Small Town Murder - #468 - The Killer Clown Mystery - Wellington, Florida

Episode Date: February 24, 2024

This week, in Wellington, Florida, a happy, successful woman is met at her front door by a clown, with flowers, and balloons. The clown also had a gun, and uses it to murder this woman, in front of her family, before the clown slips off into the world. Despite a mountain of circumstantial evidence, and a very suspicious sounding husband, this case goes cold, for years? Did they ever find this killer clown?? Along the way, we find out that Palm Beach county is horse country, that it's hard to tell an identity through clown makeup, and that no one needs any more reasons to hate clowns!!Hosted by James Pietragallo and Jimmie WhismanNew episodes every Thursday!Donate at: patreon.com/crimeinsports or go to paypal.com and use our email: [e-mail] to shutupandgivememurder.com for all things Small Town Murder & Crime In Sports!Follow us on...twitter.com/@murdersmallfacebook.com/smalltownpodinstagram.com/smalltownmurderAlso, check out James & Jimmie's other show, Crime In Sports! On Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, Wondery, Wondery+, Stitcher, or wherever you listen to podcasts!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

You're listening early and ad-free on Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. Hello, everybody, and welcome back to Small Town Murder Express. Yay and choo-choo. Oh, yay indeed, Jimmy. Yay indeed. My name is James Petrigallo. I'm here with my co-host. I am Jimmy Westman.

Thank you folks so much for joining us today. We are so excited. Couldn't be more excited here. All aboard the murder train, pulling away from the station. We got some crazy stuff for you. We're in Florida today. Oh, my. And it's one of those cases where you go wow just where else could this happen because it is nuts the whole thing is

ridiculous and and awful also awful too is the other thing so we'll get into everything but before that definitely head over to shut up and give me murder.com oh what's there you may ask everything first of all merch all sorts of stuff anything you can want with anything we've ever said on it that in addition to definitely tickets for the entire 2024 oh yeah i almost called it season but the whole year and get your tickets right now there's shows that are already sold out shows that are selling out quick even boston and new york in december are going fast. Phoenix in November sold out. Minneapolis, that could be our biggest show ever if you sell that bad boy out in September.

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at the end of the show, the regular show. There's no time for it on this show. Sure. And also, listen to our other two shows, Crime and Sports. Give them a run. Check it out.

If you go, I don't really care about sports, doesn't matter. It's a comedy show where we make fun of an idiot. That's fun. So give it a shot. Give it a chance.

And of course, Your Stupid Opinions, which... Oh, boy. I oh boy i'm sorry funniest show going it's just hilarious i've never heard one like this check that out really funny people's terrible reviews about everything that's a lot of fun that said i think it's time to get into this we got a whole lot of story here in a whole short period of time so i think it it's time to sit back, everybody. Hell yeah. Let's all clear the lungs and let's all shout. Shut up and give me murder. Let's do this.

What do you say, everybody? Okay. Let's go on a trip, shall we? Yeah. All right, Jimmy. We are going down to Florida. We are. We are.

We are making our way down to wellington florida oh which you probably don't know where that is but you've been near there because we've been near there because we played a show near there no it's well it's in inland of west palm that's over there there over on that's why it sounds upper crusty well yeah it started out being kind of a upper crusty area as we'll talk about here this is in southeastern florida which is just two panhandles welded together so all panhandle uh palm beach county like we said inland from there about an hour hour and change down to miami about four hours and 45 minutes to stark florida which was our last florida episode episode 421 three murders and six congenital idiots which was hilarious. I remember that.

Population of this town right now, it has grown a lot. It went from being basically nothing in the 80s to having 61,000 people now. Oh, because of West Palm. One of those. Yeah, it's a suburb now. So it's just, it blew up. Now, when this story took place, there was 20,000 people here. So it was definitely small while definitely small and we'll

tell you about how small median household income here higher than the national average 98 163 dollars which is a good 30 grand high and then median home price also very high 642 500 bucks median median yeah to live in inland Florida. For any middle class home, there is a million and a half. Yeah, for anything smaller. Good God. Has a lot of nicknames and mottos here. Let's get into them.

One is the winter equestrian capital of the world. Is that what it is? This is where it all happens. Remember the episode with the dressage? Where did they move? Palm Beach County. It was Dillsboro, Indiana. Palm Beach County, Florida. Because that's the dressage? Where did they move? Palm Beach County is Dillsboro, Indiana. Palm Beach County, Florida, because that's the dressage capital of the world. So here it is.

Other one is unique hometown, family atmosphere, family environment. That's a motto they have. Those are just words together. Yeah. And another one is a great hometown. Let us show you. We're going to throw down on you. We're going to let us show you.

And I just picture a guy in a trench coat flashing us. I guess that's it. That's Florida. That's what I guess you let me show you around the hometown because it's so small. It's so small. We can. That's that's what it is. Yeah. We can. That's what it is. Yeah.

There's that and there's that. How about it? Each person can show you all around town. Little private tours. In the 1950s, because there was nothing here before that, Charles Oliver Wellington, who sounds like a 17th century British man who came over and established something. In 1950? 1950s.

Not 1750s. Yeah. Not 1650s. In 1950? 1950s, not 1750s. That's, yeah, not 1650s, 1950s. 1950s is when- Charles Oliver Wellington. The namesake of this shit. Yep, that's when this happened. He was an accountant from Massachusetts. Very-

Ah, this is beautiful down here, huh? Look at that. The fucking history around here. Oh, boy, look at that the fucking history around here oh boy look at that hey check it out there's literally people on this planet older than this town oh by far yeah lots of them lots of them they could have wellington could still be alive for christ oh yeah he could be doing great his son could tell us all about him i'm sure this is amazing he purchased 18 000 acres of swampland yeah which who wouldn't who wouldn't want that told the gators to get yeah to get go on now and uh he named the property the flying cow ranch okay due to his other occupation as an aviator

and his initials are charles Wellington, which is cow. Cow? Flying Charles Oliver Wellington Ranch is what it is. So this guy, listen to this, because it would flood all the time, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers constructed a levee south of the property in 1953. Wouldn't that be nice? Hey, the government fixed it for him? The fucking army, not just the government. The army came in.

There was a war going on at that point. We're using resources for this guy? What are we doing? I'm going to write a letter to a general. I got a fence that needs some mending. There's guys in Korea then going, these rations suck. I wish we had some money. Well, we can't because a man's property was damned.

That's how it works. Sorry, everybody. His son, Roger, inherited the property. He died in 1959, the original guy there, cow. All right. And then his family sold a bunch of acreage, and they started parsing it out for $1,000 an acre. And they were growing strawberries. At one point, they claimed to be the largest strawberry patch in the world.

Okay. Well, Strawberry Arizona has some words for you. The first time there was any people really to speak of in a census was 1980 when there was 4,600 people there. Wow. So not many. Up until the mid-'90s, it was just an out-there kind of place. Very few even places to shop or restaurants or anything like that. It was just kind of you live out here.

Well, it's fucking brand new, man. That's it. Reviews of this town. Here's four stars. It's all right. Not much to do around here. I get bored quickly and have to travel to do fun stuff, whether it's going to the beach or the mall. The schools around here are good, and there's a good little movie theater that's cheap.

Okay. Well, I mean get you do get bored easy yeah that's it sounds like a small town in iowa or anywhere else just kind of there we go um here is three stars this is fun some events a lot of animals and people live here okay that's the whole review that's the town there's animals and people that live there. That's every small town in America. And sometimes stuff happens. That's fun as shit. Two stars. Just don't live here.

