Marlene Warren opens her front door to flowers and balloons. No one expects the gunshots that follows. Now, the woman who investigators say dressed as that clown, killing her lover's wife, is out of jail.
Prosecutors say that Sheila Keen-Warren, knocked on Marlene Warren’s door dressed as a clown, holding flowers and balloons, and shot Warren in the face. Marlene Warren's husband was Shelia Keen's lover. In fact, Keen later marries the used car dealer and moves with him to Virginia
During the investigation, police found red wig fibers and DNA in the getaway car, a white Chrysler LeBaron. It has been reported stolen for Michael Warren’s used car lot a month earlier. Employees at a Publix supermarket — the only store in the area that sold the “You’re the Greatest” balloon the killer gave to Marlene Warren — said a person matching Keen-Warren’s description bought such a balloon from him. And employees at a store that sold clown costumes tentatively identified Keen-Warren as the woman who bought a clown outfit and a wig from their store.
it was years before an arrest was made. Now Assistant State Attorney Reid Scott tells a judge that Keen-Warren, 59, pleaded guilty “because she is guilty,” but her attorney, Greg Rosenfeld, disputed that after the sentencing hearing, which was squeezed in during a lunch break of another murder trial. Rosenfeld said plenty of innocent people plead guilty.
Circuit Judge Scott Suskauer accepted Sheila Keen-Warren’s plea in exchange for a 12 year prison sentence — with credit for the five and a half years she’s been jailed since her 2017 arrest. Keen-Warren has maintained her innocence even after her plea,
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Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. I hope you're sitting down. You may need to lay down for this. A woman dressed as a clown with flowers in balloons guns down the wife of her lover. When the wife answers the front door, and guess what, the so called clown killer is walking free. I Nancy Grace, this is crime Stories. Thank you for being with us. A Florida woman dubbed the killer clown after she murders the wife of a man she later marries, has walked out of prison. Okay, there's just so much to unpack right there. Why would he marry a woman that killed his wife, even if he's no longer in love with the Why would you marry her? What about your children? What are they supposed to think now? The so called female killer clown walked free for years before she was finally apprehended, and now she walks free again. Is there no justice? What is going on in Florida? Okay, let's start at the beginning. Take a listen.
What do you remember of May twenty sixth, nineteen ninety.
I remember that being one of the most terrible days of my life.
You're in the house with your mom, right, Yes, what's going on? Well, a typical morning.
She and I were cooking breakfast that morning, joking Karen.
On did Marlene have any enemies in this world?
None?
Everybody loved her.
She is my everything, a mom, my friend, She was my everything. I was in the living room.
I sat down in the eaves.
There was a balloon and some clown coming at the door.
Look at that client.
She was going to that door. She was excited.
When your mother opened the door, did she say something?
Oh?
How pretty well?
At first we thought maybe it was a balloon opped, but when we saw our fall, we knew something was definitely seriously wrong.
We had no clue what was going on. It was like the whole world was in slow emotion.
Did the clown say anything, nothing, not a word.
The clown slowly walked back to the car like no care in the world.
The clown slowly walked back to the car, not a care in the world. The clown didn't speak, The voice was never heard. I was just listening to this son talk about his mother. I was just thinking about you grow up with your mother, and they had to think your mother, essentially your world at a young age, goes to the door and gets shot dead again. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories. Thanks for being with us here at Fox Nations Series XM with me an all star panel, and boy do we need a panel on this one. Kirk Nermi is with me, renowned trial lawyer who represented Jody Arius at trial, author of Trapped with Miss Arias on Amazon. Doctor Angela Arnold, well known psychiatrist, joining us from the Atlanta jurisdiction. Jeff Cortesi, former FBI Special Agent. Doctor Katherine Maloney, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner, joining us from Erie County mm's office. That's Buffalo. George skiro DNA technical leader, lab director at Scales Biological Laboratory, Inc. But right now to Crime Online dot Com, I'm an investigative reporter. Levi Page, Levi. I want to start at the beginning, when Marlene Warren goes to the door, tell me what happened.
