Going West: True Crime - Marlene Warren // 418

Episode Date: July 3, 2024

In May of 1990, a 40-year-old woman was murdered by a person in a clown costume after opening the door for them during breakfast. While police initially focused on her husband, he appeared to have an airtight alibi. But police would soon find someone else who had a reason to want her dead. This is the story of Marlene Warren. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What is going on true crime fans? I'm your host, T and I'm your host Daphne and you're listening to going West. Howdy folks. We are back from our Oregon trip for Heath's birthday. We had such an amazing time. And thank you so much to everybody who checked out his very special birthday bonus episode. We called it Tales from the Campground.

Yeah, that was a super fun episode. Yeah, we loved it. It's basically just us telling these true, scary camping encounters. And it was so casual and spooky and fun. It felt like we were just hanging out, which we were in the tent. Yeah, we were. We were hanging out in the tent.

We were doing some creepy stories. And you guys can listen to that episode along with 110-plus other bonus episodes on Apple subscriptions or Patreon.com slash Going West podcast. Yes, absolutely. But over to today's case, I cannot remember how I to today's case, I cannot remember how I stumbled upon this case,

but even just the initial details of it unsettled me so much that I knew we had to cover it. You've heard of this, right? Oh, absolutely, yeah. I mean, I know you know the case now, but I mean, you've known about it. I have known about it, yes. Okay, yeah.

So you guys will see why, like in the intro alone, why this case is unlike anything you've heard. It is terrifying. Absolutely. So without further ado, this is episode 318 of going west. So let's get into it. Make your nights unforgettable with American Express. Unmissable show coming up? Good news. We've got access to pre-sale tickets so you don't miss it. Meeting with friends before the show? We

can book your reservation and when you get to the main event, skip to the good bit using the card member entrance. Let's go seize the night. That's the powerful backing of American Express. Visit amex.ca slash yamx. Benefits vary by card, other conditions apply. In May of 1990, a 40-year-old woman was murdered by a person in a clown costume after opening the door for them during breakfast. While police initially focused on her husband, he appeared to have an airtight alibi.

But police would soon find someone else who had a reason to want her dead. Marlene Mae McKinnon was born on April 15, 1950 in Mount Clemens, Michigan, to Shirley and Leonard McKinnon. One of five daughters, she spent much of her childhood playing on her grandfather's farm in a small northern suburb of Detroit. Shirley described her daughter as an outstanding young woman, social and warm, and that she would do anything for anyone in need. She was also an incredibly creative and artistic child

who loved to bake and paint. Now let's talk about this painting for a little bit because Eerily, and you guys probably already know why, this is Eerily from the intro, but one of her favorite subjects to paint were clowns. Very creepy, my dad would hate this episode. Oh, does he hate clowns? He hates clowns. I think we talked about this a few years ago because I'm really afraid of clowns as well

And I remember one of our listeners Like commented on our post and said that her Parents and grandparents were clowns. Do you remember this? And I felt kind of bad shitting on clowns. Of course We mean no disrespect to any clowns out there, but when you couple clowns with true crime, it gets terrifying. Yeah, I mean, for whatever reason, Marlene was very interested in clowns.

I mean, I'm sure a lot of people are. And they scare a lot of people. A lot of people think they're fun and cute and entertaining. You know, that's kind of their original point is to be entertaining. But this fact that she used to love to paint clowns as a kid would kind of come to haunt her family later. But at the time that she was painting them, her mother Shirley proudly displayed this collection of clowns in

their house. Now years later, when Marlene was a teenager, she married a man named John Aarons and they eventually had a son with the very same name who they Now years later when Marlene was a teenager she married a man named John Aarons and they eventually had a son with the very same name who they nicknamed Johnny And this was all happening when Marlene was just 15 years old It was two weeks to the day before her 16th birthday that she is married and with child and then a short while later Her second son Joseph was born again while she was still a teenager. But this relationship with John didn't last and the reasoning is kind of a mystery because according to some sources it was a mostly amicable split since they you know were both very young when they got

married but other sources say that John senior was actually struck and killed in a car accident. So that's a pretty big difference from separation. I'd say so, yeah. But it's unclear to the public which is true. I mean, hell, maybe both are true. But regardless of how the marriage ended, Marlene became the single mother of two young boys by 20 years old.

