Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Teen crushed to death as 911 operator, police ignore desperate plea for help

Episode Date: April 30, 2018

Cincinnati's 911 system failed Kyle Plush when the 16-year-old pleaded for help when he was being crushed by a seat in his SUV. The sophomore was found dead in a high school parking lot hours after two desperate calls to emergency dispatchers. Nancy Grace looks at what happened. She is joined by forensics expert Joseph Scott Morgan, psychologist Caryn Stark, and reporter Pamela Furr. The son of the woman shot to death by Florida's "Killer Clown" speaks out after the arrest of a suspect. Grace and co-host Alan Duke updates this cold case.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an iHeart Podcast. Crime Stories with Nancy Grace on Sirius XM Triumph, Channel 132. Imagine your boy calling and calling and calling 911 as his life slowly slips away and nothing happens. Kyle Plush, a boy, found dead in his family's van. It was parked in the lot of a private school in Madisonville, Ohio. The coroner says the boy was crushed dead by the third row seat of the van. But he used Siri to call 911 just after 3 p.m. saying he was trapped in a Honda van, directing police to him. The boy is dead, crushed in the back of the van by a van seat. I'm Nancy Grace. This is Crime Stories.

Thank you for being with us. May it never happen again. Listen to Kyle's 911 call. Cincinnati 911, this is the address of your emergency? Cincinnati 911. Cincinnati 911. The Seven Hills Web Parking Lot? Where are you? I can barely stand to hear it. There you hear the boy, Kyle Plush, begging, begging police to come to him.

I don't understand how it happened. I know that he was parked in an overflow parking lot within plain sight, but cops didn't check it. Then later that night, the mom calls 911 to report her boy missing, saying he failed to show up at a tennis match or to come home.

Listen. My son never came home from school, and we thought he was at a tennis match. He's 16 years old. He was driving a gold Honda van. You think that he was at a tennis match? Does he have a cell phone? He never went to the tennis match. One of my friends called the coach just a few minutes ago,

and the coach said he never went to the tennis match. I don't understand how everything went so sideways. Let me go first to forensics expert, professor of forensics at Jacksonville State University, Joseph Scott Morgan. Joe Scott, please, in regular people talk, what happened to this boy? how long did it take for him to die he had the wherewithal to say siri call 9-1-1 he could do that he called 9-1-1 he told them exactly where he was and quote i don't have much time left i'm, he's slowly, slowly running out of breath at this point, Nancy. He's essentially inverted or upside down, head down, laying over the back of the seat. The seat has given away, and he is essentially being crushed by not just the seat, but his own weight of his lower body is compressing him.

And in our terms in forensic pathology, we refer to this as a positional asphyxia death, which means that due to the position that you're in, this facilitates your inability to take oxygen into your body. And that's what happened to this poor kid, Nancy. Just imagine a gigantic weight being pressed on your chest so that every time you exhale, that space becomes more diminished in there that handles oxygen. He slowly runs out of oxygen. He has an awareness long enough to be able to call via Siri to get the call into 911. But when he said, please help me, I'm dying, he wasn't kidding. And this is not a

quick death, Nancy. This is slow, languishing, just an impending kind of horrible position to be in. And he received no relief, no help, nothing. He was, he was. Well, that first time on call was not the end of it. He calls back. Hello. Where are you? I probably don't have much time left to tell my mom that I love her if I die.

This is not a joke. This is not a joke. I'm trapped inside my gold Honda Odyssey van in the Southport parking lot of 7 Hillstep. Send officers immediately. I'm almost dead. He calls back. Now, the dispatch says she couldn't hear anything, but plush can be heard speaking when you listen to the call. And the boy is desperate. He's saying, this is not a joke. I'm almost dead.

I probably don't have much time left. So tell my mom I love her if I die. I can hardly even take that in. Thinking about my boy or girl, and I'm looking at all of the graphics. It looks like he may have gone to the back of the van. This is a Honda van. A Honda Odyssey van. It looks like which I and my children have done a million times before, and I can guarantee you that we won't ever do it again.