So, Nancy, this is in Wellington, Florida, Palm Beach County, and it's nineteen ninety it's a Memorial Day weekend, and forty year old Marlene Warren, she was eating breakfast with her son and his friends. They were in their early twenties and the doorbell rings. She got up to answer it, and she opened the door and there was a clown that had a flower arrangement and balloons. And that's not all he had. He had a gun, pulled it out and I say he meaning a clown, you think of a He and shot Marlene Warren dead shot her in the face, then got into a white Chrysler convertible and left the scene. Marlene Warren died two days later in the hospital.
There's so many questions, just rickcheting off the inside of my mind right now, because you know, if you look at this Jeff Cortesi for or FBI, she's so clearly targeted because the person walks up to the door, rings the doorbell, she answers the shooter, and then walk back to the car. This isn't a drive by shooting. It's not a rape, it's not a burglary, it's not a robbery. She is targeted. Not only that the killer clown takes great efforts to cover their identity. They never utter a word, which means they don't want their voice to be heard. This has to be someone that knows her, or is obsessed with her, or has been watching her. And my guess would be she knows them too. Agree or disagree?
No, absolutely agree.
This is a cold, calculated and well thought out I mean, the steps that were taken to shield the identity of the shooter from anybody around were very well planned out, and all indications are that these two people would know each other.
The first thing I would be doing is trying to get the make and model of that vehicle that the killer was driving, and going to every grocery store in about a ten to fifteen mile vicinity that sales balloons or flowers. You know, there's always that balloon and flower section typically in grocery stores. Definitely flowers, first move, and looking for forensics. For all I know, the clown was wearing gloves. Take a listen. Now you are hearing Peter van Zana at forty eight hours. This is Alexandra Stone at k ETV. Listen.
Marlene Warren was in her Aero Club community home with her adult sign and some of his friends. They were eating breakfast when they noticed someone at their front door. Marlene answered it, revealing a person dressed as a clown holding two balloons and a basket of flowers. A witness who was present at the time recall what happened next in a police interview, saying mar Orlene made a remark like, you know, oh how nice, you know and everything.
She was happy about it, and when she went to reach.
And grab for it, he just shot her in the mouth twice.
The witnesses that the scene said that the clown just turned around, walked back to the car, got into the white price of the baron, and just drove away very calmly. A chrys a little bear in color white. Doctor Angela Arnold, psychiatrist joining me out of the Atlanta jurisdiction, Doctor Angela. The fact that this woman, this mother, was shot twice in the mouth. Now, I know a lot of people think that that's just let me just say by accident, not that the shooting is by accident, but that the shooting in the mouth, I think it's on purpose.
But shot in the mouth, it was very much on purpose. The clown wanted to distigure. The clown wanted to make sure that she was dead. It was very thought out and calculated. It's always is one where someone shooting.
Well, I'm talking about the fact that she was shot in the mouth, not just shot in the chest or the head, but she was shot twice in the mouth, and I find that very very significant to correct. Nurmi, you represented Jody Arius. She shot Travis Alexander. I know you said she didn't fine have it your way, but he was stabbed twenty nine times, I think, and shot in the head. It's significant when the shooter picks the head, the face in this case, the mouth in which they shoot the victim. And I think in your case, Areas was at close range to Travis Alexander, she knew she was shooting him in the head. In this case, the clown was at close range. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. You know, sometimes it just feels like there ain't no justice. A jealous mistress dresses up like a clown and delivers flowers, balloons, and a bullet to the wife of her lover as the wife mother. That's right, This wife is a mother, answers the front a door. And now, in their wisdom, the Florida Justice officials have released her. Sheila Keene One pled guilty to second degree murder after she admits she dressed up like a clown, even clutching balloons and flowers in hand, and gunning down a woman shooting her in the face on the doorstep of her own home. But just eighteen months after that guilty plea, she walks free. Yes, she's out of jail. What happened that faithful day? Marlene Warren goes to the door. She thinks she's getting a surprise, flowers and balloons. What she gets a surprise? All right? She gets shot dead twice in the mouth. Normie, don't you think your client? Jody aris aside, it is significant when someone is shot close range, specifically in the mouth. That is a deep psychological uh, it's a neon sign to me.
Well, it certainly adds a personal anger element to it. Right, It's not just a matter of killing. It's a matter of disfiguring, naming, and making sure that person life and their deaths will never be the same. It is a intensely personal way of shooting someone.