It's that simple. Good day. Okay. Well, I won't. I'm not planning on it, but not a lot of context here. Now I sure won't. Here's two stars nothing there is nothing nothing at all you see did tommy wizzow write that one that is a fascinating

review you see mark there is nothing nothing there is nothing there is nothing nothing at all you see because that's the weird inflection he would put on it yeah nothing there is nothing nothing at all nothing at all maybe it's a haiku i'm not sure it keeps it keeps expanding you see uh and finally one star it's a beautiful city during the daytime apparently things change at night what happens at night it's still still beautiful. There's just dog shit all over everything? Yeah. It all changes. It's like, again, it's like Stranger Things upside down. Yeah.

Like, oh, what's going on here? It got creepy. The streetlights start bleeding. Yeah, it's so weird. Looks haunted during nighttime. Streets are very dark. There is no light. Disappointing.

That's every, well, I'm disappointed. Jesus Christ. Disappointing. That's every... Well, I'm... Disappointing. Jesus Christ. Disappointing. Why are you so hard to please? I expected more lights at night here. A lot of small towns have a darkness thing because they keep it dark. They like it that way. And at night when it's all dark like that, it's so quaint and beautiful.

Yeah, if you're going to live away from stuff, this is what you're looking for. Why are you afraid of the dark? Things to do here quickly. The South Florida Garlic Fest. Oh. what you're looking for why are you afraid of the dark things to do here quickly the south florida garlic fest oh their motto still stinking after all these hell yeah and also the best stinking party in south florida way to embrace it 25 years they've been doing this shit uh-huh yep it was the best stinking party in south florida they call it delicious is what it is jesus they have musical acts including um g love and special sauce buddy love and the special sauce buddy guy steven they also have

the whalers which who bob marley's been who i've actually seen live yeah and his kid is new york his kid is running with them it's great yeah that's cool uh dispatch rebel i guess it's revolution uh steel pulse the mighty mighty mighty boss tones are there wow can that guy speak because his voice sounded like in 1997 so i don't know how that goes you know what he's he's doing great actually i think i saw really good for him he's at a comedy club somewhere yeah he's a popular known guy collective soul that's some 90s shit there. This is incredible. What a lineup.

There's even more, too. There's a bunch of other shit here. There's arts and all that kind of crap. And garlic. So have a 90s garlicky good time there. That said, let's talk about some murder, shall we? Okay. Okay, let's get into this.

Possibly the most Florida murder of all time, just because it's weird. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Let's do it. Let's start out. Let's talk about a woman and her husband here. Michael and Marlene Warren. Okay. We'll start in 1990 and we'll jump around here.

As of 1990, they're doing very well. They live in Wellington in a very sprawling house, which we'll talk about. The husband here michael owns bargain motors in west palm beach he's a used car salesman but he makes a shit load of money because he also has a rental thing an insurance thing it's his business yeah he started out as a state meat inspector oh and then he ended up uh you know opening his own dealership and he also owns thoroughbred Race Horses as well. Of course he does.

So that's some money shit. If you're going to be in Palm Beach, why be there if you're not going to dick with horses, it seems like, in that county. One of his horses was named Marlene Warren, which is his wife's name. Okay. Is that a compliment? Named her Marlene. Ah, she just reminds me of you. I don't know what it is.

The long nose. Saw her from the back. Long nose, the pulsating vagina when she's in heat. It's just something about her. It just reminds me of you, honey. About a four-foot-wide ass on this horse. Yeah. Perfect.

Pretty muscular. I like it. So Michael was from a suburb of Michigan and of of detroit called roseville here and his father was in the meat business as well and somehow meat people also are in the horse racing business that's a big with meat people that's how i don't like that that's what i'm saying that's a little close you don't fuck with horses you're really crossing the streams at that point aren't you stay the fuck away from horses yeah that, that's what I'm saying. You're selling me beef.

Yeah, I don't know if you own horses and places that process meat. I feel a little worried about that. I don't need you passing shit off when your horse gets sick. When Michael Warren wrote on his application with the Florida Department of Agriculture to become an inspector in 1972, he said, I have worked with meat since I was 12. Meat. It's all meat baby yeah i've been working with my meat this meat i got a lot of meat i'm working with that's the funniest shit that's a great since i was 12 he wrote that on a department of agriculture form which is the great part somewhere in the florida archives are forms with people saying he's been working with meat since he was 12

unbelievable oh man that's amazing uh by 84 he was inspection supervisor yeah so he really is kicking some ass here he knows his meat he knows his meat he's been handling it since he was 12 that's the only thing that could have made it funnier for he said i've been handling meat since i was 12 that would have been better i don't know working with is pretty good yeah that's that is pretty good he resigned in november of 84 because he was accused by his bosses of falsifying time sheets when he was buying cars to resell them on state time so he was doing like a side business while getting punched in um he said he wrote this in a resignation note to the agriculture commissioner here i'm sorry that i have to do this but i have no choice i was framed by my

supervisor mr caplan who does not always tell the truth oh my god burning that bridge behind him here yeah that's right that is reckless as shit um his boss the caplan guy actually said that he um was a conscientious worker up until that point. So that's all he said. Warren then started the used car business. So he definitely was doing something here. He ended up in 1983, by the way, before this, when he was doing this on the side, he had to plead guilty to one count of odometer tampering. He is a party. Holy shit.

He's a mess. He's handling meat. He's fucking with your odometer. He's a mess. He's handling meat. He's fucking with your odometer. He's rolling your shit back. The business was then transferred to Marlene, his wife's name, in 85, and she was listed as the owner. They also started buying property in Palm Beach County, and they bought a lot of inexpensive rental properties that totaled about $1.1 million in the 80s. So there's like 20 properties. That's a shitload.

Jesus. As of 1990, in about 87, they moved into a big house here. It's a Wellington big development. It's an 18,000-acre development. It's called Takeoff. They live on the 15,000 block of Takeoff place in the Arrow Club section of the community. It's a big expanse of huge yards and all this shit, and it's close to the 12th fairway of the community's private golf course as well.

Hell yeah. This is huge residences, and the Arrow Club, it's called that for a reason because the houses, a lot of them including the warren's house have airplane hangers built like garages directly into the home you can land and just pull right into your street is a landing strip and you can pull right into your house like john everyone can live like john travolta minus minus the massaged stuff if you're into that i don't know and the and the air orgies that's in the oh god yeah if you're into that. I don't know. And the air orgies. That's in the air.

Oh, God, yeah. Once you're in the air. That's like international law at that point, isn't it? That's what it is. Yeah, it's like you're out to sea. Forget about it. So they have that. There's a 3,400-foot grass runway that's on the end of the street, and residents can taxi their little planes off and shoot off.

You just land on the grass? That's awesome. Just land on the grass and pull right into your house. The development has a polo stadium, golf and tennis clubs, and an equestrian course. So you're getting the hint here. What does it cost to live there per month before your mortgage? Yeah, that's what I mean. What's the HOA or the fees or that kind of thing?

Yeah, whatever the dues are. Yeah. So they moved there. They live on Ponce de Leon Road, apparently. Okay. And they have a couple of kids here. Their oldest son, John, Marlene's oldest son, she has two kids not with him. Step kids.

His step kids. Got it, yeah. John, the oldest, dies in a car accident in 1988. Probably a badass car. It's right by the house, too. Yeah. in a car accident in 1988. Probably a badass car. It's right by the house, too. So that's pretty hard here. There was a lawsuit, actually, on behalf of Marlene in Palm Beach County. It said the West Palm Beach auto auction workers removed a stop sign on Fairgrounds Road, and that caused the accident.

