Snapped: Women Who Murder - Sheila Keen Warren

Episode Date: March 29, 2026

Decades pass before investigators reveal the clown killer who shot a mother in Florida.Season 33 Episode 19Originally aired: May 26, 2024Watch full episodes of Snapped for FREE on the Oxygen app: https://oxygentv.app.link/WatchSnappedPodSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

A middle-aged housewife becomes the victim of a nightmarish murder. The clown pulls out a gun and shoots her one bullet right in the face. It was so out of the ordinary. You know, something as benign as a clown would knock on the door. Just was such a tragic twist. This was something personal. The investigation uncovers dark secrets and deadly desires. You've got sad.

and you've got violence. I think we're having an affair and it had been going on for some time. But as the case grows stagnant, a killer lurks close to home. She said, if anything ever happens to me, know that he had something to do with it. This is the act of a sociopath.

This is the act of a cold-blooded killer thinks they can deceive everyone for the next 27 years. Yeah, I mean, I really don't want to talk to you. talk to me. Okay. Do you want to know what you're charged with? Yeah. Okay. There was no doubt. I saw the eyes. That the killer that did it. May 26, 1990. It's a sunny Saturday in Wellington, Florida, an affluent village located just a few miles from West Palm Beach. Wellington is a place like no one else lives. It was a paradise. You know, It was peaceful.

It was a slice of heaven. This was a neighborhood with big houses, big yards, and it got its name, Arrow Club, because it had a private airstrip, and all the houses out back had hangers. In one of the area's largest homes, 40-year-old Marlene Warren is enjoying the morning with her 21-year-old son, Joe Arons, and his friend.

The night before, we ran into some friends. friends that haven't seen in a while. My mom said, hey, well, why don't you come out to the house and stay? We woke up 8 o'clock, 9 o'clock, something like that. As they all gather in the living room, something strange happens. Around mid-morning, a car pulls into their circular driveway and what steps out of the car, a clown.

Full suit, orange curly wig, red bulb nose. and carrying a couple of balloons in a bouquet of flowers, and the clown just walks up to the front door, rings the doorbell. Since Joe recently broke his leg, Marlene assumes the clown is a messenger bringing a get-well gift and opens the door. I hear how pretty, how nice, and then we heard bang.

The clown pulls out a gun and shoots her one bullet right in the face. Her son, who's on the couch, he's in a cast, gets up, rushes over to her where she's laying in the doorway, and she's bleeding from the mouth pretty extensively. But he doesn't really yet understand what's happening. We didn't see the gun. It just didn't register until I saw my mother's teeth gone and her gasping me for her air and then it sunk in.

I felt a rip in my body, like a spirit or my soul or my heart, all the above. I looked at the clown, watch and walk to the car. I was trying to find any detail to see who this person is. They look back at me. I will never forget those eyes. You know, and those are the eyes of the killer. As the gunman drives away,

Joe quickly calls 911 and alerts first responders that his mother needs aid. Fearing that the perpetrator will escape the scene, escape the scene, Joe quickly gives chase. They tried to keep me on the phone, I dropped it. I grabbed my mom's purse. I grabbed her keys. I just jumped in a car in Florida.

I ran through red lights. The only thought I had in my mind was to run into this car. It's all I could think. But I couldn't catch up to the car, so I had to turn around. I raced home. When Joe arrives back home, he sees home he sees first responders.

When law enforcement first arrived, they discovered Marlene Warren, who was laying in the entryway to the home. She had suffered a single gun, shot wound to the mouth, and was transported to the emergency room to attempt to be saved. The big question was, who'd want to do this to this woman and why? Marlene was well loved, well liked by everybody. She had no enemies. You would think that somebody coming to your door like that

are not going to do you harm. You know, you don't even expect it. It was so heinous. Marlene McKinnon was the last person anyone would expect to die in such a terrifying way. She was born in 1950 to a middle-class family in Michigan. Marlene was a Midwestern girl, raised in a small town outside of Detroit, lived for a long time on her grandfather's farm. She had a couple of sisters, and she lived, you know, sort of a happy, simple life there.