Despite this, she was described by her son Joe as a kind, generous, and loving person and an incredible mother. He said fondly, quote, My mom was an angel. We were best friends. While starting over with her boys on her own, Marlene met the apparently very charming Michael Warren. They enjoyed this whirlwind romance that ended them getting married on April 27th, 1972, when Marlene was 22 and Michael was 20. So with this, Michael became the boy's father, which went well by all accounts, because Joe

said that he remembers Michael as a strong father figure and a good dad to them. Early in their relationship, Marlene and Michael relocated themselves and their boys from the Midwest to sunny Florida and settled in West Palm Beach. At this time, Michael was working as a meat inspector as they tried to kind of get their business ventures off the ground because really Marlene and Michael wanted to own multiple businesses and just try to become really successful together, which they would do. They didn't even really have a lot of experience here, but they did manage to accomplish it, eventually establishing themselves as a well-known local couple. So at first, Michael owned and operated

a used car dealership called Bargain Motors and a car rental agency called a Bargain Auto Rentals. So they're fine in success with these businesses and decided to kind of turn around and make even more money by collecting properties to fix up and rent out, which eventually totaled to more than 20 in the West Palm beach area. Starting in 1980, they began collecting empty land, building duplexes and apartment homes and using the profits to purchase

more properties. Marlene's mom, Shirley said proudly, quote, she was a go getter. She wasn't afraid to take on a lot of work. However, Marlene kind of struggled with handling the more confrontational aspects of her business. You know, she's a super nice woman. She doesn't like having to evict tenants when they can't pay their rent. You know, this was a really tough part of the job for her. So because of this, she had a goal to sell off most of the properties and had an appointment with a real estate agent

The very week that she died But before we get into what happened to her, let's talk a little bit more about how they got there So after some time in West Palm Beach, the family moved just about 30 minutes away into the Aero Club in Wellington, Florida Which is essentially this upscale neighborhood in Palm Beach County that offered private airstrips to land planes Which is gonna be relevant here in a second now the Warrens purchased an acre of land and built this custom ranch style home And although Michael loved their flashy lifestyle Marlene really wasn't that into it. She just kind of wanted a simpler life and slower pace, and eventually hoped to sell the home and downsize to something smaller.

Michael, however, leaned fully into their lifestyle and purchased racehorses to breed and sell off. He did end up keeping some of these horses, and one of them actually went on to win $50,000 in a race. So this kind of proved to be a very profitable venture for him. And now that they're living next to this fancy airstrip, Michael started working towards his pilot's license and bought a small plane. However, chasing this dream life caught up with him in the spring of 1983, when he found

himself in a little bit of legal trouble after being caught tampering with the odometers of the cars that he was selling He was actually accused of setting the mileage back on these used cars so that he could sell them for a higher profit Which is obviously very illegal You can't you know sell a car and say that it's got 30,000 miles on it when it's got like you know 150,000 and it was doing things like this that made the others in his community remember him as reckless and rough around the edges and after this things started to go really downhill here because his racehorse was

allegedly kidnapped and then turned up dead and his plane was stolen later found without an engine but his neighbors wondered whether he was actually behind both of these occurrences himself. So after his legal troubles, the car businesses were both transferred to Marlene's name, and it was at this point in Marlene's marriage to Michael that their lives began to really diverge. Though Michael is remembered fondly by some, he had this darker side that few people knew about aside from his wife Marlene. Now both Joe and Shirley, again Marlene's parents, have claimed since Marlene's death that she told them quote, if anything happens to me, it

was Michael. And just the amount of times that we hear almost this exact same quote on this show by the way, but with a different person's name is fucking staggering. It is truly unbelievable How many times victims actually point out who their killer really is? Yeah, and remember that for later because it's not this cut and dry But basically Marlene also grew suspicious that Michael was having affairs Basically, Marlene also grew suspicious that Michael was having affairs. But the family conflicts were just beginning because Michael wasn't the only one to find himself in trouble with the law. When their son Joe was in his late teens, he fell in with the wrong crowd and

happened to be in a group of friends during what turned into a case of attempted murder. So this group of teenage boys, Joe included, beat and stabbed a man in 1986. Thankfully, the man lived, but Joe received probation for his loose involvement. He wasn't one of the ones to actually attack this man, but he was amongst the group that was responsible for it.

So for this, his family retained attorney Christopher DeSantis. And in my opinion, getting this attorney and the conversation that I'm about to talk about it like completely changed Marlene's life. So there was a successful hearing on Joe's behalf and afterwards, Michael pulled Christopher aside. And this is all from Christopher's perspective by the way he said that Michael pulled him aside and asked if someone were to kill their wife would they still receive their wife's

life insurance payout like you idiot I mean it honestly does not get dumber than this asking an attorney about murder. Like, come on, man. Like, there's no logical reason other than you are planning to do that or hoping to do that, that you would ask this. Like, that's like beyond basic curiosity. Why would you even want to know that answer?