Looks like he went to the back, the third seat. Okay, you've got the driver's seat in a minivan or an SUV. You've got the middle seat where the children typically sit. Then you've got a third seat, which we call the wormhole. And it looks like he was facing the back of the van, like he was going to reach down into the back trunk, you know, by reaching over the third seat, like maybe to reach down and get a ball or his backpack. And he was reaching over at waist level and the seat went backwards with him and it crushed him at the waist between the seat and the back door of the van of the SUV

he's crushed upside down and he can't move up and he can't move down he's crushed at the waist, hanging upside down with his feet up in the air, with his back against the back of the SUV and his front facing the seat that is now collapsed backwards. Is there any easier way to say it with me, Crime Stories investigative reporter Pamela Furr, is there a better way to explain his feet are up in the air, his head is down, and he's crushed and pinned at the waist by the seat, which is now tilted backwards. Pam? You have the best description I think there is. And what is mind-boggling is that the police officers that were dispatched did not look far enough into the parking lot of that school to find that van and to see him in trouble like that. That that's the part that has this community in an uproar that these officers did not act in time. I guess so.

The coroner says the boy is crushed dead by the third row seat. Kyle used Siri to call 911 just after 3 o'clock getting out of school to tell them he's trapped in a Honda van. He gives them the location. Body cam video of the cops show the two police responded and never left their patrol car when they went to go look for the boy. Video shows they searched for just three minutes before leaving the scene, police reports say they searched 11 minutes. Three minutes. The boy's van was in the overflow parking lot across the street, which the officers never went to. That night, little Kyle is found dead at 9 p.m. by his father, Ron Hamilton.

Can you even imagine? Take a listen to the natural sound of the police body cams as they cruise by the school, responding to the 911 call. One cop saying, I don't see nobody, which I didn't imagine I would. Music playing in the background. One officer commenting, these kids drive better cars than you do. I don't know. Yeah. Looking at scientists. I'm a little bit. Hmm? I didn't look up. Didn't look right. What? I don't know what that is. Hmm? I didn't look up. Didn't look right away. Look at these colors.

I don't see nobody... Which I don't imagine I would. I think I've got a little bit. Huh? I think I've got a little dry one. You know, to Karen Stark, New York psychologist joining us, Karen, under any other circumstances, it probably would not be so offensive that one cop saying, I don't see nobody, which I didn't imagine I would,

or these kids drive better cars than you do. Under other circumstances, you know, that would be okay. But here it highlights the fact they really didn't look for the boy. There's nothing in these particular circumstances that is okay. There's nothing that's right about what they're doing because it wasn't a joke. It wasn't a kid who was trying to engage the police and waste their time. He was dying, and they were there. It's such a tragedy.

It's a terrible, terrible story. I could see, Nancy, how it would bring up what if this happened to my kids because you hear this poor boy who's pleading for help, and the police are not taking it seriously, making any kind of an effort to find him. None. And the whole time in the 911 call, it's not just the cops who didn't get out of the, they didn't first even go to the right parking lot and look for the Honda. Okay, number one. Number two, this is an overflow parking lot.

Number two, the 911 operator did not convey the right messages to the responding officers. The boy said, I'm going to die here. He is trying to bang on the interior of the car during the 911 call. Let's listen to Kyle, the little boy now dead, begging for help on this 911 call. Listen again. What can we learn? I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.

I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry. I'm gonna die

you probably don't have m my mom that I love her if a joke. This is not a joa I can hardly stand to listen to it. There are two videos taken from the body cam cameras, which are mandatorily turned on. And it shows the officers pulling into the parking lot south of the seven hills school resale shop the van kyle's van was parked in the parking lot north of the shop on the very same side of the road the cops then make a u-turn and return to the road before look turning into the other parking lot They leave declaring it was a prank call.

To Joseph Scott Morgan, forensics expert, how did it happen in this 2002 Honda Odyssey? And this is a warning, guys. This is a warning to everybody that has an SUV or a minivan, including me. And I'm not going to tell my children all the details, but I'm showing them this diagram that I've looked up on DailyMail.com. And it does, of course, doesn't show Kyle himself, but it shows a diagram of what happened.

