True Crime with Kimbyr - Killer In CLOWN Disguise with a FATAL Surprise - The Mysterious Case of Marlene Warren

Episode Date: September 1, 2023

A Florida woman was shot by a clown when she opened the door to her home. This case has bothered me since the day I saw it on the news, and it's stuck with me for many years. I hope that Marlene Warren gets the justice that she and her family deserve. If you like watching true crime stories, consider sticking around! I'm Kimbyrleigha, thanks in advance for reading this. I think it's important to know someone's background and education because it helps frame the way they look at situations and why they may have a particular point of view. I hold a bachelor's degree in Psychology and Sociology. I graduated from law school in 2010 and have a Juris Doctor (law degree). I'm also currently in school studying Medicolegal Investigation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The location. An upscale neighborhood in Wellington, Florida. The date, May 26, 1990. The time 10.51 a.m. Imagine. You're just starting your day with your son, his girlfriend, and friends. It's a sunny morning on Memorial Day weekend. You're cooking breakfast together, smiling, laughing, joking,

and then all the happiness turns to shock, horror and complete devastation. That's what happened to the family we're about to talk about. I remember this case. I was in college at the time in the very same county of Palm Beach. This case has haunted me for a very long time. The murder of a Florida woman by a clown is by far one of the hardest to wrap my head around. And what's worse is that it took police 27 years to make an arrest. The first thing I want to do is set the stage for this horrific story. And it starts with Living the Good Life. The location is in Wellington, Florida. It's an exclusive upscale and highly sought after part of Palm Beach County, which is a very affluent area.

Well known for Trump's 20-acre Mara Lago, the Oceanside Kennedy compound. Bruce Springsteen lives there. And it's where Bill Gates bought a $59 million dollar horse. Horse Farm. Wellington is also well known for its equestrian community where homeowners keep horses in their backyards. It's also known for its airplane neighborhoods. And one of them is called the Arrow Club. Every house in this type of neighborhood backs up to the community's own private 4,000 foot runway that you can use to land your own plane and you get your very own airplane hangar. Many residents actually take their helicopters to and from work so they can avoid traffic. So saying that, I think you can tell what can people live in Wellington.

This sounds wonderful, but there's also stuff like this that happens, but I guess it just comes with living in that territory. A couple named Marlene and Michael Warren lived in the Arrow Club with their two sons from Marlene's previous marriage, Joe and John Arons. Marlene was married as a teenager, and after her divorce, she remarried to Michael Warren when she was just 20 years old, and her boys were just toddlers at the time. Interestingly, I noticed there was no gait at the Euroclub, so anyone could come and go as they pleased, which I found to be kind of odd. I know I'd want my planes and my expensive home to be protected, but perhaps in the 90s, things were a little bit different, and they might have had home security systems. A couple owned upward of eight rental properties, a couple of racehorses, as well as a used car lot called Bargain Motors, where they would rent, lease, and sell used cars. In total, their net worth was over $1 million. So by all outward

appearances, their lives seemed to be pretty typical for the type of individuals living in this area. It looked as though they were living the American dream. However, Things weren't exactly as perfect as they seemed. We wouldn't be here if they were. Marlene's son Joe had recently been charged with aggravated assault in 1986. The family could afford a good lawyer, so Joe was able to walk away with only six months of house arrest in 1989. He was about 17 at the time, and it was chalked up to him being a hormonal teenage boy. He served his time without anything going wrong and eventually the issue was completely forgotten about, just swept under the rug. What's worse is that in the fall of 1988, tragedy struck the Warren family. Marlene's son John,

only 22 at the time, was tragically killed in a car accident. And that's when it seemed like Marlene and Michael's marriage allegedly started to fall apart. When a tragedy like this happens, it either brings the family together or it tends to pull them apart, depending on their support system, their coping skills and just their personalities and how strong their marriages. Joe stated that Michael became kind of distant, and he also said in his own words that he wasn't around as much as you'd say he should have been. He wasn't there for Marlene as much as he was before. So something had definitely changed. Now I'm going to bring you to what happened to Marlene. It was Saturday, May 26th, 1990 Memorial Day weekend. Michael Warren