Sure, and why is Christopher not, you know, skeptical of this question, questioning it? It seems like he kind of was, especially when this kind of, you know, rang in his head later, but he answered the question and said that in most cases they would not receive the life insurance policy payout, but that there were instances in which it was possible, such as if the situation was considered manslaughter or if they had gotten away with murder. Christopher recalls joking quote, this is what Christopher said to him. For example, if you wore a clown suit.

I mean, I don't know why you're giving this person any ideas about how they could potentially pull off killing their wife. Yeah. I mean, of course, course, Christopher isn't being serious saying, yeah, you should wear a clown suit and that's how you're going to do it. You know, he's thinking, oh, this is like a lighthearted conversation. He doesn't think that, you know, Michael's necessarily going to go off and take his advice. But I would say why even entertain this question?

Yeah, I mean, if somebody asked us this, we'd be like, why the hell are you asking that? I'd be like, entertain this question. Yeah, I mean if you if somebody asked us this we'd be like why the hell are you asking that? I'd be like put this man on a list right now. Yeah, but so of course Christopher later very much regretted his words, you know, hoping that this didn't plant the seed of a very diabolical plot. Well shortly after this tragedy struck when Marlene's son Johnny, just 22 at the time, was killed in an automobile accident on September 23rd, 1988. So this is a couple years after Joe's friends had tried to kill that man. And according to the police report, Johnny had failed to stop at a stop sign and struck another vehicle at the intersection of Sandsbury Way and Fairgrounds Road in West Palm Beach, and

he died at the scene of this accident. I mean, this is just such a tough time for the family in general, like their marriage is crumbling, Joe was involved in this horrible attack, and then their eldest son dies, you know, so suddenly. Yeah, it's a lot, especially with what's to come as well that they don't even know about. Exactly. So Marlene and Joe just kind of busy themselves with work, and Joe was really excited to help his mom with business stuff so that he could learn the ropes from her. Well, meanwhile, Michael was focused on other endeavors, one of them being a young employee of his named Sheila Keene. So 27-year-old Sheila worked alongside her husband at the car repossession business that

Marlene and Michael owned. Sheila's husband Richard handled the towing, while Sheila brokered the repossession of the vehicle with its owner. And since she's a very focal point of this story, let's talk about this gal. So, Sheila had grown up in central Florida and was known to possess a pretty wild streak. She had a few arrests of shoplifting charges and had married Richard, who was 20 years her senior, when she was in her early 20s on May 13th, and just three months later Sheila gave birth to their son Charles Now her husband Richard was a former member of the Ku Klux Klan and he actually served time in prison for importing

Exporting and distributing marijuana. So this guy is just a racist piece of shit So while serving his sentence at a penitentiary in Georgia Sheila moved north to be with Richard and when he was released they moved back to Florida and were then hired to repossess cars from Michael's business. So obviously the three of them worked closely together and Sheila was reportedly sometimes even used as bait, dressing as a sex worker to distract and like ensnare men while Richard and Michael would take the cars back under less than

ethical business practices. Yeah, so they're all just a bunch of schemers. Big-time schemers, and Michael basically is a schemer throughout this entire story and his entire life. Oh, yeah. So all three of these people carried guns at work and Sheila kept a gun on her at all times, apparently in order to ensure her safety. Remember that. Right. Though he worked closely with Sheila's husband, Michael began spending so much time around Sheila at work and outside of work that rumors swirled about their relationship, especially once

Sheila and her husband Richard finally separated. On January 17th, 1990, Sheila filed for a restraining order against her husband Richard, citing domestic violence. She claimed that he had grabbed her roughly and threatened her, and that she was afraid that he would do something worse if given the opportunity. So Sheila moved out of their house and into an apartment which was apparently being paid for by Michael. You guessed it people, by Michael. In fact, he became such a fixture in Sheila's

apartment building that her neighbors assumed that he was her husband even though he was still married to Marlene. You know, again, this is her apartment building. The people here don't know Marlene or Michael, but this is the impression that they're getting because they're seeing Michael come around that often. Right. So despite him being married to Marlene still, co-workers of theirs literally saw them engaging in sexual and romantic relations on the freaking job on a daily basis when Marlene wasn't around.