Joe Scott, explain to me technically how this boy died. I don't think I can bear hearing anymore about the cops so close to his van and not getting out to save him. Yeah, it's heartbreaking, Nancy. The weight, you know, let's just think about it just for a second. The upper portion of our torsos weighs more than say below the waist so when kyle goes into the rear of this of this vehicle he essentially lays over the back of the top of the seat okay and and this it looks like he's bending over it to reach down in the back to get something and this is something that many of i've done it you, you know, I've done it. I've done it a million times. Yeah, I know, because it's

a matter of convenience. He's trying to grab something apparently in the back. Well, Joe Scott, I thought that's why they built it that way. For you to be able to lean over the third, the back row seat and lean into the trunk to get whatever it was you put back there. I thought that's why

they had it that way. Yeah, you would think that it would meet some kind of weight standard that it could bear up. And Kyle is not a big kid. Not at all. The only thing that I can think of is that the van is older. Maybe, maybe it had given away one of the latches that holds it in place. And for whatever reason,

it tipped backwards. So he is essentially compressed between the back of the seat, the back door, and the floor plays into this, the floorboard back there as well. And all the while, it's his own weight. It's his own weight of his upper body that has put him into this position. I am actually amazed, Nancy, that he still had the wherewithal and the breath in his body to be able to call Siri. And that's what kind of is striking to this, that he was able to still communicate that effectively. And then what does he say at the end? I'm probably dying. And that's what's so heartbreaking about this. So it is a word of warning. You know, I think in retrospect, you know,

maybe it would have been better to go around to the rear of the vehicle. Here's the other thing, though. Listen to this, Joe Scott and Karen Stark. With me, everybody, Joe Scott Morgan, forensics expert, Karen Stark, New York psychologist and Pamela Furr, crime stories investigative reporter. Kyle gets trapped in the third row seat of the Honda Odyssey minivan while reaching to pick up his tennis gear in the back seat. The seat gives way. He falls over the seat upside down and is crushed. 314, he calls 911 saying he's trapped. I'm going to die here. He says, I'm stuck in a van outside Seven Hills parking lot. That's 314.

Two officers are dispatched. 326, they arrive. That's just 12 minutes later. They start looking for the van. He calls 911 again at 335 saying, this is not a joke. Tell my mom I love her if I die. Now the 911 dispatch says she couldn't hear him. But when you play it back, you can hear him.

337. Police officers say they think it's a prank and they end the search. 23 minutes have passed since he first called and they're ending the search. Sheriff's deputies call the communications center at 344 and ask for info on the van. The cop says he located it but didn't see anybody in it. 9 p.m., the father finds him in the app used to locate his iPhone. I just, there were so many ways

this could have been stopped. Pamela Furr, it seems to me that when they isolate his phone call by using GPS technology to narrow down his location, it supports his call. It took them to the Seven Hills School. That's where he's saying he's calling.

That's where GPS says he's calling. Couldn't they put two and two together? Right. They knew he was somewhere on that property, but yet they didn't take the time to get out of their car and actually look or drive around the extended parking lot. The other thing that is alarming to a lot of people, Amber Smith is the second dispatcher on that second call. She says that her computer froze and therefore she didn't get to put the information into that computer system about it being a gold Honda, about, you know, I'm about to die. Tell my mother I love her. She didn't get to put that information into the computer system.

So they're saying she didn't get to. You know what? I'm not buying that. How long did it stay frozen? That's the question. So I'm not buying. I just didn't. And what she could have done is just picked up the two-way radio and said, okay, the computer system's down, but here's the information that I have.

You're looking for a gold van. But she could have picked up a cell phone and called those officers. And as you said a moment ago, a deputy did call and ask for more information about the van. Why wasn't that information given? So no one's buying it. The family's not buying it. And many people in the community are not buying that excuse. Now, she has been put on leave. Amber Smith, the second dispatcher who took the call, but the officers have not been put on leave. And again, a lot of people are upset that they didn't even get out of the vehicle. And in the audio that you played earlier, you can hear music in the background. These officers are listening to music.