By the time she was 18 years old, she was married and she had two young boys. My mother met my father, John, errands, when they were young. They were in the age of 14 to 16, you know. I remember my grandmother telling me stories that he would try to impress her. Then my brother, John Arthur Arons, was born in 1966. I was born in 1968. Soon after their son, Joe, was born. Marlene's husband, John, was drafted into service and deployed to Vietnam.

Marlene was left to raise the boys by herself. She was a very good person. And she was open-minded, and she distilled good things in us. I can remember the times that we had to clean the house on the weekends, you know, and, of course, kids don't want to do that. She'd put the radio on and have the feather duster, and, you know, hey, come on. If we get it done, we can go do fun things. But when John returned home in 1970, things were never the same.

When he came back, he drank and he just couldn't handle it. He was just out of control. And I didn't understand it then, but I do now. He couldn't be a family man anymore. And my mom knew it. You know, she had to protect us from the negative things that he was doing. Marlene decided to end the marriage. But within a year, she got a chance for a new start.

So now she's a single mom of two boys, and she meets Michael Warren. He was 18 years old and Marlene was 20, and they fell in love really quickly, and within a couple of years they were married. Mike came into the picture when I was around four or five years old. I think what drew my mother, Marlene and Mike together was how inspiring he was How inspiring he was, he was full of energy. You know, he was just a go-getter. Michael, even though he was young,

took on the role of father figure, basically, to Marlene's two kids, John and Joe. My mom seemed real happy. She was energized. They worked together well, and everything seemed to have a flow. They took the family to Florida and started their new life here.

Michael started his car lot business, bargain motors. It was taking off. With their newfound wealth came new opportunities. They started buying rental properties as investments. She would manage those and Mike would do the car business. My family at that time was a very happy, growing family. They were able to buy the property in Arrow Club. in the Arrow Club, which was brand new at the time.

Very affluent, upscale community. At the time, Mike had probably the nicest house there. We had a single-engine airplane. We had the jacuzzi and the hangar and the two-car garage, you know. For the Warren family, life couldn't have been better until tragedy struck in 1988. I was around 18, 19, when my life was around 18, 19, when my life was My brother, John Aaron, was picking up a car from the auction that he's never been to.

The people that go there knew that there was not a stop sign in a place there should be one. And he did not know and drove right out in the traffic and got killed. A really pivotal moment in Marlene's life was the death of her oldest son, John. It hit her heart and she knew she had to be strong for me. She would look at my eyes and said, hey, I know you're hurt, I know you're lost, but we have to stick together and we will get through this. The family did their best to move on. My mom was trying to pull it all together, but Mike, instead of getting closer, got further apart. His business absorbed him.

My mother would deal with things with love and positive affirmation, and she was trying everything because she was He was a woman of there is a solution for every problem. But only two years after the death of a son, the family faces another tragedy. A bizarre shooting has left Marlene Warren clinging to life. It was so out of the ordinary, you know, something as benign as a clown would knock on the door. Just was such a tragic twist. The cops, the detectives and everything were there.

every room in my house and like searching through things. And I was just like, what's going on, you know? But they explained to me that they were securing the scene and I would have to go downtown and talk to them. Investigators collect any evidence that might help them catch the gunmen. Forensically, there wasn't much left at the scene in terms of fingerprints or DNA or any physical evidence such as that.

The basket with the flowers and the balloon were collected and saved. But other than that, nothing else had been touched. For investigators, it was important that nothing was stolen. This was not a robbery. This was an out-of-the-way residential community. You had to know where you were going. You had to have a purpose. So that led police to think that this was something personal.

Clearly, this is somebody that had a vengeance for Marlene Warren. Coming up, as Marlene clings to life, investigators uncover a potential motive. Everyone in the company would see them showing public displays of affection. And a suspect emerges. Do you own a clown suit? There was a lot more to the story. At a West Palm Beach hospital, doctors are fighting to save the life of 40-year-old Marlene Warren. Marlene Warren after she was shot by a gunman dressed as a clown.

The bullet went into her face through the back of her mouth and lodged in the back of her neck, in her vertebrae. Marlene's injuries were so severe that she had to be placed on life support. I called Mike that day when he was on the way to the racetrack, and I told him, Mom just got shot. And you need to come home and he said he was on his way. When she comes out of surgery, her family is by her side. I remember talking to a doctor, and she told me that it had my mom stable,

but she was not breathing on her own. It was a pretty serious situation. They were able to recover the projectile from her neck area, but she never regained consciousness. I knew she wasn't coming back, you know. My grandmother had to make that decision. They gave her all the information. They weren't telling me anything.