Coworkers also recall the quickly deteriorating state of Marlene's relationship with Michael and that he had openly joked about hiring someone to kill her. So not only did he ask this attorney Mike Christopher Christopher, sorry Christopher. He's also telling his employees That he's wants to plan to have his wife killed. I don't know why the hell insanity so on Saturday, May 26 1990 Michael headed out early for the racetracks in Miami with some friends Marlene stayed back at the house with Joe, who was nursing this broken leg of his at the time, and he had three friends over for breakfast that morning. So they're all, you know, the friends, Joe and Marlene, are kind of downstairs in the

kitchen enjoying breakfast. And at 10 45 a.m., through the double glass doors displaying the lush manicured front lawn Marlene spied a tall thin figure Dressed as a clown Carrying flowers and balloons. Okay, first of all if a clown is coming on to my property Without my knowledge if if I didn't hire this clown to be there. Which you wouldn't. That clown is getting the fuck off of my property. Well, because she liked clowns, you know, she's not freaked out by this. Right, right.

She actually enjoys this. So basically, the flowers that the clown was holding, they were red and white carnations with some babies breath arranged, and then the arranged, you know, within the carn carnations and then the balloons were two foil balloons one of which said you're the greatest and the other one featured Snow White and the seven dwarfs very very random super random yeah so Joe remembers hearing his mom say oh how pretty you know, she thinks this is awesome. Then 40 year old Marlene approached the door

to welcome the clown into the foyer of the home. Hearing what he initially thought was one of the balloons popping, Joe looked over to the front of the house to see his mother collapsed on the foyer rug bleeding. She had been shot point blank in the mouth. Now the clown, having dropped the balloons and flowers at the front door, was now walking casually away from the house.

There's no sprinting, there's no panic, they're just walking away. That's just such an insane scene that a clown just walks up, shoots somebody, and then casually just walks off. Yeah, well luckily, Joe was right there. He watched this happen, basically. And so he was able to lock eyes with his mother's murderer. And he described the shooter as male, about six feet tall, with big brown eyes. Now this last detail he remembers very clearly, because those big brown eyes peered back at him calmly and vacantly from beneath the heavy clown makeup, before slowly returning to their car parked out front and driving away.

Which is even more horrific that they just shot this woman to death and then hung around for a second enough for Joe to make eye contact and then they just turn around and walk away basically without a care. I mean at no point did the clown's getaway seem hurried or guilt ridden at all. And then the shooter got into what Joe claimed was a white Chrysler LeBaron and left the scene. And this is crazy, Heath, because not only is this a sunny morning in Florida's spring, but you're in the most obvious and recognizable outfit

there basically is. Not only do you have this orange hair and this intense makeup and all you know this bright color. Squishy red clown nose. Yeah like you're wearing colors. It's such an obvious outfit. You know no part of you blends in with anything amongst the Florida suburban landscape and you're casually walking away and getting into your car for all to see like you didn't just murder someone. I don't know what...where this idea came from of wanting to dress up like a clown and thinking that that was not going to get you noticed. There's gonna be a lot more clown talk in this episode that I think will clear it up

a little bit, but it's still so weird. I mean it's just, it's dumb in my opinion. It is very dumb. So after the clown left, Joe and his friends were left to try to help his mom and chase this guy down. So Joe immediately asked one of his friends to call 911, and a neighbor walking his dog by the house at the time also instructed his wife to call 911, and stood there to help the boys with Marlene. Now, Joe leapt into his car in only shorts and the boot on his broken leg and took off after this LeBaron to hunt down this clown. That's amazing. Yeah, I mean, he's not stopping in anything to chase down his mother's killer.

The ambulance that arrived shortly after collected Marlene, unconscious and gravely injured, and transported her to the hospital. Because of where she was shot, she had a bullet lodged in her spine and was placed on life support right away. While she survived for two more days, but was taken off of life support on May 28, 1990. Her son Joe remembers pleading with her to pull through and promising to find out who had done this to her. Michael Michael was there in the hospital morning alongside Marlene's son Joe, the rest of the family, and a bunch of their friends, which quickly became kind of a sticky situation

because many suspected that Michael was involved from the beginning. I mean, yeah, he's going around telling his employees that he wants to hire someone to kill his wife. He told an attorney. Come on. Yeah, she thought he was cheating. She told her parents that if something happened to her, look at him, and then something did happen to her. Right. But here's the thing. Michael had an airtight alibi.

Like, not only was he with witnesses, you know his friends at that racetrack But he wasn't even in Wellington. He was in Miami at the time Which is over an hour and a half's drive away. So he was very much not in the area So working off Joe's description police began a frantic search for the killer clown began a frantic search for the killer clown. But this proved to be difficult because Joe was not able to capture a completely accurate description of the culprit. You know, he said it was a male who had been dressed in a clown suit but with regular street shoes.

