South Florida Clown Killer of 1990

 

The morning of May 26th, 1990, started as a normal day for Marlene Warren and her son Joe. Her son had recently suffered a broken leg, and they were having breakfast with a few of his friends. But that’s when everything normal about the day had changed.

As they ate breakfast, a clown carrying flowers and balloons approached the house, and thinking that someone had sent the clown to cheer up Joe, Marlene answered the door without suspicion. The clown handed Marlene flowers and balloons, and then Joe and his friends heard a BANG, and his mother fell to the floor.

As Joe called 911, he and his friends noticed the clown walking slowly to a white Chrysler LeBaron and drove away calmly as if it had not happened. Marlene was rushed to the hospital, where she was put on life support. Two days later, after no improvement and no hope of recovery, Marlene was taken off support and sadly passed away.

Her death has haunted the public for decades. After all, as put by State Attorney Dave Aronberg, Who isn’t afraid of a killer clown?

The Investigation

After questioning Joe and his Grandmother, they both said that Marlene had suspected Mike of having an affair and that she stated to both of them that if something happened to her, Mike was responsible. The authorities immediately turned to Warren’s husband as a potential suspect. After all, Marlene was a business owner with multiple properties and assets that would go to Mike if something happened to her. However, to their disappointment, Mike had an alibi. He was in a car with several friends at the time of the murder, heading for a racetrack.

The Authorities visited Mike’s business, Bargain Motors, and spoke with several staff members. One common thread came up in those conversations, Sheila Keen, the woman that Mike was supposedly having an affair with. Many witnesses had described Sheila as nice and bubbly, and when she looked at Mike, you could tell she loved him. But Sheila also had a reputation for being tough. She was Bargain Motors repo woman, often repossessing cars for the company. Witnesses stated that Sheila had told them she carries a gun for protection because people are crazy. You never know what they might do.

Joe and his friends described the clown as six foot two, tall, skinny, and male. Wearing a clown suit, an orange wig, black shoes, white gloves, a clown nose, and a big orange grin. They claimed the one thing they noticed above all else was its big brown eyes.

The authorities visited several local costume shops until they found one witness, Deborah Offord, who had been working two nights before Marlene’s murder when a woman knocked on the door after closing time in search of a clown suit. When Deborah asked if the woman could return the next day, the woman insisted that it was urgent. Deborah agreed and sold the woman a clown suit, an orange wig, makeup, and a clown nose. She paid with cash. The woman was described as five foot ten, with long, thick chocolate brown hair and big brown eyes. After being shown a line-up, Deborah fingered Sheila Keen as one possible suspect.

The authorities also tracked down the possible shop where the flowers and balloons were purchased. The employee who sold the items described the same woman. So far, everything they found was circumstantial evidence, but they focused the investigation on Sheila Keen.

Police then found an abandoned White Chrysler LeBaron in a grocery parking lot, and upon investigating, they found orange synthetic fibres, and a single hair within the car. Interestingly enough, it was traced to Bargain Motors, having been stolen from a competing company only weeks before the murder.

After getting a search warrant for Sheila’s apartment, the police found the same orange synthetic fibres and a hair sample from a closet. However, without advanced DNA testing in 1990, they could not confirm or deny that the hairs matched each other or Sheila Keen.

In 1994, after further investigation into Bargain Motors, it was revealed that Mike was involved in fraud. Racketeering, insurance fraud, and Odometer tampering were all found out. Mike Warren was charged with 43 accounts of fraud and sent to prison.

However, the case went cold because the gun and costume were never found, and added to the fact that they could not test the hair samples for DNA matching. The case did not go forward, and Sheila Keen disappeared.

Years Later

After Mike Warren was released from prison in 1997, he and Sheila reunited. The couple was married in 2002 and moved to Tennessee. Where they ran a hamburger joint together called the Purple Cow. Sheila had dyed her hair blonde and went by “Debbie.”.

Employees at the Purple Cow described Debbie as an awfully aggressive boss, and rumours had circulated that Debbie had murdered Mike’s first wife in a clown suit. Debbie even showed up to work on Halloween in Clown makeup. It was apparent to Marlene’s son Joe that Sheila had believed she had gotten away with murder.


However, the case was reopened, and the hair samples were tested and matched to Sheila Keen. Yet, Sheila was arrested on September 26th, 2017, for the first-degree murder of Marlene Warren.

Who killed Marlene Warren?

When Sheila was arrested, she asked if they would arrest Mike. This suggested that the couple were in this together. However, Mike denies that he nor Sheila had any involvement in Marlene’s murder and even goes as far as to suggest that one of Marlene’s tenants or a car buyer had killed Marlene in a rage. The police do not buy that story.

Mike isn’t the only one who feels that Sheila is innocent of this crime. Greg Rosenfeld, Sheila’s defence attorney, also believes that Sheila could not have been the murderer. According to Greg, the pieces don’t fit the puzzle, that whoever killed Marlene was experienced with hits, and that from day one, the investigation into Marlene’s death has been sloppy. In fact, Greg doesn’t believe this murder will ever be solved.

He admits that Sheila could have possibly been in that Chrysler LeBaron on the day of the murder but that she didn’t do it and that the DNA evidence against her is laughable. He says that the evidence was improperly handled and even claims that the bags containing evidence have holes. Which could cross-contaminate it. He also goes as far as to say that those synthetic fibres found in the car and in Keen’s closet could have come from any product using those types of fibres and not from the clown wig used in the murder. According to State Attorney Dave Aronberg, these kinds of mistakes are always exploited by defence attorneys.

However, after all those years, Marlene’s case had still not been solved. Yet, Sheila’s trial kept getting postponed. Between COVID-19 and evidence disappearing by 2022, Sheila had spent five years in prison without going to trial.

According to Greg, one piece of crucial evidence, a file named Clown Sightings, had disappeared. The file documented Clown Sightings in the area on the day of the murder, but most of these sightings weren’t relevant to the case. The file reappeared in October 2022, close to an approaching trial date. Witnesses connected to key evidence passed away, making the delays keep coming in.

Finally, though, on April 23rd, 2023, Sheila Keen-Warren pleaded guilty to the second-degree murder of Marlene Warren. Sentencing her to 12 years in prison, allowing her release by 2025. Even after her publicly announcing her guilt and involvement in the murder of Marlene Warren, her defence attorney, Greg Rosenfeld, isn’t convinced that she committed these murders.

When Sheila is released from prison, she has plans to reunite with her husband, Mike Warren.