Well, another thing pointing at the mouth. You want to make sure she Marlene Warren never says another word. But why to doctor Catherine Maloney, deputy medical examiner joining me out of Erie County, Buffalo, Is there any way a person could live if they have been shot front to back in the mouth.
It would really depend on the trajectory of the bullet.
So if the bullet goes straight.
Front to back such that it hits the base of the brain, then the person will definitely die because you require the bottom part of your brain to stay alive. If instead, however, the bullet manages to either go to the right or the left, you know, sort of towards through the side of the head, it's possible that the person could survive, but it would be a very long and prolonged process to kind of put them back together again.
To Levipage climbonline dot Com investigative reporter, do we know whether the clown was wearing gloves?
We don't know that for sure, Nancy.
So To George Skiro, DNA really on the forefront of DNA Forensic Scientists, Lab Director Scales Biological Labs, George Skiro, if she's when Marlene goes to the door, she opens the door. If the clown is wearing gloves, what's the likelihood we're going to get any DNA off the balloons of the flowers.
Now, Mancy, it depends on the person who was dressed as the clown handled the items beforehand without gloves, then there may be some DNA present. But of course in order to do that, you have to find the gloves, and you need to find the person so that you could then compare the DNA to that person.
Well, another issue is if the clown went and bought the flowers and the balloons, say in the grocery store, would they have been wearing the gloves at the time of the purchase. Their DNA could be on the balloons, could be on the flowers. What would that be touch DNA.
Yes, that would be touched DNA where someone's DNA is transferred basically from the skin on their hands to the items that they're handling.
Guys, take a listen now to Peter van Zandt At forty eight hours.
Joe was living at home and his friends were over that morning, including Jeannie Pratt, who helped ten to Marlene a neighbor called nine one one.
I was right next to her and I rolled her tour side. Was a big hole in her cheek and up a lip.
Joe, hobbled by a broken leg and cast followed the clown. Outside the shooter's car, a white Chrysler le Baron was parked in the driveway.
The car was right here. The door was open, the car was running. I tried to get the clown to turn around. I call him every word in the book.
The shooter looked back.
Joe saw white and red clown makeup, a fuzzy orange wig, and the eyes of the person who had just shot his mother.
Just really dark brown eyes.
The shooter calmly got in the car and drove away.
Didn't even squeal a tire, just drove off like nothing happened.
What does that tell you to Jeff Cortesi, former FBI special agent, I.
Mean it tells me that there was a lot of thought that was put into this. I mean, when you put yourself in a high stress situation, you know, the world starts to shrink around you, the heart rate starts going, you get tunnel vision, et cetera. In order to overcome that, it takes either a great amount of training in high stress situations and a great amount of planning. So this was somebody who did not allow the events taking place to change or manipulate the behavior beyond what they had intended to do, and that was remain calm and cool and get in and out and it was it's cold.
In the theory, I find that pretty bold, pretty brace and not to even run. If I had just murdered somebody, I would at least run to get away. Here's Peter van sant Listen.
Investigators had very little to work with initially.
Daphne Durett of the Palm Beach Post.
They knew that the shooter sped off in a white Chrysler LeBaron. What they also knew was that the shooter had brown eyes.
Because of all the makeup and the costume, Joe couldn't even be sure if the shooter was a man or a woman, which left police with a problem.
There's a thing called a bolo. What is a bolo?
A bolo is an acronym for be on the lookout, and in this case, the bolo was for someone dressed in a clown costume.
It was not a lot to go on.
Man, you're not kidding. A bolo be able to look out for in person dressed a clown costume. So let me ask you this Levi page Clime online dot com. Tell me who was in the home at the time of the shooting.
So there was Marlene Warren her Son and some of his friends, a girlfriend and some of his friends. Neighbors said that after the shooting, some of his friends were running out of the house, frantic and scared.
On one of the balloons it was written You're the Greatest, while the other had snow white painted on it. The clown was wearing one of those wigs, the fuzzy haired wigs bright orange. So the only identifier is that the killer has brown eyes. I would immediately begin canvassing the area for who may have sold those balloons and flowers. Take a listen to this.
Other investigators continued trying to find where the flower arrangement and balloons were purchased. Once said You're the great and the other one had snow white and the seven dwarfs.
On it right, so they had these two very distinctive balloons.