He said they had a curly orange wig, heavy white face paint, and a red clown nose, like you said, one of those foam ones. Yeah, the squishy ones. And again, Joe believed it to be a man who was tall and thin. He later said in an interview on a local radio station, quote, Well, to me, it seemed like a man

because the big hands and the size of the person. So the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office moved forward with the information that they knew was correct, which was the color, make, and model of the getaway car, a white Chrysler LeBaron. And they found this thing fast because the day before Marlene's funeral on May 30, 1990, a tip was called in about a car matching that description and it was parked in the parking lot of a Winn-Dixie grocery store. And that particular Chrysler LeBaron

was quickly linked to Marlene's murder through the mess that was Michael's shady business practices. And here is what police are finding out under the scenes. So near Michael's auto rental lot was another rental car company called Payless. And from Payless rental cars, this couple rented a white Chrysler LeBaron. And when they were returning it or they were preparing to return it, they called the listing that they found in the phone book for Payless. But they had actually called Michael's car rental company, which remember is called a bargain auto rentals. So when Michael took out his advertisement

in the phone book, he had titled it in bold black letters, Payless. Now the actual name of the business again was a bargain auto rentals, and that was listed in smaller print above. So this is also like a shady thing to do. Oh yeah, absolutely. It's a, you know, that's his competition.

Yeah, and he's trying to steal their business by putting his own phone number under there. It's just a mess. So this couple was really confused about, you know, where their phone call was heading. They called the wrong company and they didn't know about it. And an employee of Michael's still instructed them to park the car on the street outside a bargain with the keys on the visor. So when the couple left the car there instead of Payless, Payless

reported it stolen because they didn't receive the car back. They didn't receive a phone call. They didn't know what happened to it. Right. And then there it is in the Winn-Dixie parking lot, having been used as the getaway car in Marlene's murder. And this is interesting because Payless had reported this car stolen on April 14th, but Marlene was murdered on May 26th. So that was almost six weeks prior, which is really bizarre.

Yeah, I mean, I wonder what they were doing with that car for over a month. Well because of this whole ordeal, the police's prime suspects were of course employees of a bargain auto rentals. So get this, when that car was searched, that white Chrysler LeBaron investigators recovered acrylic orange fibers believed to be that of the clown wig that was worn by the murderer, as well as long brown hairs believed to belong to the wearer of that wig. So this just confirms even more that this was the car.

Yeah, absolutely. One person of interest, perhaps the only person of interest in this case at this point, was known for her signature long brown hair. And guess who that was? Sheila Keene. So the Sheriff's Office obtained a search warrant for Sheila's home, and a search of her closet revealed more of the same synthetic orange fibers believed to be a match to the ones found in the LeBaron.

Sheila gave a sample of her blood and her hair, but sadly, with the lack of advanced DNA testing at the time, police just couldn't make a match. Detectives subpoenaed phone records from both Michael and Sheila, and repossessed multiple cars from a bargain motors, though they would not reveal why they had done this and what they expected to find. When asked for her whereabouts on the day that Marlene was murdered, Sheila claimed that she was working, but she couldn't even nail down a witness or her exact whereabouts. Like she couldn't tell... She doesn't have a solid alibi. No, she doesn't at all. She couldn't tell them, you know, who was around her that day, if anybody spotted her at this place or this place.

She just basically had nothing. And nobody came forward to say, oh no, she was with me that day. Right. Yeah, she's got nothing. No, she was with me that day right? Yeah, she's got nothing Well investigators also discovered the costume shop that they believed sold that exact clown costume You know the one that the murderer had been wearing when Marlene was shot now There were only so many places selling wigs red noses face paint and clown costumes in the spring So police zeroed in on a place called The Spotlight, which was a costume and dancewear shop in West Palm Beach. So the two women that were working that night, whose names were Barbara and Deborah, were questioned by police, and they remembered a specific transaction that stuck out to them

recently. Deborah recalled a woman coming in late one night, just as they were shutting their doors. So Debra asked the woman if she wouldn't mind coming back in the morning, but the woman was adamant that she needed the costume that very night. This woman purchased a clown suit, a reddish orange clown wig, a Bob Kelly brand makeup kit with extra white face paint, and a red sponge clown nose. And guess what? This transaction took place just two days before Marlene's murder.