was on his way to the horse racetrack. He was with some of his friends, and Marlene decided to stay home with her son, Joe, who was now 21. She was making food for him, his girlfriend, Jeannie Pratt, and some of his friends. Jeannie had just sat down to eat, and something caught her eye. She saw a small white car pull up into the driveway. She then told Marlene, who went to go look out the door. When Marlene opened the door, she saw a clown standing outside. The clown walked up to her, but the door is open at this point, and handed her two balloons, any basket of flowers. Everyone inside thought it was really cute and assumed that Michael had something to do with it. Marlene even said, oh, how pretty. One of the balloons even had

you're the greatest on it. And if that's not eerie or disgusting as a clown coming up to your front door, I don't know what is. The other balloon had snow white and the seven dwarfs on it. And it's not for nothing that I'm telling you these things. All of a sudden, they heard what sounded like a balloon popping. But then Marlene fell to the floor and that's when everything slows down and speeds up at the same time. The clown then turns around and slowly and calmly walks back down their driveway. Everyone in the house immediately started to freak out, and when they looked, there was blood pooling around Marlene's head. What had started out as a surprise delivery quickly turned everyone's heart cold. The clown had pulled out a 38 caliber and shot Marlene in the face at point-blank range. Jeannie was the first one

that attended to Marlene right away because Joe had broken his leg and he had a cast on it at the time, so it took him longer to get to the door and to his mother. Jeannie got the first sight of the entry wound, and it was right above Marlene's upper lip. Someone dressed as a clown, shot and killed a Wellington mother as she simply answered her front door. Victim Marlene Warren was shot in the lip as she answered her front door. At this point, Joe hobbles out the door,

and he tries to go down the driveway towards the clown as it got into a white Chrysler-Liberin, which was sitting right in the driveway, with the door open and the engine still running. There was also a neighbor Bill Kramer that was walking his dog nearby with his wife. He remembers hearing a sound that sounded like someone using a nail gun. And he just thinks someone must be doing construction, but then he sees something in the distance. The kids yelling running out of the house, screaming that someone had killed Marlene. Bill decided to stay on the scene with the boys and his wife ran to call 911. Everyone at this point

was in complete shock as to what had just happened, but most confusing was why. Why Marlene? She was known as a quiet woman that the neighbors said they barely spoke to, but she seemed like a normal, pleasant mother. She was friendly. She would say hello to the other people in the community, but that was pretty much all they knew. Joe was seen screaming and cursing at the clown and trying to get a good look at who was behind the costume. He did end up catching a glimpse as the clown drove down the driveway. Full face of makeup and these piercing eyes. They were these deep, empty brown eyes. So Joe and Jeannie jumped into Joe's Red Corvette and they sped off to follow the clown, but they quickly lost sight of the car and they never had a chance to catch up. By the time the

couple came back, detectives were already on the scene and a medical team was working on Marlene. An ambulance rushed her to the hospital as fast as possible and then she was admitted. to Palms West in extreme critical condition. A bullet had gone straight through her mouth, into her throat, and actually lodged in her spinal cord. She was put on life support and Joe stayed by her side comforting her, but she remained unconscious. As Marlene was holding on as long as she could, Joe never left her side. He sat there for hours on end, holding her hand, comforting her, and he repeatedly begged her not to leave him, which is so sad. He told her how much he loved her, and then Michael showed up as well.

He rushed to be by Marlene's side, and he also stayed with her until Marlene's mother, Shirley, was able to get to Florida to see her daughter for one last time. But despite their best efforts, Marlene never woke up, and the family had to make the really hard decision to take her off life. support. It was absolutely devastating to hear her mother talk about Marlene's last moments. No one can be prepared for that, especially a mother. And as soon as the life support was taken off, Marlene was gone. She was officially declared dead on May 28, 1990. Police began their investigation right away. They thought it couldn't have been a random killing, that this person must have known Marlene, especially to know where she lived and that she would be home that day. They felt that this