Oh, shit. Yeah. Friends and neighbors say they're real hardworking. Their home back in 1990 was valued at $170,000, which in Florida in 1990 is a big deal. A lot of times they would participate in, quote, fly-in parties. These are parties where everyone flies their plane to a party. They're a little private plane. And Michael has a pilot's license as well so their brother-in-law his brother-in-law said that

they're both workaholics marlene i believe it and michael everybody here so um he he got like i said into horse racing and all that kind of shit uh his best horse joyce azalea is the name of the horse named after his mother. He just names them after women he likes. That's so weird. Wife, mother. He's running out of women. You could tell if he's fucking somebody because he names a horse after a new woman.

You're like, who's that? Don't worry about it, sweetie. Yeah. That horse won a $50,000 stakes race at Calder Racecourse in Miami in like 1989. How much? $50,000? $50,000. That's not bad.

That's not bad. So you do that. You win a couple of those, and you can get stud fees forever. Yeah, sure. I think that's the business of horse racing. And then if the horse doesn't work out, you can burn it alive like Tony Soprano or like Joey Pants, I should say, like Ralphie. Or if you're in the meat department, then you just sell it.

We got a special on mystery loins today. It's Chuck. That's what it is. Ground Chuck. It's fast. Fast Chuck, we call it. May 26, 1990. So they own businesses.

They have a fucking airplane hanger at their house. Life is going pretty well for these two. No shit. Going pretty well. May 26, 1990. It's 11 o'clock in the morning. Michael's at work at the auto dealership or whatever. Whatever he does. And

her and her other son have just finished breakfast. So breakfast has just been eaten. They're cleaning up. There's a knock on the door. Okay. Knock on the door. And it's, you know, that's fine.

It's just before 11 a.m. And they look out. She looks out the window and sees a clown outside. There's a clown on the doorstep. A full fucking clown. Not just makeup. Not just the hat. We're talking yeah whole clown

outfit fucking okay full flood now me right away i'm getting the gun at that point yeah i don't you know i'm getting some weapon i'm gonna get you know we're baseball bat i'm meeting this with force basically because i hate clowns and you get off my property oh now you're in my house now it's on now it's on it's there's no wacky mirrors in here motherfucker no no no no no squirty seltzer bottles no no no uneven floors nope none of that bullshit flies here buddy it's gonna be me and you throwing down i'm gonna step on your big feet and pummel you this is like a singing telegram or some shit well she looks out and it's like like I said, full mask, orange hair, the whole deal. Big thing. And there's a big basket of red and white flowers with lots of colors on the basket.

Colorful clown shit. And balloons. So he's holding balloons. This clown is holding balloons in a basket on the doorstep. So obviously you would see that and you'd go, why would somebody send a fucking clown to my house with this? Who the fuck did this? But it's balloons and flowers. So you go, all right, fine.

Jesus Christ. So she saw that. Like I said, her son, who's an adult, he's like 21 at the time, he's in here. And a couple of his friends are also there. They're in the living room. She walks past them, sees the clown and goes, oh, how pretty. That's what she said. The flowers, they're pretty.

Yeah. So she opens the door. Hi, clown. I how pretty. That's what she said. The flowers, they're pretty. Yeah. So she opens the door. Hi, clown, I'm sure. Yeah. That's what I would say. Well, I would say, what the fuck do you want, clown? Yeah. Hello, clown, would be my response.

So the clown, without saying anything, is holding a basket in one hand with the balloon sticking up, takes a gun out and starts firing into her face with a gun oh my god no and like flowers don't come out the end there's not like a thing that says bang that fucking like none of that shit actual bullets and a real gun are happening oh my and everyone's like what's going on because it's a clown so they think it's a trick of some kind until she falls to the ground shot in the mouth wow right in the mouth i Wow. Right in the mouth. I mean, the gun was right up there.

Right there. I mean, you open a door, someone sticks a gun in your face. She falls down. The son and the kids here, you know, he's 21 and he's got friends. They scatter, right? They're just, like, frozen. What the fuck just happened? Because they didn't understand.

Like, there's a clown with balloons and now mom's bleeding on the floor. And I heard God, like what the fuck is happening? So her son, he was like, holy shit, he's got a cast on his leg. Cause he got in a car accident recently.

Yeah. His family needs to stop driving. First of all, no shit. He jumps up with the cast on, gets over there and he sees the clown jump into a late model white Chrysler LeBaron with no tags and drive off. This is like a hit, like a clown hit. Yeah.

This is insane. This is wild stuff. So he yells to the clown as the clown's getting toward the car and going, what the fuck here? Hey, clown, what's going on? And there's a circular driveway. The car was at the top of the circular driveway. And the son said, quote, I made him turn around, him or her. It's hard to tell.

I forgot what I said. So I don't even know what I said. Just I made the clown turn around. And he said that he noticed the clown's eyes. He said brown eyes staring from behind the paint there and he said to this day later on it bothers him and he can remember the eyes but he can't identify who they belong to who they are but as he can see the eyes though he said so the clown clown hops in the car takes the fuck off okay baron the le baron white le baron no tags the son calls 9-1-1

and he said quote i told them she got shot i said the address i said it twice then i dropped the phone and grabbed the car keys i didn't know what else to do he's gonna hobble out and chase hobble out and one-legged chase and get in the car and chase a clown in a car, which is dangerous because even if you get him to stop, you don't know how many are going to pop out of there. It could be, what, 40, 50 of them? You might have backup. You have no idea. That's what I'm saying. You can have 40, 50 guys in there.

You never know with these clowns. What year is this? You got to be careful. 1990. Yeah, you got to be watching out for the ones from outer space, too. They're everywhere. They're killer. Spin you into a coffee candy weapon.

Hang your ass up for good. Suck your blood. Dude, there's a lot of shit to worry about in this. It's frightening, yeah. So as horrifying as it is, it's also think about, I mean, take the dead person out of this because obviously this is just an innocent woman who's standing there, got shot in the face. She's not even dead yet. She's just writhing on the ground in horrible pain which is awful but if you took that out of it if the person like you know uh bonked her on the head

with like a big flip-flop and then ran away this would be the funniest thing ever you'd have benny hill music playing while people chase a clown in a car or a squeaky rubber mallet yeah squeaky squeaky that would be That would be good. But he takes off the sun and he can't find the Chrysler because there's a head start going on here. Sure. And by the time he gets back, there's already cops and paramedics all over the place. Great. That's good.

Yeah. So he calls his stepfather, Michael's cell phone. And this is 1990 and he's got a cell phone. That's a dope phone. It's huge it's huge but wow oh it's heavy you look cool as shit because nobody has those really if she had it she could have swung it and used it to beat that clown to death i'd rather have a 1990 cell phone than a gun better weapon much better weapon um so michael said that he was on i-95 headed for the calder racetrack and uh you know he was far away from the house yeah so they take her to the hospital in critical condition oh boy a nursing supervisor that night said quote she's just extremely critically ill they're not

going to operate in other words no it Oh, no. It's beyond us. We're going to let her die. Yeah. Which is. She's just extremely critically ill is an odd way to talk about someone who got shot in the mouth. Yeah, that's somebody with arteries that are exploded right now. Got pneumonia or something. This is so.