So I would think it would be very difficult if they're listening to music to hear a man screaming, help, help, help, that we heard on the 911 call. How can they hear a kid screaming help, help, help if they're listening to music in their patrol car it gets even worse because then the dad goes to the cincinnati council meeting and in that cincinnati council meeting that tuesday night a day after kyle's funeral to your five hours worth of testimony and then councilman wendell young says at the end of the meeting, the day you lost your son, everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong. I don't know any level of finger pointing or witch hunting that's going to change that. I suspect there'll be attempts to do what the law

allows to be done in some way to make up for what happened with you but there's no amount of money that's going to make you happy he said that to the father councilman Wendell Young Kyle's father Ron Plus yells out this isn't about money and then the teen's uncle Robert gets out of a seat yelling and pointing his finger at Wendell Young. You know what? Stop it. This is the most insensitive thing I've ever heard. You guys were doing wonderful until this guy started talking. You've crossed the line. You crossed the line.

The father, the uncle, the aunt, the grandmother storm out. Listen to this. I suspect that there will be attempts to do what the law allows to be done to try to in some way make up for what happened with you. But there's no amount of money that's going to make you happy. There's no amount of money. I believe that. If you couldn't hear, that's when Kyle

Plush's father, Ron, said it's not about the money. Although Mr. Plush was visibly upset, council member Wendell Young continued to talk. There's no amount of blame that's going to make the situation better. Plush's uncle, Robert, couldn't hold back his emotions. At the end of the day... This is the most insensitive thing I've ever heard. You guys were doing wonderful until this guy started talking. I'm sorry, but you've crossed the line. You have crossed the line.

Kyle's father, uncle, aunt, and grandma left, and Young kept going. At the end of the day, what I wanted to say simply is that I hope that we are able to find a solution that again makes certain we don't suffer this again. What was he thinking, Pamela? For what happened? Yeah, good question. For him to say something like that so insensitively when all they were trying to do is get to the bottom of who failed when it came to his son calling for help and these officers were on the property they could have saved their son and it didn't happen they wanted to know where the communication breakdown was and get answers from the city council who basically is the uh that's who the police officers

answer to and that's what the family members wanted to do was get some answers and for the city council member to be that insensitive from my understanding the mayor was not too happy about it either and the mayor is calling for a complete, not only investigation, but they want the city councilman to be reprimanded for sure. Young has since apologized to the family, but you know what? You can't take that back. He needs to be off the Cincinnati City Council now. He needs to hang his head in shame. I am extremely sorry that the language I used caused them additional hurt and pain. And again, I just want to offer my sincere apologies for that. In hindsight, I would not have mentioned the word money.

I did not mean to imply that they were seeking money. I know that's the way they took it. And I understand that. But what I was really trying to say is that no amount of apology, no amount of money, nothing we have could ease the pain of having lost their son. Now, take a listen to Cincinnati Police Chief Elliot Isaac as he tries to explain away what happened and claiming they've launched an internal investigation. OK, listen. At this time, I've directed an internal investigation into the events of this evening,

the actions of all of our employees involved. We intend to do a comprehensive investigation and review of everything that occurred. At this time, the call taker who received the second call has been placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome of this investigation. We have not done a formal interview of her at this point. We intend to do that and get those answers.

The one thing that we do know is that on that second 911 call, something has gone terribly wrong. This young man was crying out for help. We weren't able to get that information to the officers on the scene and we need to find out why. I'm not certain at this point if we're talking about an equipment malfunction or some type of other user error possibly but we're gonna do an investigation to get those answers apparently there there was some trouble on the line she did press the tone to indicate that she's having some trouble on the line that could possibly be a call received from a hearing impaired person but again those, those are things that have been conveyed preliminarily. We want to get some formal answers as to what occurred.