crime was very personal and malicious, that it was committed with intent and done so in a very evil and heartless manner. They knew they were looking for someone very dangerous, but with the costume involved, they didn't know if they were looking for a man or a woman. They wanted to issue a standard Bolo at this time, which is an acronym for Beyond the Lookout. but what wasn't standard was the description. Someone in a clown costume. Now I want to stop right here because there's an educational piece that I want to add to this entire situation that comes into play later on and I think it's very important to mention. I'm not an expert. This is what I'm currently learning in class right now. Most common mistakes that are made at a crime scene. If you want to

skip over this portion, no worries. I left a timestamp below. When first responders get to a crime scene and they're waiting for investigators or the CSI team to arrive, it's actually very common for evidence to be contaminated. And this is something that happens accidentally because while they're trying to care for someone in the moment and save their life, they're not exactly caring where they're stepping and if they're stepping on evidence. You should be blocking off the scene as soon as possible and making sure that there is a clear path set for personnel to walk through. And you're also logging every single person that's on the scene, witnesses, and family members. Sometimes they just go quickly into ruling it as a natural death or an accident with the information that was given to

you about the 911 call and things like that. And this can make them fail to see evidence that's really important to the investigation and it could lead to the wrong pictures being taken and the integrity of certain evidence to be diminished or even destroyed. Speaking of photography, photography is one of the most important things when it comes to crime scenes because they change so rapidly if you fail to take enough pictures or take them quick enough this could be a major problem later on especially since not everyone that's an expert is going to get to the scene and see it the way it was when it first occurred gathering as much information as possible about the victim themselves because victimology which relates to who a victim was their personality

what they did for a living, their education level, their habits on a daily basis, reputation are extremely important in any case that involves a crime. And I want to point out that this is not victim blaming. I see that a lot in my comments, in other true crime, YouTubers comments, and all over in Facebook groups, victimology and victim blaming are two totally different things. Victimology is very important when you're trying to solve a case. Who the victim was definitely matters. It matters if they were a sex worker or they had a habit of doing drugs. That is not victim blaming. Saying a woman that wears a miniskirt or goes out late at night and deserves what she got is victim blaming and that's just being a douchebag. It has nothing to do with solving a crime.

And the last and final common mistake for political reasons and even trying to solve the case quicker because there's pressure within the community, which is actually something we see later on in this case. or certain conclusions are being pushed because of those reasons onto investigators and they end up going in the wrong direction. So let me know going forward in the comments if you see any of these mistakes happening in this case. Now let's go back to the story. Three hours later, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office gets a 911 call from an anonymous caller and they say to take a closer look at Marlene's husband, Michael. But what was specifically, specifically said, we'll come into play a little later. Meanwhile, Marlene's parents are being interviewed,

and they told police that she did not have any enemies that they knew of. Her mother remembers Marlene as an outstanding woman, and that would do anything for anyone. It's really not uncommon for parents to paint a very positive picture. Not that Marlene wasn't any of these things, but I tend to find that this is the way many victims are described. But Marlene's dad said she was courteous and respectful and just an all-around good person. What was creepy to me was the fact that police noticed three clown paintings in Marlene's childhood home. There were even a bunch of clowns on display in the home and the family loved and collected them. They even dedicated a room to circus clowns. So I thought that was, is that, is that strange or is it just me? And what's even more haunting is the fact that

Marlene herself actually painted one of those portraits of a clown when she, She was just 14 years old. Is that just a scary coincidence? I don't know, but I don't think I could ever look at a clown again if one of my family members had this happen to them. But it seems like Marlene's mom still holds clowns near and dear to her heart. Not only were her parents grieving, but Marlene's husband just lost his wife so suddenly.

And in such a horrific manner. And Marlene's parents knew Michael very well. And they described him as a good, hardworking, confident man. But that's not how everyone described Michael. One neighbor said he was out of place in their community. He was an outcast. He had somewhat of a bad attitude. He was rough around the edges. Because normally in this kind of community, they're very close-knit and everyone knew each other. They would spend time at the local country club. They would shop at the same grocery stores, but they never remember seeing Michael. And sources say that Michael was always surrounded by trouble.