Entirely different. Ill and shot. Yeah. It's crazy. So the police right away say they have no suspects it's a clown really so they don't know who that could be and um they want to question family members and friends if they know anybody who's dresses up in a clown costume frequently or who any beef with a clown halloween yeah yeah anybody been to a halloween superstore recently

you know anybody if it was me like people shit, it could be any of them, because I'm sure there's a lot of clowns that have beef with me, because I've talked a lot of clown shit over the years. There's a birthday clown in New York that's probably not happy. Oh, your stupid opinions, too. Yeah, I didn't even think about that.

I'm thinking about all of my clown rantings. And then on stage doing stand-up. He's pissed. I have really taken it to the clown community over the years, let me tell you. In May of 1980, near Anaheim, California, Dorothy Jane Scott noticed her friend had an inflamed red wound on his arm and seemed unwell. She insisted on driving him to the local hospital to get treatment. While he waited for his prescription, Dorothy went to grab her car

to pick him up at the exit, but would never be seen alive again, leaving us to wonder, decades later, what really happened to Dorothy Jane Scott? From Wondery, Generation Y is a podcast that covers notable true crime cases like this one and many more. Every week, hosts Aaron and Justin sit down to discuss a new case, covering every angle and theory, walking through the forensic evidence, and interviewing those close to the case to try to discover what happened. And with over 450 episodes, there's a case for every true crime listener. Follow the Generation Y podcast on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to Generation Y ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus.

It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast, Morbid. We're your hosts. I'm Alina Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly. And our show is part true crime, part spooky, and part comedy. The stories we cover are well-researched. He claimed and confessed to officially killing up to 28 people. With a touch of humor.

I'd just like to go ahead and say that if there's no band called Malevolent Deity, that is pretty great. A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing. This mother****er lied. Like a liar. Like a liar.

And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal, or you love to hop in the Wayback Machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes, you should tune in to our podcast morbid follow morbid on the wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts you can listen to episodes early and ad free by joining wondery plus and the wondery app or on apple podcasts so the detective in charge here said we're covering 15 different angles there's nothing making us lean one way or another.

They just don't know. They were calling stores that may have carried the balloons presented by the gunman as well. They still have the balloons. They dropped the balloons in the basket. Yeah, they set that down. So, yeah, they have those. What would have been even more ridiculous if they're running away with a gun and balloons fucking behind them that's the only thing that can make it sillier is if they're chasing the clown while balloons flop out the window just fly are they specific do they have

like labels on or anything are they just okay yeah yeah we'll talk about exactly what they say too because well that feels stupid that feels like a big mistake probably should have made them as generic as possible yeah hit, the fucking plain colored ones. Yeah, it was going to be orange and yellow and green and put that up there. Buy your own tank of helium because somebody filled these up and there you're going to remember some shit. Yeah, no shit. The couple who lived right behind the home said they, both the people there heard two shots ring out. One shot in the mouth and then fell, and there was another shot.

God damn it. They said a friend of the son, Joey, ran to their house and said, Joey's mother's been shot. She needs help, and I need to use your phone, the friend said. So the bullet here, two days are going to go by, and then Marlene is going to die. Oh, Marlene. She's just going to suffer in this limbo for two days. Oh, God.

Horrible. It's just horrible. And they're just saying, there's nothing we can do. And she just hangs on. That's awful. That's just the worst possible scenario for your death. It's like a, yeah, just a slow trickle of life falling out of you. That's fucked.

That's fucking awful. So the autopsy here here the bullet that killed her entered her lip hit her in the lip fractured her teeth yeah punctured her tongue and went down into her neck oh getting her in the upper spinal cord wow right in the mouth that's awful that's like a downward angle yeah it went like down oh shit and um yeah that's fucking horrible she was 40 years old and uh wow and dead so and the bullets was lodged in the back of their throat right in the spinal cord they couldn't get it out so it was like she's she's fucked so that's horrible man obviously um obviously, clearly. So they said that, you know, one of the neighbors said, quote, this is a person from two doors down, said you could hear her son wailing.

It was just very eerie. The way this happened with the clown and the flowers and being shot execution style, it was so obvious to everyone in the Arrow Club that this was meant for her. Yeah, I would say. It looks pretty clear. I mean, it wasn't going door to door. And the one neighbor here says, quote, children were afraid of clowns after that. After that? After that?

It just, all the kids went, see? We told you. Stop hiring these people for our parties. None of us like them. You just think we do. Obviously, it was for her. If it wasn wasn't for her that's a big miss that's just wow yeah at that point just a door-to-door worst shot ever jesus yeah right in the mouth so the crime scene does not offer much in terms of of evidence really at the time there's no gun you He didn't pull like a Michael Corleone and the Godfather and drop it or anything.

No blood from a perpetrator. No fingerprints at all. This was a knock on the door. So no fingerprints. Yeah, probably. Yeah, clown gloves, obviously. Not even the, they don't even,

the clown costume even, they're just talking about, you know, the description from the kids. There's no picture or film or surveillance footage or anything uh but there's a clown but there's a basket of flowers mylar balloons that are left there so now her son joe that was home when she was shot um he's obviously he said he feels bad afterwards and sure all this now they look into him he's he's had some troubles with the law here joe joe has yeah he was sentenced to probation for participating in the stabbing and beating of a

man in 1986 joe what's your fucking problem that's when he was 16 too he's only 21 jesus christ he's knifing people apparently somebody was knifing somebody while he participated. And then he was accused last year in 89 of the most Florida crime ever, stealing a jet ski. Which that's I mean, come on. If I said a jet ski was stolen this morning, where did it happen? You got Florida, I guess. This is where it happens. Those charges are dropped eventually, though, the jet ski.

You know, it makes all the sense in the world every time i see a jet ski on unattended i want to go what if i just jumped on if i just took it and just what if i just went yeah what are they gonna do i'll come back with it i'm not gonna obviously i'm not gonna go where are we gonna go up on the shore yeah it doesn't have wheels it's not i'm confined to this watery area. I'll be right back. Yeah, you can see me the whole time. That's more borrowing than stealing, right? It is. It is. Yeah.

Unless you're on the coast of Florida, then it's theft because you could take that shit to Texas. You could take it forever. Yeah. You could take it to Louisiana. I'm going to go see Mardi Gras this year. Fuck it. So the neighbor of hers says she was a nice, friendly person. She laughed a lot.

The neighborhood's really quiet. People kind of keep an eye out for each other. So they do phone and bank records trying to figure out what the hell's going on. They look into her husband. They know it wasn't him because he was somewhere else, not in a clown outfit. Fucking with horses. Yeah. And also, too, anybody who was in that outfit, 10 minutes later, they can't not be in that outfit.

You'd still have white paint smears and shit. It takes a while to deep clown. It really does. It's like a magician who's got to put all the shit back in their jacket afterwards. It's very sad. So they look at that. Apparently, they're looking into the phone records of some of his employees as well. There's a couple that works for him

repossessing cars for the used car business it's a husband wife car repossession team florida husband and wife who take cars back taking cars back yeah i know what they look like this is you you get it don't you yeah they look like yeah they look like they smell funny. Well, there's Richard and Sheila Keene. So Dick Keene, K-E-E-N. Yeah, K-E-E-N. Richard and Sheila Keene. So Dickie Keene and his wife, they run a car repossession company that does all the work for. They're contracted to the Warrens here.

the warrens here um now keen himself the guy here richard dickie keen has a record of criminal charges are pretty long here from weapons possession to drug trafficking to yeah i mean that is that's why he's not afraid of you when he takes your car yeah because most people that repossess cars pretty bad people they're they gotta kind of be a little rough around the edges because when someone comes out in their underwear screaming at five o'clock in the morning that you're stealing their car,

you gotta be able to defuse that situation or handle the escalation of it. You just can't be like, well, sir. I follow a guy on Instagram that does it and he had a video

the other day where he hooked up this guy's car, he's going down the road and somebody flagged him down so he stops and the guy goes, that's my buddy's car. He goes, oh yeah,, and somebody flagged him down, so he stops, and the guy goes, that's my buddy's car.