My grandmother said, hey, they're not getting any responses, any pulse, anything. We have to let her go. Marlene's family made the decision to take her off life support, and she died that day at age 40. And that was the hardest day of my life. The hardest day of my life. Marlene's loved work.

Marlene's loved ones are devastated, but they're also determined to help police catch whoever killed her. Her son Joe and his friend who witnessed the attack are the first to speak with investigators. Each of the young people were interviewed with regard to what the clown looked like, male or female, height, weight, the color of the costume itself, whether there was a wig or a mask or paint for the face.

I was looking at every detail that I could look at. The car was all white. It was a LeBaron. It had a maroon or reddish interior for the carpet. It stuck out like a sore thumb. It would be hard to say how tall the clown was because of the hair. That put another six inches on the person, so with that said, probably about five, nine. The face looked like a mass.

because it was so smooth. It looked like a china doll. The gloves, it seemed like the hand was big. That's all I could see. Their first impression was that it was a male because of the height. They were wearing combat boots instead of clown shoes. It looked like the person intended to make a quick getaway. That's why this person was not wearing the floppy clown shoes.

So this took planning. took planning. Detectives immediately issue an alert for the White LeBaron. They then ask Marlene's husband, Michael, to accompany them to the station for questioning. Law enforcement is going to immediately look at the spouse, especially when nothing was taken, when there was no robbery. And so naturally, they would look at Michael Warren.

Michael had an airtight alibi. He was in a car with his friends on the way to a racetrack. when he got the call that his wife had been shot in the head. What was you're going to me for? The people he was in the car with confirmed that he was with them at the time of the shooting. The reason that you're here today is mainly going to get some background on your wife,

see if there's anybody in her past, and may have come back to honor. Anything come to mind recently that somebody really got angry with you? I mean, not enough that. Not enough that... Michael Warren volunteered that they had some rental properties that Marlene would largely be responsible for collecting the rents.

I mean, you know, she takes care of the apartments and she's always doing eviction. You know, I guess she always developed enemies. They were respectful, but they made notes about his behavior, and they did note that that he was grieving and that discussion ended. When detectives speak with Marlene's son, Joe, he shares a different perspective on her work-client relationships. I remember when she would go collect rent,

and I'd go with her. If they didn't pay, she would work with them. She was never rude to any one of them, even though they were rude to her. She was always understanding. You can just rule that out that some, angry tenant would have had the motivation to commit murder in her own home, dress up as a clown. It didn't make any sense.

Before wrapping up Joe's interview, detectives wonder if anything in Michael's life could have led to this. When this detective started questioning me, I was subconsciously protecting Mike. He was my father, and I didn't know for sure that he had anything to do with it. But I wouldn't say anything bad about the man. I told him Michael Warren's business was to sell and rent cars, and he was getting really good at it. He could influence people in ways that no one could. Michael Warren had a shady past.

He would display misleading advertisements to try to confuse his rental car company with the more established brand. It had been documented that he was rolling back odometers to get a higher price for a car that had higher mileage than what he was proclaiming. That was an ongoing investigation. So investigators wondered if maybe there was a bad business deal or a client of his who may have had a grudge against him.

Detectives find out Michael's business practices weren't the only dishonest things taking place at the car lot. He's always had an excuse. One or two o'clock in the morning, he would say, oh, I have to repossess these cars. You know, when your husband don't come up, till three, four in the morning, you throw up a red flag.

And she stole other people, she thought Mike was having a fair. After my brother died, I noticed he was living two different lives. A week or two before my mom approached me. She said, me and your father are arguing. and she was very upset, and I'd never seen her that way. Joey, I've come to the conclusion that your dad doesn't love me anymore. She said, if anything ever happens to me, know that he had something to do with it. After learning about Michael Warren's unscrupulous behavior,

investigators pay a visit to his car lot to find out if any of it played a part in his wife's murder. He wasn't the person to pull the trigger, but was he involved in some way? That's what police wanted to know. When police re-interview Michael's coworkers, they confirm a potential motive at play. I was around Mike for a long, long time, every day, day, night. And I knew that Mike was having an affair. The employees at the Bargain Motors, to a person, they all said that it was well-known that Michael Warren and one of the employees. Sheila Keene were having an affair and had been going on for some time.

