment in West Palm Beach. So besides paying his mortgage on the house in Wellington, where Marlene was gunned down, he was also paying for his girlfriend's apartment.
In fact, many of Sheila's neighbors assumed that Michael was her husband because he was always hanging around the apartment complex. When the police sat down and spoke with Michael and Sheila in two separate rooms, they both denied the affair. They said, yes, they were friends, and of course, they were co-workers together at Michael's car dealership. But they also provided the police with alibis for the morning of the shooting.
Sheila told them that she was at work. And in fact, she was in a completely different part of the county looking for cars that needed to be repossessed. She even provided investigators with a sample of her hair as well as her DNA. And Michael, Michael had his own alibi. He said he was on his way to Calder Racetrack in Miami Gardens with a couple of his friends when the clown came to Marlene's door.
So according to them, neither one of them could be the shooter because you can't possibly be in two places at once. But investigators knew Michael was lying. He was lying about the affair. Michael told detectives that he and his wife had a great relationship. But almost all of Michael and Sheila's co-workers at the car dealership knew about this affair.
They said the two of them would take long lunches together pretty much every day. And Sheila's neighbors regularly saw him at her apartment complex, the apartment that Michael was paying for. So the cops knew that they were at least lying about the affair. But just because he was having an affair on Marlene didn't mean he put on a clown suit and killed her. But it wasn't only Michael's co-workers who seemed to have a lot to say.
Marlene's parents and close friends also had plenty to say to investigators. According to Marlene's parents, she reportedly told them that if anything happened to her, it was her husband who did it. Detectives immediately wanted to know why Marlene would have said that. They wanted to know if she had any reason to think that her husband might want her dead. But the only motive Marlene's parents could come up with was money.
They said that most of the rental properties that they owned were actually in Marlene's legal name. So they figured if she was dead, Michael would be the one to get the money. They also pointed out that Michael was having the affair and Marlene might have known about it. But despite the heavy suspicion of Michael, the police simply didn't have any solid evidence against him. A cheating husband doesn't automatically equal a guilty one.
Next on the suspect list was Michael's alleged girlfriend, 27-year-old Sheila Keene. The police showed the two costume workers a photo lineup with Sheila's picture in it. One of the employees identified her as the customer. She said it was Sheila who purchased the clown costume just two days before the shooting. But the second employee wasn't as sure.
She said she thought the woman looked like Sheila Keene, but she just wasn't 100% sure. The police decided to go back to the white Chrysler LeBaron found a few days after the shooting. They learned that it had been reported stolen by a Payless rental car agency right near Michael Warren's car lot, Bargain Motors. The couple who last rented it told investigators they arrived after the Payless rental car shop was closed for the night.
They wanted to leave the car, but they didn't see any employees since it was late. So they went back home, looked in the yellow pages, and called what they thought was Payless. A man on the other end of the phone told them to just leave the car with its keys and the visor in the front lot and someone would get it. So that's exactly what they did. But when they went back later, the car was gone.
So they called the number again from the Yellow Pages, and the same man acted like he never spoke to them. It wasn't until the next morning that they realized this couple who had rented the car had actually called Bargain Motors. They made a mistake because Bargain Motors had a Yellow Pages ad that read, quote, pay less. So they thought they were calling the rental car company.
Instead, they were calling Michael Warren's used car business. But that still wasn't enough evidence for the police to move in and make an arrest. Yes, it was suspicious that Michael had a girlfriend. It was even more suspicious that his girlfriend allegedly bought a clown costume just two days before the shooting. But there were still some serious flaws with the police's investigation. For one, they had no physical or direct evidence linking either Michael or Sheila to the shooting.
Marlene's son Joey couldn't ID the shooter. Nothing was found in the abandoned car except for fibers from a wig and a few strands of hair, but at the time, neither one of them could be tested. And the clown costume and murder weapon were never found. So the police had no choice but to keep investigating. Investigators decided to videotape Marlene's funeral service. They were hoping that someone on the tape would act suspiciously enough that they would get another suspect.
and over a dozen detectives reviewed the videotape, but nothing useful was found. About a year after the shooting, Michael collected on Marlene's Northwestern Mutual life insurance policy, valued at a little over $50,000. Despite being considered a possible suspect in her murder, the entire fund was released to him in June of 1991.