Nancy, Cincinnati Mayor John Cranley says if the investigative report assigned some of the blame for Kyle's death to the two police officers confirming they never got out of their patrol car to look for him, then there will be consequences for those officers. Well, they can say whatever they want to say in retrospect, but with the 911 dispatch failing to do her job not once but twice, the police officers not even bothering to get out of the car, and then the city council piling on with their horrific comments to the father

just after his son's funeral there's no way to make anything good out of this you know the old phrase turn lemons into lemonade there's not any lemonade here there's no silver lining but there is a warning to all the parents to everyone listening right now look look at the graphic, the demonstration about what happened to this brave, beautiful, wonderful boy. Don't let this happen to your children. Did you know about a recent law that could leave your personal data exposed online for anybody to find? If you've turned on the news lately, you know the Internet has created a dangerous new world. Data breaches expose private information.

There's a new cybersecurity threat every other day. And criminals can sell the identity of you and your family on the dark web. It's time you take the power back by using a new website called Truthfinder. Truthfinder allows you to find out exactly what information exists about you online. Have you gotten a speeding ticket? Received a lien from the IRS? Forgotten about an embarrassing social media profile? Truthfinder searches through millions of public records, puts all that data together in one easy to read report. Members get unlimited searches, so you can also look up those

close to you and make sure they're not hiding something from their past. You also get free dark web monitoring to make Truthfinder the ultimate tool in identity protection. If your personal info appears for sale on the dark web, you'll be the first to know. Visit truthfinder.com slash Nancy. Enter your own name. Get started. Imagine opening the front door and there is a clown.

In full regalia, clown suit, the big shoes, the painted face with flowers and balloons for you. But then the clown raises a pistol to your face and there in your own home at your front door, the home you've raised your children, you're shot dead. How did this happen to a wife and mother? And then years go by without the case ever being solved. I'm talking about a beautiful woman, a mother, a wife, shot dead in her own home. An absolutely stunning woman, Marlene Warren, strawberry blonde with big blue eyes, shot dead in her own home, fatally shot at her front door. This is after somebody shows up in a clown outfit to kill her. But why?

With orange wig and white gloves, a red nose, and enough white makeup to cover the clown's face completely. How did the clown calmly walk away from the front door, get into an American sedan, and drive away, not even speeding, not even concerned that the clown would be caught. That's a clue in itself. Fast forward. Now, years later. Years later. A Publix grocery store receipt and hair fibers, thanks to the use of new DNA technology, hair fibers found in the getaway car and workers at a costume rental store help capture the killer clown.

And guess who it is? It's the wife's husband's then mistress. You know, Karen Stark, renowned psychologist joining us from New York. Karen, the employees where the husband worked way back when said they would kiss at work. They would go off in different rooms and have sex at the office. I mean, it was clear as the nose on our face, right? Well, it certainly sounds like it, Nancy. And I mean, that's where the suspicion I'm sure should have been. And right at the very start, you look to the person in that way and this woman seemed to believe that this clown costume would be the best idea to be able to pull this off and she did you know it's it's very disturbing with me is alan duke the duke joining me from la alan wasn't there a financial

incentive as well for his wife to be dead? Well, she owned a number of the family businesses. This was a successful family. They lived in a really upscale community. I mean, this was the community where they had a landing strip and an airplane hangar at every home. So these were people who had money, and they had some significant businesses, and they were in the wife's name. But there's reason to believe the wife was on to something happening with her husband messing around.

And there's indications now that that she was ready to leave him. He had said goodbye to half of those assets. Alan Duke, I mean, at your age, no offense, but I would assume you're a Beatles fan. Don't you know money can't buy you love? When you start talking about these big houses and airplane hangers, you know what? Of course, the old saying, Karen Stark, the love of money is the root of all evil. And that turns out to be true in this instance. There's no doubt about it. What is just so incredible is that she felt that she

could get away with wearing this clown costume. And it was so outrageous that she actually did get away with it. Because how are you going in those days to trace the costume? Well, listen to this. In the last hours, Joe Ahrens and family friend Jeannie Pratt were actually in the home of the murdered mom, Marlene Warren, back at the time of the incident when she was murdered. And here they are talking to CBS reporter Peter Van Zandt with 48 Hours. Take a listen to this. What do you remember of May 26, 1990? CBS reporter Peter Van Zandt with 48 Hours. Take a listen to this. What do you remember of May 26, 1990? 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, typical morning. She and I were cooking breakfast that morning, joking, carrying on. Did Marlene have any enemies in this world? None. Everybody loved her. She was my everything.