They described the woman as being on the taller side, around five feet, eight inches tall, with big brown eyes and guess what? Long brown hair. Sounds a lot like that clown. Yeah, right? She was wearing jeans and a menswear shirt, and these women claimed that she had a very authoritative, even masculine way about her. And when both Barbara and Deborah were then shown a roster of white women with brown hair,

they both plucked two specific people from the lineup that looked like the clown costume purchaser. And one of those women was Sheila Keene. So this was obviously a great find, but investigators were also very quickly able to identify the exact grocery store where the killer purchased those foil balloons. This find had been pretty easy actually because it was the only grocery store in Palm Beach County that sold this particular type of balloon. It was a Publix grocery store and the exact one that sold Marlene's murderer the balloons happened to be right around the corner

from Sheila's home. Employees of that Publix recall selling the flowers and balloons to a woman that they claim matched Sheila's description. And it had only been about an hour and a half before Marlene's murder took place. So that was a quick turnaround. I mean, just went to go buy the balloons, headed straight to Marlene's house to kill her. Well probably got, you know, got all clowned up and then, you know, had those flowers nice and fresh, the balloons nice and inflated. Right. That was the second to last stop before putting on the getup, right? Yep. So coincidentally, like Marlene, Sheila herself had a prior affinity for clowns. In fact, she used to like randomly dress up like a clown as a joke and to cheer up people around her.

So she was already very much into clowns. If anybody in my life tries to do that or they're thinking, you know, I'm depressed, they need to cheer me up, please do not dress like a clown. I'm just going to throw that out there right now. I feel like that's kind of an older thing. Like I feel like it's a bit, I don't want to say outdated because I know again, of course there are people out there today that still love clowns and appreciate them for their non-creepiness. But I feel like in the past they were a little bit more acceptable and not looked at as terrifyingly. Yeah, like when I was a kid, having a clown at your birthday party seemed like-

Did you have one? A more likely, no, I never did. I'm just saying, it seemed like more of a likely scenario back in the 80s or 90s. So true. Whereas today, people are dressing up like the guy from Toy Story, Woody, you know? Oh, at kids' parties.

Yeah, at kids' parties. It's like, for what? They're just dressing up like, you know, superheroes and stuff. Right. So true. I remember when I was a kid, my dentist was covered. There was like green walls and there was just paintings of clowns all over the the the waiting room. Yeah, I didn't like that, but I feel like the guy was older and I feel yeah this was more Acceptable back then I think so her kind of dressing up as a clown for her friends They probably liked it well and also not to not to kind of go off on too much of a tangent But clowns also were represented in a very scary way in horror movies like we're talking about like it

Yeah as time passed yeah, you know what i'm saying so it's like it's like that kind of made people develop this fear of clowns so true we were like conditioned into interfering them so this kind of eerie detail about sheila already being into clowns and dressing up as them in the past, was remembered by former friends and acquaintances of hers as police desperately attempted to cobble together enough evidence to arrest her, but they already seemed certain that she was involved. So meanwhile, Michael was also fighting off the allegations that he was involved, and for the time being, Joe was kind of standing by the man who had spent most of Joe's life as his father.

But this was short-lived because as more information began to pour out about Michael and Sheila, like Joe left his father's side fast and started to suspect him himself, especially when Joe looked back at the way that Sheila and Michael flirted at a company party once. But sadly, months passed after Marlene's death with no forward momentum, even though police were confident that Sheila and Michael were behind the whole thing. Lead detective in the case, Sergeant Bill Williams, remarked sadly, quote, this case was a set of circumstances that pointed in one direction.

Just because you can point the finger doesn't mean you got enough to convict them. In the months following Marlene's horrific murder, Michael and Sheila kind of distanced themselves and probably to be more inconspicuous, you know? Yeah, of course. They don't want to be really seen together after the murder of Michael's wife. But they were, because just months later, they were spotted vacationing together at a romantic luxury resort in the Bahamas. So there's that.

Well, I mean, yeah, they're thinking that probably nobody is going to recognize them at all. They're in the Bahamas, So yeah, they're thinking well We're safe here. Yes, have a little getaway exactly Although Michael and Sheila couldn't yet be tied to Marlene's murder There were other legal infractions stacking up against Michael which the sheriff's office intended to push to the fullest extent of the law Hoping to detain him and build their case against his and Sheila's involvement in Marlene's death. Now, with the case slipping away from them a bit, police obtained a search warrant from

Michael's business, hoping to come across something that would incriminate him. So they zeroed in on a bargain motors and removed dozens of boxes of evidence containing records and paperwork that they felt proved further that Michael was scamming people, just as he had been convicted of before. Well, their investigation once again revealed that Michael had still been tampering with the odometers of his cars, so he obviously didn't learn the first time because he was again adjusting them to lower mileage in order to sell them at a higher cost. But this time, there were even more charges stacked up against him.