Police learned that those balloons were distinctive enough that they could link them back to a specific supermarket.
The balloons and flowers left at the doorstep of the murder scene were purchased at this public's. The buyer described as a white female with dark brown hair.
Dark brown hair.
Police discovered that purchase was made at nine twenty two am, an hour and a half before the shooting, and the store's location caught their attention.
Sheila Keene's home is about a little more than half a mile over here.
Who is Sheila Keene? And it's very interesting and I don't doubt it for one minute that the clark remembered selling those particular balloons to a woman, white female with long brown hair. That's what the clerk remembers. Why because one was a snow white balloon and one said you're the greatest. Very ironical that the recipient of the balloons You're the greatest, ends up dead. Now again, you may need to lay down for this. Dave Ehrenberg, the Palm Beach County State's attorney, actually fixed his mouth to say this quote. Sheila Keene Warren will always be an admitted, convicted murderer and will wear that strain for every day for the rest of her life. So what what, She's gonna feel guilty, that's her punishment. I feel bad for murdering someone. Where did he go to law school? Cool? How did this woman escape justice for so long? And yet she escapes it again? That to the beginning. I want to go to Jeff Cortesi, FBI former special agent, Jeff, how do you go about tracking down who sold those balloons? I mean, I don't know that. I don't think there was video at the time. So you have to go to every single clerk at every single grocery store.
Yeah.
Absolutely, this is a nineteen ninety year on CCTV. Wasn't then what it is now. So it does take a getting out and going from shop to shop and asking the right questions and that is a huge resource dream but that's what it takes sometimes to get the lead you need to take you to the next step.
Leavipage crime online dot com. Where is the husband in this scenario?
For her husband is Michael Warren, and he ran a used car lot, car rental agency and car reposition repossession business.
So he had a car a lot in a repo business. Take a listen to this.
What police did find in the apartment was hair from the bathroom trash and a stunner more orange fibers on clothing inside she lives home. A police criminologist compared the samples of human hair and the orange fibers from the car and the apartment and in both cases concluded the samples were similar. So this sounds like something boy, you could put this in front of a jury and potentially get a conviction.
You could or maybe you couldn't. Similar is not the same.
Man, you are so right about that. Similar is not the saying take a listen to our friend Peter van Sample.
Four days after the shooting, police got a huge break. They found a white baron maybe this was the getaway car.
They find it in the parking lot of a Wen Dixie supermarket.
That supermarket is eight miles from the crime scene and nine miles from Sheila Keene's apartment. Inside the car, police found two important clues.
They find this orange synthetic hair like.
The fibers from a clown wig.
They also find strands of brown human.
Hair, brown hair like Sheila Keynes.
Within hours, police had a warrant to search her apartment.
The investigation has turned to the woman who lives here at the Pine Ridge Apartments off Haverhill Road.
They didn't find a gun.
Sheila's estranged husband told police they owned a thirty eight Revolver, but that Sheila told him she misplaced it about a month before the murder.
Misplaced your gun. Remind me to circle back to misplacing your gun. The so much right here, Stop everything. This woman has a whiteless saber. It's abandoned a Wendix parking lot and it's got orange fibers in it and long brown hair in it. That's a coincidence. I don't think so, so, Levi Paige. Why would a completely unknown woman what suddenly dress up like a clown not say a word and gun down Marlane? Who is Sheila King?
So?
Sheila Keene was twenty six years old in nineteen ninety. She was married, but she worked for Michael Warren and Michael Warren's co workers people that worked for him say that they were having an affair and that she had an apartment that he was paying the rent for.
You know what, can you just surprise me one time a co worker? They have an affair according to co workers, and you know you can't keep that kind of thing a secret. Kurt and Army, could you just one time surprise me and it not be a love triangle with your co worker?
Well?
I guess not, because that's clearly what the case was here. And we saw we talked about that personalization element before, and we can kind of see that correlation and that puzzle come together.
Doctor Angela Arnold, Do they really think the co workers don't notice they're sitting in each other's laps and going out for lunch every day together. You think they don't.
See that there's got to be some sort of I don't think that they care. I think that they are so into what they're doing that they have convinced themselves that other people around them do not see this behavior.