My mom, my friend, she was my everything. I was in the living room, probably right where that lamp is. I sat down to eat. There was a balloon with some clown coming at the door. Look at that clown. 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 pop, but when we saw her 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 motion. Did the clown say anything? Nothing. Not a word. The clown slowly walked back to the car like no care in the world. You are listening to what happened the day that this young mom Marlene

Warren was shot down at her own front door. And it should have been a really big clue, Alan Duke, which we really haven't focused on as you and I have tried to unravel this. I mean, I always thought it was the mistress, but the police didn't have the proof, the hard evidence. These hair fibers with advanced DNA technology gave them that. But the clue, Alan, the clown didn't run. The clown was in no hurry to get to the car. Why? Because she knew she would not be ratted out by the husband. Yeah, she was very cold-blooded if this was a he or a she. A lot of confidence and didn't even bother to screech away out of the driveway in the getaway car, just drove away. Take a listen as Ahrens and Pratt describe the aftermath of the murder. Gunshot. Yeah. And down she goes. Yes. Your mother is lying where? On the floor right there.

It was just a horrible feeling. Joe was living at home, and his friends were over that morning, including Jeannie Pratt, who helped tend to Marlene. A neighbor called 911. I was right next to her, and I rolled her to her side. There was a big hole in her cheek and upper lip. Joe, hobbled by a broken leg and cast, followed the clown outside. The shooter's car, a white Chrysler LeBaron, 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 called 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. Joe made his way to his own car. Joey was running around hurting himself and I'm like

you're not going anywhere by yourself. Jeannie Pratt jumped in the car with him. I just punched it to try to catch up to that car. I never could never could catch it. It was like just disappeared. So then I turned back and came back here. That's just heartbreaking as you hear them describe when the mom gets shot down. He describes seeing the clown's eyes through all that makeup as being dark brown. And sure enough, Sheila Keene, who later becomes Sheila Keene Warren when she marries Marlene's then-husband, has dark brown eyes. They were rumored to be having a secret sex relationship before they were married, pretty quick, fairly soon after the murder.

Now, this is what we know. Prosecutors have released evidence, and we know that they were having a hard time pinning anybody with the murder because she was wearing clown costume, white makeup, the wig, the outfit. We also know that she was there in the clown suit and nobody could identify really her height or anything further than that. The people at the store were tracked down where she bought the balloons and flowers. A woman matching the mistress's description bought them, but they couldn't positively say it was her.

So the prosecutor's hands were tied. Take a listen as Joe describes his mom in the hospital as he's speaking to CBS reporter Peter Van Zandt with 48 Hours Listen. First thing I did was grab her hand, you know, and try to talk to her, you know, just try to get some kind of response, you know, and there was nothing. I just wanted to see my mom. I just stayed in that room for hours at a time. As his mother clung to life, Joe remained by her side at the hospital. What were you saying to her? I love you. Please don't leave. Mom, I just kept saying mom.

Oh, you know, Karen Stark, renowned psychologist joining us from New York. Karen, that reminds me so much of standing by my father in the bed at the hospital and right, right beside his left ear. And I would whisper in his ear. Everybody else was saying, Mac, you can go. You can go. I was whispering, don't go, Daddy. Don't go. Come back to me.