The employees at a bargain motor all described Sheila Keene as a tomboy. She would often wear combat boots and would dress in a manly fashion. Not too many people at the business spoke fondly of her. Given the multiple reports of Sheila and Michael's entanglement, police must look into who Sheila Keene really is. 26-year-old Sheila was from a small town on the shore of Lake Okeechobee in southern Florida. It's a farming community right on the edge of the Everglades. She was pretty tall, long, shiny brown hair, and she was also really tough.

Rambunctious, always full of energy. She had married a man named Richard Keene sometime in the late 80s. He went by the nickname Spud, and he was a repo man. And Sheila, being the fearless woman that she was, started doing repo work with him. That's how she got connected to Michael. Richard Keen was doing work for Michael repossessing cars, and one day brought his wife Sheila along. She jumps out of his tow truck and onto the car lot,

into Michael's life. Eventually her husband stops working with Michael, moves on to other things, but Sheila stays on board and she starts doing more repo work for Michael. And other people who worked on a lot really started to notice that she and Michael were spending more and more time together. They began an open and obvious affair. I mean, they really didn't take great pains to conceal it. Everyone in the company would see see them showing public displays of affection. There was no secret that he wasn't, he was a player. They leave the doors right open.

There was no hiding. According to his employees, Michael seemed to be in it for the sex, but Sheila wanted something more. They described that Sheila's behavior had begun escalating in terms of her possessiveness of Michael. I think it started off as fun, having sex and stuff. And then she realized, oh, I can make a good life here if I can get Marlene out of a picture and have them to myself. She and her husband Richard eventually they got divorced.

She would openly say that life would be better if Marlene Warren wasn't a lie. When detectives confront Michael about the affair, he claims it was a misunderstanding. He admitted that others had thought they were having an affair. but he denied it. Michael told law enforcement that his relationship with his wife of 20 years was strong. There was no problems. Nothing was awry.

Compared to witness testimonies, police find Michael's version of events unlikely. Their suspicions are really strong that there was this affair going on. So they questioned Sheila. I just want you to understand that you're here voluntarily if you have the right to leave it in time.

Okay. We have more and more people telling us that the two of you had a very committed relationship. So we're trying, you know, we're trying to basically figure out why that... Well, I can tell you why is because as far as, you know, a lot of women were concerned, I know a lot of women that wanted to go out with them. And they thought that I was, which I wasn't. No, we had no sexual assault at all. And following up with that, they obviously also asked her where had she been the day before at the time of the homicide.

She didn't have a really strong alibi for that day. She said that the morning of the shooting, she was out repossessing cars. But she didn't really have any proof of that. The description of the shooter given by Marlene's son indicated it was a man. But looking at Sheila, detectives wonder if he was mistaken. Do you own a clown suit? No, don't. Have you ever purchased a clownsuit?

No. Sheila agrees to provide a hair sample, should any evidence surface to rule her out, but her cooperation stops there. Well, if you're telling me that I'm a suspect, is that what you're telling me? I'm telling you that there's a lot of things that make it look like would be involved.

So I think that I need to go. go find me an attorney and find if you think I'm a suspect. At this point there wasn't enough to make an arrest. There was nothing to forensically be able to say that Sheila Keane is the person that went to the door dressed as a clown. Detectives hope the unique items left at the crime scene might provide the connection they're looking for. There were flowers in a basket and a balloon.

It was important to trace those items back to the store where they were purchased, and that could lead them to the killer. They ultimately discovered that a local nearby publics sold that exact style of basket and balloons and flowers. A couple of employees there told police, yeah, we sold a woman, that same Memorial Day bouquet of flowers and two foil balloons. Unfortunately, the store doesn't have surveillance cameras and the woman paid in cash, but investigators are undeterred.

The Sheriff's Department went to all of the local businesses that may have offered such a costume for sale or rent. They find a clown shop on South Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach, and the owner of the costume shop told officers that a few days early A woman had called the shop and asked, do you sell clown suits? And they did. So the woman said, well, I want to buy one. Can I come in? She needed the colorful jumpsuit.