You know, another issue right here to Jeff Cortez, the FBI formers, special agent office workers always know what's happening. They always know. You can't keep that kind of thing a secret. You can't.
And just like in you know other situations similar to this, You know, the first place that anybody's going to look as close to the home and then work out. So investigators are going to start close and work out. So when they start close and they identify something like this, you know, a marital infidelity boy, that's going to grab their attention right away. And there's no way to hide that stuff from people.
Mairitual infidelity and the white lists. Saber was actually stolen. So in the stolen whiteless Saber found abandoned at a Winding Sea parking lot. What is the likelihood Georgia Sciro, the lab director of Scales Biological Lab, Inc. That You're going to find orange hair from a wig and long brown hair that they say it's similar to what was used, but without the wig, how can they make a comparison? George Giro, Well.
Nancy, what they can do is they can take those fibers, those orange fibers, and run a series of chemical and microscopic analyzes on them to determine what their chemical makeup is, what's the structure of the fiber, what type of dye was used, and that can give investigative information, and also the hair itself can also provide some forensic information that might be of value.
If that hair is still in evidence, couldn't it be compared even without a root? Couldn't you get mitochondrial DNA from the hair found in the stolen the saber and try to match it up to the mistress.
That's correct, Natcy. Mitochondrial DNA would be the type of analysis that would be used to make that type of comparison.
So isn't this true? Levi page Clime online dot Com investigative reporter that the neighbors that lived near Shila Kane actually thought that Warren the husband was her husband because he was there all the time.
Yeah, you are correct, and they spent a lot of time together.
Well, you know, you call it spending time together. I call it something else. But for all the neighbors to think that was Sheila King's husband, the killer clown? Is it the mistress the love rival? What happens after that? Guys, take a listen to Unmasked the Killer Clown.
Twenty seven years after Mornine Warren is gunned down in the doorway of her Florida home, the Palm Beach Post uncovers a Salatia's secret.
What she found out was that Mike Warren and Sheila Keene, the same people who denied having an affair shortly after Marlene Warren was killed, were now husband and wife.
Michael gets out of prison early, and what does he do.
He seeks out the same woman who was investigated for killing his wife.
Think about it.
You don't marry a woman.
That you suspect that might have killed your wife.
Mike Warren married Sheila Kean in Las Vegas in two thousand and two, twelve years after his wife's murder.
So he does time on that odometer charge. Remember he works to use car a lot. Convicted of rolling back the o domeiners and tricking customers, gets out, goes straight to Sheila King and marries her. That's pretty strong circumstantial evidence to you, Kirk and Army.
Yeah, there's no doubt about it. You have motive, you have you know, evidence of maybe they got married to cover up after the fact they thought they were bringing on privilege, your marital privilege. Who knows, who knows if the husband even knew. But yes, the circumstantial and is piling up in their actions after the fact. Her actions in particular, show of consciousness of yelp, let.
Me understand something, Levi Page. The husband was not in jail on the o'dominant charge at the time of the shooting, was he No.
He was in That was years later, Nancy, and he served time for that and he actually got out of prison and married Sheila Keene in two thousand and two. And then they moved to Southern Virginia, a community right outside of Kingsport, Tennessee, very upscale community known for retirees moving there, and the mountain was very beautiful and they lived there and shelet by the name Debbie, and they started a restaurant together called the Purple Cow, and apparently they were very well liked.
She changed her name. She started going by an alias.
Yes, Debbie.
She was not going by Sheila.
Crime stores with Nancy Grace Joseph ORNs. That's the mom. Marlene's son was eating breakfast at their Wellington family home with friends that May when a person dressed as a clown rang the doorbell at the front door. His mother got the balloons when she opened the door, and she responded, how nice, just before she was shot in the face. And this monster, this she monster is walking free. Think of all the time and effort she went to to dress up like a clown, even painting her face and wearing some crazy wig to gun down her lover's wife at the front door with the family home. King Warren was long suspected to be the killer clown, but it wasn't until twenty seven years later when improved DNA testing actually tied her to evidence found in the getaway car and that led to her arrest. Orange fibers found in the convertible reportedly stolen from Michael's car lot a month before the shooting. Michael as in husband Michael, what else do we know? So they move away from the jurisdiction. She changes her name. He gets rid of the car a lot and they start a restaurant called the Purple Cow, far far away from the murder. Wow, sounds a little bit like they're on the run. Now, there's another report. At the time of the shooting, he was in fact in a car with the group of guys on the interstate Take a listen now. To unmask the killer clown.