He goes, oh, yeah, let me pull over real quick, and then he fucking guns him. Yeah. Horrible shit here. Awesome people, man. They're usually scumbags. So they said that they did a lot of repossession work. They said that they kind of hang out with Michael a lot, so they were going to check them out. They were going to check a bunch of other people's phone records out here. They find the car a couple days later.

Oh, the LeBaron? The LeBaron. It's stolen, used in the getaway here. It was found in the Royal Palm Beach area, and that's the clown getaway car. Okay. Sheriff's spokesman said, it's an unusual one, and we don't want to put too much out while we still try to wrap this up. Okay. They got a while to wrap it up.

So they subpoena all sorts of phone and bank records for Warren's Aero Club home. They also asked for records for all of his businesses and all that kind of thing. The car that detectives believe was used here, the white LeBaron, had been stolen from a rental company. The couple who reported it missing sent someone at Bargain Auto Rentals, which is Michael's company, told them to leave the car where they had rented it at a Payless Car Rental System on Congress Avenue with the keys inside. They did that.

But when they called back to the bargain to a bargain auto rentals, someone there denied giving those instructions. And then the car was gone. So they called, said, hey, we're going to return this car. And they said, yeah, put it where you picked it up. Just leave the keys in it. We'll grab it. Don't worry about it. They called back to make sure they got it.

And they said, oh, no one ever told you to do that. What the fuck? Yes. So who should we be looking at well um michael doesn't look good for michael he's had brushes with the law uh her both her sons have had problems with people and neighbors and friends and all that kind of thing um so there's an issue uh the attorney who represented a bunch of people in lawsuits in the family said they've been married and very devoted to each other for as long as I've known them. But you don't know. They're going to present a united front to people they're working with. It's kind of how it works. Yeah.

The family said they're trying to cope. Her son said she didn't have any enemies. I can tell you that. I just want to get them to get the person who did this because they're going to pay. I'm going to fuck that clown up. I'm going to tell you something. So now some shit. Once they're interviewing a lot of people, they come up with a bunch of things here.

Now, okay, a lot of people say that Sheila Keene, keen dick keen's wife right is madly in love with michael warren a lot of people say that oh that goes around and um they both denied they were romantically involved with each other at this point because cops asked were you having an affair were you having an affair they said no not at all um but then they talked to michael's mother joyce remember of horse name right the namesake of this horse um horse fame and she said that sheila told her a month before marlene's got marlene got shot that sheila was in love with her son she said i just want to tell you i'm in love with your son your married son i'm in love with him i love that guy that's that's real nice here isn't it um so they said

that this is fucking ridiculous man joyce the mother said that this came when they were all gathered in april 1990 at the calder racetrack in fort lauderdale and mom here joyce confronted sheila after she became upset because sheila got pissed off because she couldn't sit next to michael okay so mom said what the fuck's going on here why are you getting mad because you can't sit next to my son you got a husband he's got a wife stop it that's it yeah it's they're probably here too that's the other thing right so um so joyce asked her does do you are you like in love with my son and she said yes i am and another friend who was there at that same gathering told investigators that joyce also asked her son whether he do you love sheila and his answer quote i love myself

which is the most wild answer to any question ever do you love this person i love myself what the fuck is that what is that that's fuck that's fuck everybody unless that's like a chicken empowerment song i don't think it's a good answer to anything you know what i mean that's fucking weird so then they talk to their old lawyer this guy he's the guy who represented their son in his legal wranglings and all that. Christopher DeSantis here. And he says that he's had weird stuff with them as well. At one point, they were gathered and having a meeting, and Michael asked, if a husband were to kill his wife, what would happen to her estate? He asked that to a lawyer in front of his wife. And the guy said, my first impression was this guy is nuts.

That's what the lawyer said. No shit. My first impression is somebody wants their wife dead. Yeah, it's so fucking weird. The attorney said he was just a weird guy. He said that he described Michael as having two personalities, this DeSantis guy. He said, quote, he was either cold and silent and very reserved, or he was the most affable guy in the world. His personality perfectly described as psychopathic deviant.

Deviant? Wow, just being a little bit different in both cases means you want to, like, fuck a corpse's ear hole. That's a real weird way to put it. A lawyer diagnosed him as a psychopath, huh? Yeah, that's weird. I want to know. An estate lawyer. An estate lawyer.

Or a criminal lawyer. But I really want, that's good. Yeah, I want that to go the other way is what I want. I want a therapist to defend him on an assault charge. That's what I want. Real bad. A therapist defending on anything. That would be great.

Or trying to start an LLC for him. Fucking anything. Anything. Anything business-wise. So they really want to find out who bought the stuff here. Yeah. Now, the deputies know only one Publix in the county that carried the particular Mylar balloons that were given here. Okay.

Oh, God damn it. It was a community and military trail. It was just across the street from where the husband's supposed girlfriend lived, Sheila. Oh, God. It's the Publix across from her house. And the Publix is like a little grocery store, right? It's a grocery store chain. That's the Florida chain. They all love it

down there. They all go crazy for Publix. So one of them is a silver Mylar balloon that reads, You're the greatest. And it's only sold at this Publix. And anywhere within an hour of this place and they said that the they talked to them and the clerk said that someone bought that balloon that day from that store person with long brown hair was a woman she paid for it with a hundred

dollar bill this was about an hour uh an hour to 45 minutes to an hour before the murder occurred. Hilarious. Pretty good chance that's the one there. The employees told detectives that the woman, when shown a picture, looked like Sheila Keene at that point. Sheila. Sheila. Not great. So clerks at the Dixie Highway costume shop also tentatively identified, it looks like her, I'm not

sure, Sheila Keen as the woman who bought the exact same described type clown costume two days before the shooting. Okay. They said that she bought the costume there. Store clerks picked her out of a photo lineup, but they

said, I think it's 100% positive. They also the white chrysler lebaron to warren's a bargain auto rentals there and uh like i said i told you what happened there with the whole uh yeah that thing disappearing so the police still say they have no answers though really oh they don't want anybody to know that's what the mother even says that they won't they say they got no answers, though. Really? Yeah. Oh, they don't want anybody to know. That's what, the mother even says that. They won't, they say they got no answers. What the fuck? Her mother, Shirley, said, why was she singled out? Everybody seemed to like her so much.

Yeah. Everybody seemed to like her. Were they lying? Well, at least one person was lying. Somebody was here. So they've been interviewing all these people, trying to figure it out. They tried to get a surveillance van outside the funeral home and cemetery during the funeral services to see if anybody weird shows up. Yeah.

Like I said, they question her son. They question the husband a lot. I think the son seems in the clear on this one. Yeah. His cast is a hindrance. That's going to be rough. Yeah. Yeah.

Unless he would hire a woman to kill his mother or dress like a clown. It's just very silly. He's got friends there that are witnesses. Yeah. Yeah. So they go over some records and they say that the Warrens owed property taxes totaling $21,000 for 17 pieces of property. And they were mostly all paid up.

So there wasn't like they were they were trying to see if they needed money. Were they desperate? They only owe $21,000 for 17 pieces of property? Yes, yes. Wow. A lot of it's either condos they own, a lot of rental condos, which there's not a lot of property taxes. Just low property taxes.

