Huge update in killer clown case 34 years after horror crimes
Over three decades after an “evil” killer clown violently gunned down an innocent mother, there has been a terrifying update.
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Warning: Distressing
One spring morning in May 1990, Marlene Warren had just sat down to enjoy breakfast with her son when she noticed someone shuffling up her driveway.
It was still early, and she was not expecting anyone at that hour to her Wellington, Florida home.
But her concern soon turned to amusement when she noticed something extremely unexpected about her visitor.
It was a clown.
Yes. A real clown, looking like it was coming straight from the circus, carrying a basket of flowers and two balloons.
Most of us nowadays would slam the door and call the cops at the sheer sight of something so bizarre.
But Steven King’s original IT, the classic tale of a psychotic murderous clown, had not come out on video – that would be in November the same year – and not as many had read the 1986 novel.
Perhaps if Marlene had of been aware of horror clown lore as many would be after seeing IT, she never would have opened the door.
However, she was elated by the sight and her son Joe Ahrens recalls how his mother gleefully answered the door to accept the apparent gifts.
“How pretty!” she beamed, opening the door.
Tragically, those would be the last two words she would ever say.
Within seconds, the clown lifted a gun and violently shot the mother in the face.
She was rushed to a nearby hospital, where she remained in a critical condition for two days before being removed from life support and passing away.
The sickening act would spark a decades-long search for answers.
“It took over 30 years to make sense of it all,” Marlene’s son Joe Ahrens told 48 hours.
“When my mum was shot, the clown looked me right in the eyes.
“And I got a glimpse of those eyes. They were big and brown.”
The case completely stumped authorities, as the mum “was someone without any known enemies,” said Palm Beach County State Lawyer Dave Aronberg.
“This was an assassination. This was not a random act of violence.”
Following the slaughter, investigators racked their brain trying to figure out who would want the mother dead.
Like most murders, they focused on those close to her, including her husband, Michael Warren.
According to her son Joe, there was a very good reason for police to suspect his stepdad.
She had apparently once told him that “if anything does happen to me, your father did it,” Joe claimed.
“I told her ‘no way, he would never do anything like that’. She said ‘don’t put it past him’.”
Investigators discovered that Mike was in a car with friends heading to a racetrack at the time of the shooting, ruling him out as a suspect.
Marlene and Mike Warren were married in 1972. Joe was just three at the time of the marriage, and said that Mike was “the only father I knew”.
The couple owned several businesses together including Bargain Motors, a used car and rental business that was in Marlene’s name.
They also owned a few rental properties in West Palm Beach, an aeroplane, and some racehorses.
The pair reportedly had marriage issues before Marlene’s death, with Joe stating that he had always thought Mike was having an affair.
Police quickly discovered that the woman he was rumoured to be involved with was named Sheila Keen, who worked for him repossessing cars.
As it turned out, the flowers and balloons were left by the clown at the scene and investigators were able to uncover that they were purchased at a nearby supermarket.
Workers told police that it was a woman who bought the ‘gifts’ and that she had long brown hair, similar to Sheila.
In another revelation, a cashier revealed that a female matching Sheila’s description had paid cash for a clown costume just days before the shooting.
A white Chrysler LeBaron, matching the description of the clown’s getaway car, was found in a car park just 12km from the crime scene.
Inside the vehicle were orange fibres that reportedly matched strands from a clown wig, as well as strands of brunette human hair.
The clown costume and the gun used in the murder were never found.
Frustratingly, despite all the signs pointing to Sheila, it was circumstantial evidence at best and without the modern technology we have today, no arrests were made for decades.
But in 2017, there was finally some movement in the case after it was reopened by a dedicated cold case unit.
Thanks to new forensic technologies, they were able to match Sheila’s DNA to the hair found in the getaway car.
She was finally arrested in September 2017 for first degree murder – a whopping 27 years after the horrific crime.
As it turned out, Mike and Sheila had eventually gotten married after the murder in 2002 and moved to Tennessee.
“Here’s someone whose wife had been murdered and he just married the chief suspect,” Palm Beach County State Lawyer Dave Aronberg said.
“When you combine the fact that the two of them were in an affair … and then later, they got married, it did seem like mission accomplished.”
They had run their own burger joint called the ‘Purple Cow’. Their employees and neighbours claimed Sheila changed her last name to Warren after the wedding, but she also started going by a new first name: Debbie.
Eerily, employees of the restaurant told detectives that Sheila actually dressed up as a clown every year for Halloween.
After her arrest, Sheila waived extradition back to Florida and was booked into the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office jail in October 2017.
“She probably never thought in a million years she’d be held accountable for her crimes,” says Aronberg about the arrest.
“She thought she got away with it.”
While the prosecution originally sought the death penalty, this was later taken off the table.
She spent the next five years in jail awaiting her trial. During this time, Sheila accepted a plea deal.
She pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and was sentenced to 12 years in prison for the murder of Marlene.
But then the unthinkable happened.
Due to sentencing guidelines for time served, the now 61-year-old was released on November 2, 2024, after spending just 18 months in prison for murder.
Despite changing her plea to guilty, she has maintained her innocence throughout.
“It was very difficult for her to admit to committing a crime that she did not commit,” her lawyer Greg Rosenfeld said.
“The defence can’t have it both ways,” Palm Beach County State Lawyer Dave Aronberg replied.
“Even when she gets out of prison, she’ll still be a convicted murderer.”
Joe said that while he would have preferred his mother’s killer to get a longer sentence, he finds solace now in the memories he holds in his heart of Marlene’s life, rather than her death.
Originally published as Huge update in killer clown case 34 years after horror crimes
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