Despite there being a lot of leads in the beginning, the case of the killer clown eventually turned cold. Although people long suspected Michael or Sheila had something to do with it, no one had any solid proof. So there wasn't a single arrest in the case for the next two decades. But that didn't mean the police stopped trying to track down the killer clown. Over the years, they did everything possible to make an arrest and bring Marlene and her family justice.
They followed hundreds, if not thousands, of tips over the years, including a clown coven in Green Acres. But like the other leads, that was a dead end too. Four years after the shooting in 1994, Marlene's husband Michael was arrested. But he wasn't arrested in connection with the clown killing. Instead, in 1994, Michael was convicted of 43 counts of grand theft, racketeering, and odometer tampering.
These were all crimes from the used car dealership he owned in West Palm Beach. As it turned out, he wasn't just a lousy husband, but he was also a shady business owner. Following his conviction, Michael served almost four years in prison before being released in 1998. Shortly after his release, Michael's behavior got even stranger.
Not only did Michael and Sheila finally come out about their relationship, but they also moved miles away from Florida to Virginia together. In Virginia, they opened a fast food restaurant called The Purple Cow. In 2002, they made their relationship official and got married in a Las Vegas chapel. Sheila Keene became Sheila Keene Warren, Michael Warren's second wife.
The move to Virginia was a fresh start for them. Instead of being known as Michael and Sheila Warren, neighbors simply knew them as Debbie and Mike. And many of their neighbors described them as sociable, hardworking, and friendly, a stark difference from their reputation in Florida. By 2014, the case had been cold for 24 years.
Marlene's son Joey, who was home at the time of the shooting, struggled to move on with his life. He battled alcoholism and depression. But his father Michael didn't seem to have any problems moving forward. He and Sheila lived a quiet life together, running a fast food restaurant hundreds of miles away. But all of that was about to change.
In 2014, Florida's Cold Case Squad decided to reopen Marlene's case. Everyone was still desperate to identify the so-called killer clown. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office used a $125,000 federal grant and formed a task force with the members of the state attorney's office and the FBI.
They hoped advancements in DNA testing, as well as re-interviewing key witnesses, would help lead to a break in the case. If the witnesses didn't remember anything, maybe the new DNA testing would help. They focused their attention on the evidence collected from the Chrysler LeBaron, the getaway car. Inside the vehicle, the police found several strands of orange fiber and unknown human hair. The fiber was determined to have come from the clown's wig.
But the unknown hair was more of a mystery. So the sample was sent to the crime lab for testing for possible DNA. But despite the new testing capabilities, investigators didn't retrieve any usable DNA. As the 27th anniversary of Marlene's death approached, a Palm Beach Post reporter wrote a feature about the case. In the article, she talked about how Marlene's husband Michael and Sheila Keene had gotten married and moved to Virginia.
The article, when it was published, completely stunned the residents of Palm Beach, Florida. Because until that article was published, most people didn't know what happened to Michael or Sheila. They knew that he went to prison for shady business practices, but most people in the area had absolutely no idea that the two of them had ran off together and got married and were now living a new life together.
So this article by the Palm Beach Post really sparked new attention to the investigation. And people were even more determined to find the killer clown. In 2016, more DNA testing was done on the hair found in the Chrysler LeBaron. Detectives already had Sheila's hair as well as a blood sample from their original interview in 1990.
A court-ordered search of her apartment yielded fibers from a bright orange wig, the same fibers found in the Chrysler. All the samples were sent to the FBI crime lab for testing, but the FBI's results were inconclusive. According to their report, quote, Sheila Keene can be included as a possible source of these hairs, end quote. But that still wasn't good enough for an arrest, let alone a conviction.