Either that or probably swamp. Okay, yeah. You can't ask people to pay a lot every year for swampland. Yeah. You know, like if I develop this at all, it's a big plus to everybody. So come on. They've also got a lot of pest control. Issues.

To do. Yeah. Getting rid of the, yeah, getting rid of gators and fucking possum. No shit. fucking awesome no shit so bank records show that um a savings account and a safe deposit box at southeast bank in fort lauderdale was opened on may 17th 1990 less than two weeks before um before that she was killed both the account and the deposit box were opened in the name of Joyce Clayton, Michael Warren, so the mother, Michael Warren, and Gail Roberts, who is her sister, the sister. So it's like kind of a family thing.

It's weird. Marlene's sister? Marlene's sister, yeah. So a statement for the account showed that two deposits totaling nearly $60,000 had been made by May 29th, 1990, three days after the shooting. The records also show a payout from a life insurance policy where Michael Warren received $53,000 as a beneficiary of his wife's estate. So they don't make any arrests. None? None.

None? None. They have people from both stores picking Sheila out of a photo lineup saying she purchased the balloons and the clown costume, but that's all they have. And that's not enough to make an arrest, apparently. Seems like enough to put the screws to somebody real good, at least. It's certainly enough to start questioning shit. You bought those. Either you did it or you gave them to somebody.

So what the fuck? You know what I mean? That's irrefutable at this point. So they don't think Michael was the trigger man because where he was. He was on I-95 headed to call the racetrack because he was there like a minute later. So no way he could have done that. Now they also find out that Marlene

had told her parents, her friends, and her son that she thought Michael would kill her. Oh, really? Yeah. She said that her and her husband were having problems. She knew about another woman. She knew about her. I think her mother didn't tell her about it. Yeah.

Yeah. Or his mother told him about it, which is OK. Told her about it even. So she wanted to leave him um three hours after the shooting an anonymous caller told police they should question michael because they've heard oh they've heard some stuff but lots of circumstantial evidence sheila keen may be his girlfriend his mom says she's in love with him but who cares oh you're telling us that the husband needs to be questioned don't worry we got it she's he's first on the list really honestly rich guy wife yeah you don't gotta tell

us we get it um marlene's stepfather said they were having problems if she would have left him it would have cost him dearly in terms of money yeah so the parents her parents and her mom and stepdad spoke to investigators. The investigators said they suspected Mike had something to do with it, but they didn't want to say anything until we brought up what Marlene had said. She told her mother, if anything happens to me, Mike done it. Mike done it. So, yeah, they said, fuck. The stepfather said, I told Mike, this is at the funeral, I told Mike, I'm sure you didn't do it, but I'm sure you knew what was going on.

It was scary for us even staying in the house with him. Hey, I just want you to know, I know you have something to do with this. That's what he just said to him. Night. Night. What are we doing? Out back tonight, the whole family taking out for a, what are we doing here? Breakfast in the morning, I'm making eggs.

Welcome to the small town of Chinook, where faith runs deep and secrets run deeper. In this new thriller, available exclusively on Wondery+, religion and crime collide when a gruesome murder rocks the isolated Montana community. Everyone is quick to point their fingers at a drug-addicted teenager, but local deputy Ruth Vogel isn't convinced. She suspects connections to a powerful religious group. Enter federal agent V.B. Loro, who has been investigating a local church for possible criminal activity. The pair form an unlikely partnership to catch the killer, unearthing

secrets that leave Ruth torn between her duty to the law, her religious convictions, and her very own family. But something more sinister than murder is afoot, and someone is watching Ruth. With an all-star cast led by Emmy nominee Sanaa Lathan and Star Wars Kelly Marie Tran, Chinook is available exclusively and ad-free on Wondery Plus.

Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. It's all a lighthearted nightmare on our podcast, Morbid. We're your hosts. I'm Alina Urquhart. And I'm Ash Kelly. And our show is part true crime, part spooky, and part comedy. The stories we cover are well-researched. He claimed and confessed to officially killing up to 28 people.

With a touch of humor. I'd just like to go ahead and say that if there's no band called Malevolent Deity, that is pretty great. A dash of sarcasm and just garnished a bit with a little bit of cursing. This mother f***er lied. Like a liar.

Like a liar. And if you're a weirdo like us and love to cozy up to a creepy tale of the paranormal. Or you love to hop in the Wayback Machine and dissect the details of some of history's most notorious crimes, you should tune in to our podcast, Morbid. Follow Morbid on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to episodes early and ad-free by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app or on Apple Podcasts. I understand that anybody who's paid attention to the media would have to come to the

conclusion that I killed my wife. Hi, my name is Zach Stewart-Pontier. I'm one of the filmmakers behind The Jinx, and I'm excited to bring you the official Jinx podcast. We'll be revisiting all six episodes of part one and watching along with part two as it airs on max starting april 21st the official jinx podcast listen on max or wherever you get your podcasts that's nice her mother says quote she says mother if anything ever happens to me he did it um the last time she saw her alive was two years earlier actually because she didn't live near there um so they had to come in when she got shot the parents got there just in time for her to die oh fuck yeah so that's pretty uh that's pretty awful um now uh her mom said quote she was ready to leave meaning

leave michael she was going to leave him in a couple of days she knew about what's her name keen he was running with her oh yes so um the parents herp marlene's parents hired a lawyer to represent the son in the in the estate thing here um so they got him some some of the estate anyway got him a few bucks there was all sorts of stuff he was doing shit here uh somebody says quote oh this is the, quote, he quit claimed the stuff to Joe, the son, that he couldn't make any money on. So anything that was garbage, he's like, you can have that. Wow. Yeah, but how's a 20-year-old kid supposed to pay those mortgages? Banks foreclosed on most of the properties in the early 90s.

So he had nothing. Yeah, the kid, he was was 21 he had no way of like he had no business structure to do this gave him the properties because he knew they were gonna they aren't worth anything and they're just costing me money that's it here have these pieces of shit you owe property taxes by the way yeah so 21 grand get after it that is fucking wild um the son said um this is he had moved i guess he had moved to vegas and then moved back to florida and moved out of the house so he was just hanging out that day he said when I came back I moved out I had a real hard time getting my stuff out of the house I don't know if he didn't want me to

leave or what a couple of things I bought for my mom like vases he didn't want me taking any of that I did anyway so he means you know after she's dead already the son stopped the son had worked for Michael Warren at the car dealership. So he left there and started working as a carpenter. And he was building himself a house in Jupiter. And he said, quote, I go crazy sometimes. I think too much sometimes on it and get nowhere with the thoughts and get more confused than I already was. He keeps replaying seeing this clown turn around to him

it sucks you know it's like the bigfoot footage except real and with a clown so just looking he said i remember at her asking what would we do where would we go if we left here i realized that she wanted to leave but i didn't realize how far into the conversations they were about it now as the this goes on the 90 progress, they still have no answers. Yeah. But the murder investigation leads police to looking really closely at Michael's car rental business, A Bargain Motors. Sure. Where they didn't get any closer to solving the murder, but they did find some shit.

Michael is convicted in 1992 on 43 counts of odometer tampering 43 43 counts grand theft and racketeering oh in a case that kept him going and all this shit he ends up going to prison in 1994 and doing three years in prison over this wow yes that is fucking dead, serious, dead, goddamn serious. Yeah. His mother said, I tried to go see him about every week. It was terrible. A long drive and long days and sad. Yeah, but it was sad. He's released in December 1997 and takes off and disappears.