Please let me make you a cup of decaf. Please come back. Don't go. And just looking for any hint that he could hear me. And I'm imagining this son by his mother just begging her to come back. And that's trauma, Nancy, what you're remembering that part about telling your dad not to go because it's very hard to let go of somebody that you love that much and hear about even though you understand that it's important to tell them that they can leave. Here's this guy who's so traumatized, and it's certainly untimely. And he's pleading with his

mom to stay with him because he's devastated. This woman was not supposed to die. Nothing was supposed to happen to her. And if you think about the events and how they unfolded it's so horrific that he'll be traumatized for the rest of his life you know i i think about those moments and it was not because of a violent act you know when my fiancee was murdered and died of a violent act that's even harder to get over i cannot imagine losing your mom to a violent act. And I was thinking about this. Actually, I thought about it after Jackie put it in my head and with me in the studios, Jackie Howard. Can you imagine Karen Stark, this mistress, looking at herself in the mirror that morning as she was applying the white clown makeup, knowing she was painting up, suiting up to go commit a murder?

I would suspect, Nancy, and I think that although this is hard for people listening to really understand, this person was putting on that clown makeup and excited. She was actually excited about what she was about to pull off. She wouldn't have been able to do it if she hadn't been. And that's what happens to someone who's a sociopath who's able to commit a crime like that. They are really excited. The adrenaline is pumping. With me is private investigator extraordinaire Vincent Hill. Vincent, I always suspected that the mistress did it, but the police said they just did not have enough hard evidence until now. The evidence includes hair fiber found in the getaway car. Before they could not really match that up because they didn't have the right DNA technology.

It must have been mitochondrial. There was hair fiber. There were hair fibers in the getaway car, a Publix receipt, Publix grocery store receipt, workers at a costume rental store who helped capture a, quote, killer clown 27 years after she shoots dead her husband's first wife. Vincent, I would have been tempted to make a circumstantial case out of what I had, you know? Yeah, it's great to have a circumstantial case, but it's even better, Nancy, to have that DNA evidence. And thankfully, you know, in 2018, there's so much advancement in DNA versus in 1989 when this first happened. So, you know, investigators, unfortunately, then didn't

want to try to prosecute this case for her to walk because, you know, double jeopardy. But I think if this case moves forward with the advancements in DNA, I think we're going to see a conviction. Take a listen to Marlene's mother, Shirley Twing, talking to Peter Van Zandt. She says, if anything happens to me, Mike did it. So there must have been one heck of a fight. What did that tell you? I told her she could come home. Oh, if she had only come home. Karen Stark, psychologist, can I tell you?

I can't because I don't know how many women have said, if I end up dead, he did it. All right? And sometimes vice versa. All right? If I end up dead, she did it. But nobody does anything at the time because you really don't think the perp is capable of murder. That's right, Nancy. That's exactly what happens. And I can understand that, can't you? I mean,

your mind is incapable of grasping the fact that somebody that you love, that you live with, would be able to do that. And yet, deep in your unconscious, you begin to suspect that something is really wrong. And if something happens to you, you want someone to know that the other person is responsible. It's a horrible situation to live in. Well, it culminates. Take a listen to Virginia police. An Abington, Virginia woman has been arrested and charged with a 27-year-old capital murder case that originated out of Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office that they had obtained information linking Sheila Keene Warren of Abington, Virginia to the 1990 homicide of Marlene Warren. At approximately 5.30 this afternoon, members of the Washington County, Virginia Sheriff's Office, along with members of the United States Marshal Service, Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, and the Palm Beach State Attorney's Office arrested 54 year old Sheila Keene Warren.

She's been charged with first-degree murder with the firearm of Marlena Warren. She's been transported to the Abington facility of the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail in Abington where she is awaiting extradition back to Palm Beach County, Florida. The suspect or the arrestee walked up to the front door with balloons in her hand. The deceased victim came to the front door and was shot at that location. I think any time you have a cold case that goes on for that period of time and are able to bring it to a successful conclusion, because I know there's been hundreds if not thousands of man hours

that have been put in in the last 27 years, and I think that shows the diligence of the Palm Beach State Attorney's Office as well as the Palm Beach Sheriff's Office that they didn't, you know, just because the case was getting colder and colder, you know, their diligence obviously proved that they were successful in the arrest. Sheila Keene Warren, the mistress turned wife. Was it worth it? She's now arrested on a charge of first degree murder in the shooting death of Marlene Warren. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend.

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