She needed the orange wig. She needed plenty of face makeup to completely conceal the face. But she did not need the clown shoes. They said it was a woman with long hair, dark eyes, and manly features. The same description that Joe gave to law enforcement. Law enforcement brought the photo lineup to the costume store employees. They showed it to three employees.

Two of them specifically identified Sheila Keene as the individual who bought the clown costume. Coming up, mounting evidence points to a killer driven by jealousy. Police found fibers from a wig, a clown wig, and they also found human hair. But will it be enough to bring the killer to justice? He said, I don't care if it takes 25 years. We're going to find out who killed your mother. Less than a week into their investigation, police in Wellington, Florida,

have a suspect for the murder of Marlene Warren. They've potentially connected 26-year-old Sheila Keene to the clown costume worn by the gunman, and on May 30th, another piece of... of evidence emerges. All of the witnesses described a white Chrysler LeBaron that the clown arrived and left in. Four days after the homicide happened,

a white Chrysler LeBaron was located abandoned in a nearby Winn-Dixie parking lot. When investigators run the VIN number on the car, they discover it's been reported stolen. Payless car rental agency indicated that that car had been rented by this husband and wife from up north and not been returned to them. It was learned that the wife looked in the yellow pages, thought she was calling payless,

where they had rented the car from, but she fell for a deceptive ad, and she called a bargain motors. There was an ongoing dispute between a bargain motors and payless, where Their cars would get returned to a Bargain Motors, an error and they would keep them. So as a result of that deceptive advertising, a Bargain Motors was able to siphon off business from Payless. The couple reported that they last saw the vehicle when they thought they dropped it off with Payless. But Bargermoters told them to leave the vehicle outside our gate.

Now, with the car recovered, police have a direct link between between Marlene's murder and Bargan Motors, Sheila's workplace. Within that car was some important evidence. Police found fibers from a wig, a clown wig. And they also found human hair. Unfortunately, police are unable to verify the hair belongs to Sheila. At the time, there was no DNA testing, and so they couldn't be conclusive.

The prosecutors decided there was not enough evidence to pick her up for the charge. Investigators have no new leads to go on. The investigation into Marlene's murder has gone cold. But police aren't ready to give up just yet. Law enforcement had already been looking at Michael Warren's business practices with the bargain motors. Four months after Marlene died, Investigators moved on Michael's car lot and they raided it. And they'd look through all the files and all the boxes.

The raid doesn't turn up any new evidence related to Marlene's murder, but it does prove Michael had been committing fraud. In 1992, he was formally charged with the evidence that they gathered from that raid. In 1994, Michael Warren was sentenced to eight years in prison for the Iraqi team. tearing and the odometer fraud. He's released from jail in 1997. He's no longer considered a suspect in the murder. So this story sort of drops out of the media.

When he got out, I talked to him one time on the phone, and it was out of nowhere. I guess he just got released. That was the last time I talked to him for over three decades. After serving his sentence, Michael moves to Virginia to make a fresh start, and sources tell investigators, he has a new wife named Debbie. They were living together in a beautiful big house in Virginia. Because Michael Warren was not charged with Marlene Warren's death, he was able to be the beneficiary of the $53,000 life insurance policy.

He left me like a bag of trash after all this. I had abandonment issues, post-traumatic stress disorder, I had depression. After a few years, I figured that they're not going to find this person overnight. I started practicing on becoming a builder. After this thing happened, I didn't know what I was going to do. And I had to do it one thing at a time. In Florida, Marlene's loved ones spend the next 17 years clinging to hopes that her killer will eventually be brought to justice.

I was waiting for closure. I would call every year to the detective's office and Detective Williams, he said, Joe, I'm going to tell you something. He said, I don't care if it takes 25 years, we're going to find out who killed your mother. I promise you. And you know what? They did.