On October 26, 1990, Michael Warren was arrested for odometer tampering, racketeering, and grand theft. Because in addition to setting back the mileage on the odometers, he was accused of repossessing cars that he had sold, reporting them as stolen, and then collecting the insurance money. Schemer. Such a schemer. In 1992, he was found guilty on 43 counts of these charges, and then he was sentenced to 9 years in prison, for which he served 3 and a half. But even that wasn't long enough for detectives to link him to the murder, and he was released

on New Year's Eve 1997. Because at this point they just did not have enough evidence to prove either of their concrete connections to the murder. A couple years after Michael's release from prison came a shocking development. In 1999, after years of estrangement, Sheila finally divorced her husband, Richard Keene. Then, despite continued denial that he was involved with Sheila, Michael married her at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas in August of 2002. So he's saying that they weren't together

and now suddenly they're married, which proves that this affair was very real. Absolutely, yeah, he was full of shit. So they moved to a small town in Western Virginia and Sheila changed her name to Debbie Warren. So she went- Okay, that's not suspicious at all. I'm just gonna change my name, you know, years after the murder of my now husband's ex-wife.

Yeah, exactly. Like she went from being named Sheila Keene to Debbie Warren, like a completely different name, but not only that, she also dyed her hair blonde. Remember it was brown before. And with Michael purchased a franchise of a fast food chain that they operated together. So they're still wanting to be in business, be entrepreneurs, you know, do their thing, make their money. But now they're doing it in Virginia and she is a completely different person. I would be worried about any type of business that the two of these knuckleheads are involved in.

Well, here is what their business was. So it's just over the border of Virginia in a town, or it was in a town called Kingsport, Tennessee. Their fast food chain was called Purple Cow, and it was a drive-through sandwich and hamburger restaurant that made them a small fortune. A few of their employees later came forward though to claim that Sheila had been aggressive and a mean, mean employer.

A few of them also remembered Sheila dressing up as a what for Halloween? A fucking clown. Yeah, she showed up to work as a clown one Halloween. That just feels like such disrespect. Like just the sickness that you would have the audacity to do that. Yes, and that's a good point because if they're claiming we didn't do that to Marlene, we didn't take any part

of that, you're dressing up as the character that murdered your now husband's ex-wife. That's a little insensitive. Yeah, even if you didn't, even if you didn't do it, why would you dress up as a clown? That's why it's suspicious. So according to locals who knew nothing about their collective seedy past, they remembered Michael and Debbie, now we'll call her Debbie, as a happy, loving couple.

They eventually settled in a sprawling white house perched on a lake, and they owned their own boat to take out on the water. Though the couple seemed to have moved on from the controversy of being involved in Marlene's murder completely, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office reopened Marlene's case in 2014 using a grant from the state to revive cold cases. So a couple of years after this, the couple sold off their restaurant, this happened in 2016, and then they decided to kind of live a quiet life

and spend all their time outdoors, make friends with the locals, and tend to their home and garden. But on August 31st, 2017, a grand jury indicted Sheila Warren, aka Debbie Warren, or Sheila Keene, or Sheila Keene, so many names, for first-degree murder. The most compelling piece of evidence in the prosecutor's minds was a slight DNA match between the brown hair found in the LeBaron that was parked in the Winn minds was a slight DNA match between the brown hair found in the LeBaron that was parked in the Winn-Dixie parking lot.

And this evidence, which was held for decades, was finally able to be tested when the case was reopened. However, her defense attorney argued that it wasn't a definitive match and it could have matched many Caucasian women with brown hair, so this was not a slam dunk. Also, because the car had spent time on the bargain motor's lot, a strand of Sheila's actual hair could have definitely found its way into the vehicle by innocent means.

Like, her, you know, I mean, technically, right? Yeah, of course, technically, but nobody really believes that, do they? Of course, no. But it Yeah, of course, technically, but nobody really believes that, do they? Of course, no. But, it wasn't until a month later, on September 26, 2017, over 27 years since the murder of Marlene Warren, that the first ever arrest in the case was finally made. Michael and Sheila were pulled over in Washington County, Virginia while driving home.

