What Happened to Marlene Warren?

Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder. Reader discretion is advised.

“Murder by Clown” is an episode of 48 Hours that will air on ID on Sunday, May 19, 2024, at 10 p.m. ET. It will follow the murder of Marlene Warren by a Killer Clown and the investigation that followed.

Marlene Warren was shot to death on May 26, 1990, by a clown. The clown showed up at her front door with a basket of flowers and two balloons. She was having breakfast with her son Joe Ahrens and his friends that morning. Suddenly, the Killer Clown came to the door, and Marlene went to answer it. The clown took out a gun and shot her. Ahrens was 21 at the time and was staying at home, recovering from a broken leg, CBS News reported.

Ahren and the other witnesses told authorities that the clown arrived in a white Chrysler LeBaron a little before 11 a.m. Emergency services were contacted, and Marlene Warren was rushed to the hospital, where she died two days later. An elaborate investigation and a search for a Killer Clown who left the flowers and balloons behind ensued.

The police tracked down the stores where the flowers, balloons, and the clown costume used by the Killer Clown were bought. An employee at one store told authorities that a woman came to purchase the clown costume, wig, and other accessories. The police found an abandoned Chrysler LeBaron in a parking lot a few days later. They found artificial hair from the wig inside the vehicle. Authorities also found brown human hair in the car. However, DNA testing wasn’t as advanced at that time. The hair wasn’t helpful in determining a suspect, as per a report by ABC News.

Was Michael Warren a suspect in the murder case?

Although Marlene wasn’t apparently known to have any enemies, investigators deduced that the killing was intended and not a random act of violence. Her husband, Michael Warren, ran a rental car agency and a used car lot. Marlene was a mother of two and a small business owner. Ahren was 3 when Marlene married Michael. The police questioned Michael Warren, who had a solid alibi that he was in a car with his friends, headed towards a racetrack in Miami at the time when the Killer Clown shot Marlene Warren.

Authorities questioned friends and family of the Warrens and found out that Michael Warren might be having an affair with his employee, Sheila Keen. However, both Michael Warren and Sheila Keen denied the allegation. Major progress in the case was thought to be made when a woman at the costume store identified Sheila Keen. She claimed that Sheila was the customer who bought the Killer Clown costume. However, no clues were found when Keen’s home was searched. That left the case to go cold for a long time to come.

In 2002, Michael Warren married Sheila Keen and settled in Virginia. The couple reportedly ran a restaurant very close to the Tennesse border, as per a report by AP News. Joe Ahrens told CBS News that Marlene Warren expressed the possibility of Michael hurting her. She reportedly told him that if anything happened to her, it would likely be caused by her husband. She allegedly shared the same inhibitions with her mother, Shirley Twing. This made her mother suspect Warren to be the Killer Clown.

Who was the Killer Clown convicted of Marlene Warren’s murder?

NBC News reported that Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office investigators arrested Sheila Keen in 2017. This was after advancements in DNA technology allowed them to match the hair found in the Killer Clown’s Chrysler LeBaron to Keen. Although she initially maintained her innocence, Sheila Keen-Warren pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Marlene Warren. She agreed to a plea deal.

After she was arrested in 2017, Sheila Keen-Warren awaited trial by remaining in prison for nearly six years until she pleaded guilty in 2023 at the age of 56. She admitted to dressing up as the Killer Clown and shooting Marlene Warren. According to The Guardian, Sheila Keen would have received a life sentence for the killing of Marlene Warren if not for the plea deal. As she already served six years awaiting trial, she will likely be released in a maximum of two years after her sentencing. She is currently serving her sentence at the Gadsden Correctional Facility in Quincy, Florida, according to state records.

Until Sheila Keen was convicted in 2023, Michael Warren was suspected by authorities and friends of Marlene Warren. When he was convicted of grand theft, odometer tampering, and racketeering in 1994, Michael Warren was reportedly made to spend four years in prison, which his lawyers claimed was an unfair sentence. They said that the heavy sentence was a consequence of suspicions that he killed his wife under the guise of the Killer Clown.

A 48 Hours episode titled “Murder by Clown” will air on ID on Sunday, May 19, 2024, at 10 p.m. ET. It revolves around the murder of Marlene Warren by a Killer Clown and also the DNA evidence that got her murderer convicted over three decades after the crime.