In 2014, a grant comes in related to cold case investigations and Palm Beach County uses some of that money to take a... a new look at the murder of Marlene Warren. They start re-examining some of the evidence, including the balloons that the clown delivered, and find a long brown hair on one of the ribbons that hadn't been discovered in the original examination. Detective Page McCann sent off a lot of the trace evidence,

including hairs, fibers, to the FBI for mitochondrial DNA testing. With the new science, they had the opportunity to open up a brand new lead in the case. They had samples from Sheila that they could compare with samples that were found in the LeBaron and on the balloon ribbons. While awaiting results of the DNA analysis, investigators discover Sheila has also remarried. When investigators looked up the marriage license,

they realized that the person Michael was married to who supposedly was named Debbie was not Debbie, It was Sheila Keene Warren. Sheila Keene had bleached her hair blonde and was now going by the name Debbie. I found out they were married. In that just put the puzzle together for me. I believe Sheila Kean murdered Marlene Warren

because she wanted Marlene Warren's life. This is the act of a sociopath. This is the act of a cold-blooded killer thinks they can take away someone's life and not look back and just move away. and try to deceive everyone for the next 27 years. Nearly three decades after the murder of Marlene Warren, investigators have discovered evidence that could breathe new life

into a case that left a quiet Florida community in shock. This case has received a lot of attention because it combined a lot of different things. You've got evil clown that you would only see in the movies, you've got sex, and you've got violence. violence. So you can see why people are so interested in this. Advances in DNA technology allow forensic specialists to conduct a more thorough analysis of the hair found in the getaway vehicle. And what they find is chilling. It was able to be forensically determined that hair with Sheila Keens.

So now you've tied Sheila Keene Warren to the Christ of the Baron. You have tied her to the clown costume. You have tied her to the balloons and the flowers. So you have means, motive, and opportunity. And now you have DNA. It's enough for detectives to finally obtain a warrant for Sheila's arrest. We were contacted by the West Palm Beach, Florida Sheriff's Office in regards to the possibility of a lady that was residing in our county

by the name of Sheila Keane Warren. When we were ready to affect the arrest, which I believe was on September 27, 2017, she and her husband Michael were out of town. We were able to ascertain information that they were somewhere around the Roanoke area. They pulled her over, they put in the back of a cruiser,

and she doesn't ask why she's arrested. It's like she knew. Since there is no evidence of Michael's, involvement, he is free to go. But Sheila is immediately taken in for further questioning. I'm here to talk to you about a case from several years ago. Yeah, I mean, I really don't want to talk to you. Okay. Do you want to know what you're charged with? Yeah.

Okay. You're charged with the first-degree murder, okay, of Marnie Morin. I didn't do it, so that's the story. I'm not talking to you. With Sheila behind bars, prosecutors must now build out their case. Science can be very tricky and it's not always 100%. Cold cases are hard enough to prosecute as is, because memories fade, evidence spoils. A lot of it is, it's not just that DNA is found. You've got to tie it together.

Are the witnesses still alive? Can they testify on the stand? Sheila is extradited back to Florida to stand trial. trial. But by 2020, a series of COVID-related delays take a toll on the state's case against her. Law enforcement officers, who we depended on to introduce the evidence at trial, one by one, they became unavailable. Amid mounting concerns, prosecutors decide to forego the trial and offer Sheila a plea deal in 2003. The agreement that was reached was that Sheila would admit to having killed Marlene Warren,

and in exchange, she would be sentenced to 12 years in the Department of Corrections. Sheila accepts the deal, but neither side is happy with the outcome. Sheila Keith Warren did not plead of this crime because she committed this crime. The state offered her this sweetheart deal because the state knew that nobody in their right mind

would turn it down. It's one of the most frustrating things as a prosecutor to know that someone committed the most heinous crime of all, and one day we'll walk free. About the fact that we're able to get some measure of justice for Joseph and for his mother, Marlene Warren, is a victory.

A few years later, when I came out of my shock, I looked at a bunch of pictures of her, the eyes. There was no doubt after that picture, none. I saw the eyes of the killer that did it. For Marlene's loved ones, life will never be the same. It impacted everybody in our family and still does. Some are still shut down like I was, and I try to help them. And it's a process, you know, it's a slow process.

My mom is going to be remembered in this world because of what I do and how I do it. Love one another, you know, care about one another. If I can do it, From what I've been through, I believe everybody can do it. Sheila Keene Warren was released from prison in November 24 at 61 years old. Michael Warren was never charged in connection to Marlene's murder. He maintains that he had nothing to do with the death of his wife.