The Homage County Sheriff's Office and the Washington County Sheriff's Office of Virginia tracked Michael and Sheila.
They were cuted to Vermont for a vacation.
He pulled a car over and arrest Sheila.
He's sitting in the passenger seat.
While she lives in the police car. She asks officers.
Questions, why are you arresting me? Are you arresting my husband?
Where are you taking me? Are you taking my husband somewhere too?
Once police get her into an interrogation room and tell her what the case is about, she tells them that she doesn't want to answer any more questions.
And she puts her head down. Sheila Quin is charged with first degree murder and extradited to Palm Beach County.
This is what we know. According to the detectives on the case, they say DNA advances since the time of Marlene's murder, combined with other evidence, made this case viable at trial. To George Skiro, a special guest of joining Us at DNA Expert Lab director at the Scales Biological Lab, Inc. George Sciro, what do they mean by advances in DNA technology, Well, Nancy, there's been.
A lot of advancements in the last several years as far as the DNA analysis goes. However, in this case, mitochondrial DNA analysis is for forensic cases has probably been around since the mid nineties, So unless they use some of the newer genetic genealogy technologies in this case, it seems like it's pretty much standard mitochondrial.
DNA in this What we are learning is that the killer clown investigators used DNA from hair samples to make a cold case arrest. Because at one moment, the alleged killer, the mistress, Sheila Keene Warren, is on her way to visit her mom in Vermont. The next minute, she has been handcuffed and plays in the back of a Virginia Sheriff's cruiser. She's saying, where am I going, why am I under arrest? She's sitting back there in her jeans and flip flops. When she's told she's under arrest because of a murder, she immediately puts her head down and refuses to answer any further questions. Now, this is what we know DNA based on hair samples. Again to George Sciro, the lab director Skills Biological Labs, Inc. Try to explain that to me and regular people talk when we say hair samples have managed to solve a twenty seven year old cold case murder by a killer clown of all things, what are they saying.
Wellncy, what they're saying is that this mitochondrial DNA that was found in the hair samples in the vehicle match the mitochondrial DNA profile of Sheila Key Warren. And this is not like the normal type of DNA that we hear about every day. This one isn't as specific because it's passed along maternal lines within the family.
We also know now that the clown was absolutely wearing gloves, a bulb nose, and a painted smile over a white face. We also know that a pistol was the murder weapon. I don't know about you guys, But if I had a gun, I don't think I would misplace it. The only person I've ever heard of misplacing, not that it was stolen, but misplaced a gun was Robert Blake, who was acquitted by a jury in the murder of his wife, Bonnie Lee Bakley. Well he killed her just I hope the jury hears that. But I've never heard of another case where a weapon was misplaced. That's what she says. We know to take us collected samples of Sheila Keane's hair, vials of her blood, and a search warrant because she was a suspect at the time. Now, when her apartment was searched, LEEVI page what was found in the apartment that can help me out on this DNA comparison.
So, the found fibers that were red that was consistent with the red part of a wig of a clown inside of her apartment.
We know that there was a court ordered search of her home. In the apartment, there were fibers from a bright orange wig, not the wig, but fibers and clothing that police were checking from bloodstains. Similar bright red orange fibers were found in the stolen the Saber, the FBI Crime Lab, that's where you come in, Jeff Cortesi, the FBI Crime Lab say matches were made to fibers collected from the getaway car through a precise DNA connection, that Sheila Keane is a possible source of the hairs. What does that mean to you?
That means that they are connecting the car to the suspect, the way to the suspect. It is one more piece in a chain of evidence that Moore completely tells a story that gives the prosecutors a little bit more confident.
Is it truly vi Page that almost fifty four thousand dollars life insurance policy was paid to Michael Warren at the death of his wife.
That is true, Nancy, that there was a life insurance about fifty grand that was awarded to him after she was murdered. Nancy, But he has not faced any charges in the murder of his wife, just Chilie Keene.
You know, it's often said no system is perfect, and this case certainly proves it. Nancy Grace signing off, Goodbye friend.