OK, that's it. And in the mid 90s, I talked his mother, and his mother said, I haven't seen him lately. He stays with one friend, one relative, then another. You know, they knew that he didn't do it, but the husband or the wife is the first one you look at. It ruined his life. Apparently. Now, 2000 comes around. Now there's new DNA technology, and they found some things they might be able to test. They found out that they said, quote, here's the son.

He said it would be nice to get closure to find out who did it and make them pay. It's been not easy. He said knowing that somebody is out there that would do something like that, even after 10 years, doesn't matter. It doesn't make it easy. Doesn't matter. So he's like these fucking white face paint, orange wig. I see it in my sleep. Deputies found orange fibers and brown hair in the Chrysler.

Oh, they had saved these, but they had nothing. They couldn't do anything with them in the 1990. Yeah, because somebody ripped that wig off fast. And when you rip a wig off, it tears hair out, too. Oh, there's going to be some hair in there. Absolutely. Yeah. So they did DNAna tests now but even

then you know it wasn't 2000 it was much better than 90 but not as good as now but they said now they can fix it and figure this out they said there's some evidence that can be tested for dna that couldn't be tested 10 years ago we don't have much too much to work with but it all takes all it takes is one little bit one small thing that could solve the case they have a new witness by the way a guy named donald carter who used to work for michael he called detectives in june of 2000 and told them that shortly before marlene was killed michael had given him several guns and told him to take them uh off take them and uh off the used car lot where they were. And,

uh, and he said that he was supposed to stash the guns and he did, he stashed them in his parents attic. Oh, and got rid of them later. He also told the cops, he believed the clown wig was thrown into a canal near the military trail in Southern Boulevard, but a dive team couldn't find it,

but it's been 10 years. It could have been anywhere. It's nowhere near there. No. So they were looking into all this shit. 2002 comes around. In Las Vegas in 2002, Michael Warren and Sheila Keene get married. Is that right?

Oh, yeah, that's right. Yep. That's after he gets out of prison and all that kind of shit. 2014. 24 years later. yes um john moran of cluiston who worked with his father detailing cars at bargain motors at the time of the murder he tells detectives in 2014 that sometime before marlene warren's death michael Michael had told them that his wife had said to him, quote, he was in a sinking ship

and he would lose every fucking thing he owned if he kept screwing with her. Michael Warren said that he would make someone a very happy person and they would never have to work again if they got rid of this bitch. That's what he said. Oh my God. So, that day still nothing happens.

As of 2016, they're living in Tennessee running a restaurant called The Purple Cow. Really? Yes. Okay. And Sheila now goes by Debbie. Okay. She's like, I had a Sheila's a very 80s name, but I'd like a more 80s name. What is one?

Debbie. When I'm tired of that, it's going to be Tiffany. Sheila's a very 80s name, but I'd like a more 80s name. What is one? Debbie. When I'm tired of that, it's going to be Tiffany. Let's move on. Okay. So they own this restaurant here. And a woman who worked at the restaurant goes to police and said, I used to work with these people at their restaurant. And this woman named Debbie, that's what she goes by. We got real drunk one night and

she confessed to this sounds weird i don't know anything about it but she told me that she bought a clown costume one time and murdered her husband's ex dead wife welcome to nashville that's weird right yeah so let's go drink it yeah let's go on out. Woo! One time. That's what happens in Nashville. You just start getting shit-faced at Dierks Bentley, and you just spill the beans. This isn't Nashville. Where'd they go? Fucking middle of nowhere. This isn't anywhere near Nashville.

Some Maynardsville or some shit. Yes, this is the middle of nowhere. Are you kidding me? So, yeah, they re-interview that DeSantis lawyer guy here in 2017, and he tells them there that he remembered specifically telling Michael Warren during their conversations that a killer dressed as a clown would likely get off because witnesses wouldn't be able to determine the identity or even the gender of the clown. Race, gender, anything. Hilarious. Which is fucking, it's a full costume. All you see is eyes. You don't see, even the feet aren't clown race gender anything hilarious which is fucking it's a full costume all you see is eyes you don't see even the feet aren't the size that they are you could leave

impressions and it doesn't matter but people usually don't do it on account is it attracts a lot of fucking attention everyone stares at you at that point it's the least conspicuous incons whatever it is it doesn's conspicuous as fuck. Yeah. Yeah. So now the DNA is even better now. It's 2017. Okay.

They have the orange wig fiber that was found on the ribbons of the balloon. That's how they got them. Oh, wow. They were stuck to the ribbons of the balloon. You know, static electricity. That's what they did. Holding it. Yeah.

And also wet hands. Yeah. electricity that's holding it yeah and also wet hands and yeah so uh other fibers were found in the search of of sheila's apartment including on a pair of shoes at her home they couldn't tell if those fibers matched back then oh balloon fibers and those fibers now um so they said that uh they this was purchased from the spotlight capizio costume store where they said this was the exact type of wig that Sheila bought from the store. They have that. They're talking about the car stuff. People are saying that they used to take long lunches for all the time, and he used to pay her rent when she broke up with her husband.

Then they figure out the Chrysler that was reported stolen that we talked about here uh that was found here they found the orange hairs and fibers in there as well so they have them on the balloons in the car and in her apartment yeah okay now um they send this dna back to the lab to find out some shit here and uh they do find out some stuff. They find out that these match Sheila. There's a brown hair. It all matches. It's Sheila. So finally in 2017, the final thing that says, yes, we got to arrest this lady, DNA even,

was they found out that a few years ago, they get a picture of her a few years ago on Halloween, she dressed up in a costume. Guess what fucking costume she had? No way. A fucking clown costume. That's her thing. She re-upped it? Re-upped it. Big smile, face painted, red on her cheeks, red painted nose, all the whole deal.

Oh my God. She wore an orange short sleeve blouse, black skirt, and a scarf with ghosts and pumpkins. And she was at the Purple Cow restaurant where she worked. It was like 2015 or 14. Okay. So they arrest her. She and Michael were heading. They were coming home from a road trip here.

They were five minutes from their house in Abingdon, Virginia, in the Blue Ridge Mountains near the Tennessee state line. See what I mean? This isn't Nashville. And they are driving their Cadillac SUV when they're stopped by detectives, and they cuff Sheila and leave Michael there. Yeah. And her first question was, quote, where is my husband? That's all she said. She didn't say, why are you arresting me?

Where's my husband? Because he's in trouble, too, if I'm in trouble. Yeah. She should have said, what took you so long? That's what she should have said. They got him in a fucking Escalade? In an Escalade. Jesus Christ.

Or one of the smaller ones. You never know. Yeah, but it's probably an Escalade, right? He's a douche. Yeah. So she's jailed without bail to await extradition to Florida on first degree murder charges. Oh my God.

And he drives away in the SUV after declining to be interviewed by the police. He says, I'm not talking. Bye. Yeah. So the sheriff's detectives at this point said, quote, sometimes patience is best. Yeah, because that girl is going to jail and she's going to be thinking about this. She's going to tell. Sometimes you wait two, three decades

before you really get what you want. You know what I mean? Seeing that Heinz commercial, we waited. We waited. Marlene's mother was still alive. She was 87. That's great. Waiting for this. She said she doubted it would ever happen, and then a reporter called her and said, hey, check this out.

She was like, holy shit. That's fucking wild. She asked the reporter, quote, he married the killer? Son of a gun. That's what she said, which is hilarious. Son of a gun, all right. I would say so. The stepfather said, I'm not angry that it took so long because I understand why.