Sheila didn't resist or make a fuss and asked few questions, except to wonder if her husband was under arrest too. Interesting question to ask. Yeah, and he was not. Sheila was then escorted into the back of a police car and went silently and calmly. Frustratingly, though investigators remain convinced that Michael is involved, somehow no evidence ties him to the crime. But they remained hopeful that they would somehow, someday, be able to convict him as well. Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave

Ehrenberg reported after Sheila's arrest, quote, There's still a lot of questions about Michael Warren, the victim's husband, and now, the suspect's husband. Will he face charges in this case? Well, I can't speak specifically to Michael Warren or any of the specific facts of this case. I can just say generally, whenever you're dealing with any homicide case, we're going to investigate anyone who may be culpable, and we'll make a decision on prosecutions

as appropriate." Well, Joe's response to the arrest was a simple quote, She killed my mother, she will pay. When a local news station reached out to Sheila's son, Charles, asking if he had a comment on the arrest of his mother's involvement in the murder, he said flatly quote, I was three at the time and nope. the murder, he said flatly, quote, I was three at the time and nope. But things took a shocking turn when on April 25th, 2023, Sheila Warren pleaded guilty to the second degree murder of her husband's late wife, Marlene, though both she and Michael

have maintained their innocence throughout the 33 years of the investigation. Yeah, and Sheila really only pled guilty because she accepted a plea deal offered to her by the state and this sentenced her to just 12 years with credit served for the five and a half years she spent awaiting her sentence. So her defense attorney also claimed that she would likely serve only another 16 months. So this is just wild. Not justice by any means. No.

So in a recent interview with CBS, Michael lamented that his wife was all but forced to plead guilty to Marlene's murder just to appease the investigators. Yeah, sure. In his wife's defense, he proclaimed, quote, my wife did not commit this crime. It was difficult to see her plea to a crime she did not commit,

but it wasn't worth the gamble when she was offered a deal that'll have her home in 16 to 18 months. As for who he felt was responsible, he kind of theorized that it was likely a disgruntled tenant or car buyer from one of their businesses. Come on. No, not at all. Well, neither the murder weapon nor the clown costume have ever been found.

Sheila Warren remains in jail until an expected release of March 2nd, 2025, so less than a year from when we're recording this case. Marlene's mother Shirley died in 2023 at the age of 92, which sadly happened just six weeks before Sheila pleaded guilty to killing Marlene. Obviously there weren't real answers there anyway, but I'm sure she would have really loved to see that happen. Before she died, she remarked, quote,

"'I turned angry when I heard Michael had married Sheila remembering that she killed my daughter and he married her. There's got to be something there. She got away with it for so long. You can't tell me that he didn't know. No way in heck. If there's a hell, I hope she rots in it." Of everyone involved, Joe suffered the most, it seems, because he lost his biological father, then his brother, then his mom, and then his stepfather. After Sheila's conviction, Joe said, quote, I feel a lot better. I feel relieved, a thousand pounds lighter.

I have this energy now that I should have had a long time ago and Then he continued on to say quote. I'm still okay. I have to be anger is no good It will ruin you Thank you so much everybody for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. What a crazy story. And it took so long to get any form of justice. And the justice that this case did receive was pretty shitty.

It's so disappointing. And it's really strange. I know that looks don't mean anything or they shouldn't but Seeing photos of Michael and Sheila like in more recent years. They seem like this really happy sweet couple But I will say again remember a lot of people in their lives Don't feel this way about them and they did so many horrible things But I think you guys will kind of be surprised seeing these photos of them because I I certainly was yeah, definitely Yeah, it's it's so disappointing

Hopefully they will find more evidence, but I can't believe in in a case where it seems like Everything was against the perpetrator like you're wearing a crazy obvious costume You're committing a crime in broad daylight. There were witnesses in Marlene's house Your car was found like and we still don't have this clear cut, you know, plan and plot showing itself in front of us is just crazy. Yeah, I'm honestly so surprised that Michael never was found guilty of being, you know, involved in this case. But, you know, there's still time because after

30 years, Sheila went down. So true. Well, let us know what you guys think. Thank you so much for tuning into this episode. Remember, if you want to see photos of Marlene, of Sheila, of Michael, of the balloons, the front door, everything like that, to really set the scene, head over to our socials. We're on Instagram at goingwestpodcast and we're also on Facebook. And also before we head out, no disrespect to you clowns out there. We love you guys. We don't wanna be offensive.

It's not our fault. It's the movies. That's the horror movies, all right? I did not, it's Stephen King's fault, okay? True. I put it all on him. Love you, Stephen. Well, anyways, for everybody out there in the world.

Don't be a stranger. Thanks for watching!