The hairs collected from the Chrysler were once again tested for DNA, but this time they were tested using mitochondrial DNA analysis, a common type of test for older samples. Mitochondrial DNA is DNA present outside the nucleus of a cell that is inherited only from the mother.
In hair analysis, more copies of mitochondrial DNA are present in the hair cells, which would otherwise contain only a limited amount of nuclear DNA. In the case of the killer clown, investigators were fortunate that the hair samples still contained the root which contained DNA. So investigators could pull a DNA profile using mitochondrial DNA analysis.
Once they had the profile, they compared it to both Sheila's and Michael's DNA. One of the DNA samples was a 100% match, Sheila Keene Warren. Police and FBI had everything they needed. They had physical evidence, the hair and DNA. They had circumstantial evidence. Sheila was Marlene's husband-girlfriend at the time of the shooting. She was seen buying the clown costume two days before.
The getaway car, the Chrysler, was stolen from a rental car lot next door to Michael's car dealership. The flowers and balloons were purchased by a woman right down the street from Marlene's house. One moment, Sheila was on a trip to visit her mother in Vermont. The next, she was handcuffed and placed in the back of a Virginia Sheriff's cruiser. On the way to the police station, Sheila asked where they were going and if she was under arrest.
She also asked if her husband, Michael, was under arrest. When she got to the station, she was placed in an interview room where detectives started engaging her in small talk. But then the conversation turned serious when she was told she was the accused shooter in South Florida's killer clown case from over 27 years ago. As soon as she heard that, she put her head down on the desk and declined to say another word without her attorney present.
Sheila was formally placed under arrest and was taken to jail. In October 2017, Sheila was extradited to Florida and officially charged with the first-degree murder of Marlene Warren. Initially, prosecutors vowed to seek the death penalty against Sheila. They believe Sheila killed Marlene because she wanted Michael all to herself. The judge ordered no bail, which meant she would remain in custody while she waited her case to go to trial.
a trial that would end up taking years. After her arrest in 2017, Sheila would spend almost six years in jail before eventually taking a plea deal. Her trial was delayed multiple times over the year due to the COVID-19 pandemic and issues over evidence. But in April 2023, Sheila agreed to plead guilty to the murder, ending a crime that happened almost three decades ago.
Now 59 years old, Sheila Keene Warren pleaded guilty to second-degree murder despite maintaining her innocence. In exchange for her plea deal, she was sentenced to a 12-year prison sentence, half of which she's already served while waiting for trial. If Sheila maintains good behavior while behind bars, she may be released next year, and she'll be a free woman.
The Palm Beach County State Attorney said in a statement following the plea deal, quote, Sheila Keene Warren has finally been forced to admit that she was the one who dressed as a clown and took the life of an innocent victim. She will be a convicted murderer the rest of her days, end quote. But Sheila's defense attorney had a much different thing to say. He called the plea deal, quote, an incredible win for Sheila.
He said his client was not the killer, end quote. The state of Florida originally wanted to execute her, but now she is going home in 10 months. While it is difficult to plead guilty to a crime she did not commit, it was kind of a no-brainer when there is a guarantee that you will be home with your family, end quote.
If Sheila had rejected the prosecution's plea deal, she would have gotten at least 25 years in prison if she was convicted at trial. Sheila's defense attorneys also argued that the forensic evidence may have been planted against his client by the police. He alleges investigators planted the orange fiber and Sheila's hair inside that Chrysler LeBaron to pin the murder on her. The state disagrees.
As of today, Michael Warren has never been charged and has denied any involvement in Marlene's death, despite dating and eventually marrying the woman responsible. After three decades, the true identity behind the killer clown has finally been uncovered. On top of strong circumstantial evidence, authorities believe they have the forensic evidence to prove Sheila is indeed the killer clown.
She might have eluded detection for decades, hiding in plain sight, living a life under false pretense. The murder mystery of the killer clown was eventually solved by determined detectives and innovations in forensic science. The killer clown was caught and brought to justice. To share your thoughts on the story, be sure to follow the show on Instagram and Facebook.
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