I will feel peace when the hammer falls at guilty. The sheriff said, the retired sheriff from 1990 said he wanted a charger in 1990 and they didn't let him. He said, I knew we presented the case and we had ongoing meetings with the assistant state's attorneys. And it was always like, go back and get more. And you can't blame them for wanting more evidence to build a more solid case. They could have rolled the dice and lost, and then you could never charge her again. Right. True.

So now she's sitting in jail. She doesn't want to be. She starts writing letters, which is fucking funny. And she writes letters to all sorts of people. Her husband never writes her, by the way. She writes him all sorts of people her husband never writes her by the way she writes him all sorts of letters he never writes back oh michael one she says to her mother quote i just don't understand why we can't get this nightmare over with innocent people shouldn't be made to sit in jail this long waiting on a trial to prove they're innocent

oh boy she doesn't understand how it works. Oh, yeah. She keeps talking about she's going to pick up the pieces of her life and, you know, she's going to start eating healthier food and tending to her garden more. Get out of here. I'm going to live a much better life. She's going to live it up. Working on her estate in Virginia there, she wants to do that. Yeah. She says, God knows I wouldn't hurt anything or anyone. She said, that's not me.

And I know the world is still full of evil and wrongdoing, but that's not me. And I pray that the world could be a better place for everyone. Okay. For you and me. Yeah. We are the world. We are the world. We shoot some people.

We dress up like clowns and shoot your mom in the face. What the fuck are you talking about? What was the song from fucking Scrooge? That's what that sounded like. So what was that? Oh, oh, oh, God. Leave a little love in your heart? Put a little love.

That's it. Yeah, that's what it is. I'm picturing Bill Murray fucking. Yeah, yeah. God damn it. Come'm picturing Bill Murray fucking. Yeah. God damn it. Come on. Come on. He's talking to the camera. Come on, everybody.

Yeah. He's breaking the fourth wall at the end and everything. So she keeps, by the way, she's a terrible speller. She's awful at spelling. Yeah. Oh, tell me more. I love a misspelling. She keeps getting, she's mad about it.

She said, quote, I hate that I didn't pay attention in English class. She feels dumb. Or read since then to see how words are spelled. It's the other thing you didn't do. She also complained that the guards are, quote, so unkind. No compassion at all. It's

almost like they tell... Weird. I ordered room service and nothing showed up. I don't understand this. Fresh towels, do I ever get them? No. Ask for a Mexican Coke. They won't bring me one.

You're in jail for murder, honey. That's a little different. She said that they, quote, don't even look in my room half the time. My room, by the way. So. My room. I love when a prisoner calls someone their their roommate i'm like no no that's a silly rooms are enclosed they don't have bars you can't a meal through a slot in a room

i can't blow into a room i can't i can't watch you shit from a hallway in a room. So that's terrible. She said that they don't check to see if she's even alive. She said also the food is horrible. Is it? Really? I've heard tell. In a Florida county jail, huh?

And she's been losing weight. She says, when I get home, it will be so hard not to eat everything in sight, but I'm going to be strong and not do it. She also says about the prosecution, I feel sad that they are so ready to destroy an innocent person for their own personal gain. It's a big, you know, clearly. Personal gain. This is just, because everybody was clamoring for the resolution of this case 27 years later. It was gone. No one cared.

Personal gain. Yeah. Your mom was 87 and she was the one, you know, that she just figured it was never going to happen here. She sent letter after letter to her husband, professing her devotion and love to him, encouraging him to eat better, assuring him she'd be back soon. She would, because she couldn't buy him birthday presents she'd send him hand drawn pictures and fucking cards that she made at home and stuff like that

she drew a tree in a 2020 Valentine's Day card to her husband with lip shaped leaves she kissed it a bunch she said if all these leaves were lips and they could tell you how much I love you, that still wouldn't be enough. Happy Valentine's Day, my love. Forever, your wife.

Okay. Just keep your fucking mouth shut. Jesus Christ. She said she talks to her husband daily. She wrote to one of her friends, but, quote, he tells me that he doesn't talk to anyone, that he works all the time and doesn't see anyone unless they come to him. He's so depressed. I don't think he hardly calls anyone. He tells me he's trying to keep busy at work.

Then, before her trial, she finds God, of course, as well. She says she was baptized into the Catholic Church behind bars, and now she quotes scriptures and beliefs all the time. Misspells them them but quotes them. She says, quote, this has been a real test for me and every day I continue to ask Jesus for help to help me to keep my faith, hope, and love for God. She wrote that to a friend.

She also wrote a note of thanks to a priest, including a $50 donation to help other inmates, saying I look forward to seeing you for my first confession. That would be a juicy one. Is that what she said? She didn't say it would be a juicy one, but she said, I look forward to seeing you for my first confession. It's going to be juicy. Buckle up, Padre.

That confession's going to be bad. Michael says he's standing by his wife. He says, how did they ever get enough fake bullshit evidence to get a grand jury to indict on this? They didn't have no evidence. This is crazy. Okay, Mike. Mike.

I've never heard of DNA. Mike, you sound like fucking Pauly Walnuts right now. Calm down. You're not helping your cause. You don't have enough evidence. Her defense is that it wasn't me. It was a guy who was the clown, and it wasn't me. Okay.

Yeah. that it wasn't me. It was a guy who was the clown and it wasn't me. Yeah. So they said that her attorney said there's absolutely no evidence albeit physical or testimonial that Sheila dressed as a clown and shot Marlene Warren. She had a clown outfit. She bought the balloons. She had

all the stuff, but we don't know. The other thing is that Joseph, the son, described the clown as a tall man ranging in height from six feet to six feet, too. Sheila's five eight. But it's a clown. The hair.

Think about the hair stands up tall, too. It's a clown. So they also described the state's DNA and hair analysis as highly misleading or false. They said the FBI's report actually found most of the DNA on the hair root belonged to a male. And they said that only Sheila couldn't be excluded as a source of female DNA on the root. So just because they couldn't exclude her,

they say she did it. This goes on until 2023. What? Six years of this shit. Last year? Last year until she finally just decides to plead guilty. And they decide to take a second degree plea and they did all of that. The

defense lawyer said it's an incredibly difficult decision to make just having to plea to a crime that you didn't commit. The gamble is just not worth it. When you're looking at going home in 10 months versus the risk of what could happen at trial, you never know. It's a huge win for our client. She what?

Yup. They also said, though, the state's attorney said, after years of professing her innocence, she's finally been forced to admit that she was the one dressed as a clown and took the life of an innocent victim. So she had to allocute. So she had to say what she did. So she faced the possibility of parole after 25 years if she was convicted of first degree murder.

But they give her you clown may fuck off 12 years with credit for more than five years of time served. She could spend about 16 months in prison and then be yanked. That's that. For murder. For murder. For murder. For fucking murder. They said that. Will Michael ever be charged?

They asked, is the killer clown case closed at this point? Yeah. And the one prosecutor said, if there's enough evidence that points to someone else, we would file charges. But as of now, that doesn't exist. Unbelievable. Fucking clowns. It should be illegal. But as of now, that doesn't exist. Unbelievable. Fucking clowns. It should be illegal.

We should hunt them in the streets. Wow. Swear to God. So that's a crazy-ass case, and we still don't actually know if she did it. Oh, my God. We're pretty sure, but she bought all the shit, but who knows if she went over there and did it. She said she did it, but that's just to get it over with. I mean, it's not positive, but I think she did it.

There we go. If you think she did it or if you didn't, I don't care. Tell everybody about it. Please do. Give us a review on whatever app you're listening on. Give us five stars. It helps a lot. Follow on social media, at Small Town Murder on Instagram, at Small Town Pod on Facebook.

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