On one occasion, his plane had disappeared, and it finally turned up with the engine broken, and no one did anything. They just swept it under the rug. No one ever found out what happened. It would be pretty hard, in my opinion, for that to go unnoticed, stealing a damn plane. Then one of his race horses died, and it just showed up dead with no explanation. And I guess that's a big deal in an equestrian kind of community. And then he does have a criminal history. But nothing specific that investigators would think could lead to someone wanting to kill his wife. Still, investigators have to give it some weight, especially because of the strange comment that Marlene made to her parents before her death.

She said, if something happens to me, Michael did it. Police start their investigation very quickly since the community is putting a lot of pressure on them. They want this case solved and they want it solved now. They're on edge. They're shocked. They're scared. They feel violated, knowing that someone came into their neighborhood so easily and carried out this gruesome crime. They thought it may happen again. They thought there could be a serial killer in their community just roaming around. Investigators start out by looking for the things they know, person wearing a clown costume, driving a Chrysler-Liberin, or a 38 caliber. They also decide to set up surveillance vehicles to observe who showed up at Marlene's funeral and who didn't. But that didn't really lead to any clues.

However, leads do start to come in, especially with this high profile type case in the area. The police were looking for costume stores in the area and they stumbled upon one where two women worked, Deborah and Barbara. And they had been running a costume shop in the town. And back then, there were only three costume-related stores in Palm Beach County. People were not buying things online. There wasn't like Amazon. You had to actually go to the store, try on the costume, buy it there. But Deborah says that someone came into the store on the night before Marlene's murder. After the store was closed for the night.

The ladies were still inside finishing up and they see a customer at the door knocking for them to open it. It was a lady and she insisted that they let her in to get a costume. When they asked her, could you come back later? like tomorrow when we're open, she said no, she needed a costume right now. They also thought that was super suspicious because it was nowhere near Halloween. They could understand if, you know, your kids don't have a costume. You need to get in tomorrow's Halloween. No, this was May. Plus, she knew specifically what she wanted. She asked for a full clown outfit, makeup, shoes, sponge nose, wig, everything. I did some digging and I found out it was a Ruby's clown costume.

in Bob Kelly Clown makeup in case you're wondering. I'm pretty sure you're not going to wear this costume for Halloween, but that's what I found out. I wanted to try to be as accurate as possible when I tried to imagine what this person looked like coming up to Marlene's door. A lot of people describe the clown as having the look of Bozo the Clown. Deborah gives police a description of a woman around 5'8

with big brown eyes, long, pretty, thick, deep brown hair, wearing a pair of jeans and a men's work shirt. But other eyewitnesses at the house said that they thought the clown was a six-foot man. This person paid in cash and the items came out to be about $80. Finally, Deborah asked the police why they were being questioned. And when they told her the bad news about Marlene, her heart just sank. Because she realized at that moment that she could have potentially sold this costume to a murderer. Another interesting turn in the case came.

When they were examining one of the balloons, remember how I described them? This seems impossible since it's just a balloon, but as Faye would have it, one of them was a special balloon. It was only sold at one Publix grocery store in Palm Beach County. When the employees that were interviewed at Publix, they told police that the person who bought the balloons also bought the flowers. and this was at 9.22 a.m. only an hour and a half before the murder. She was a white woman with long, dark hair. And in the 90s, there weren't any cameras to prove that this woman was in the store. She paid with cash, so the purchases couldn't be linked to anyone. But there was one more clue that they had yet to find, and that was the one that would really narrow in on the suspect. The

car. They were able to locate the car only four days after the crime was committed and it was abandoned in a Wind Dixie grocery store parking lot in a Royal Palm Beach Shopping Plaza, which was only eight miles from Marlene's house. They went through this car with a fine tooth comb and they didn't find any weapons and they didn't find any fingerprints. Maybe the clown was wearing gloves. I don't know. At the very same time, police were questioning employees of Michael's businesses and many of them suspected that Michael was having an affair. And there were rumors that had been swirling around the office that he was hanging around a woman, but she allegedly no longer worked for Michael. While this was happening, investigators get their first solid lead in the case. They confirmed that they

had found the right car. Not only was it a white Chrysler-Labaron, but because they found two important clues. They found quite a few, and I don't know how much quite a few is, synthetic orange fibers. And these were found on the driver's side of the vehicle and mixed in with the fibers were strands of long brown human hair. And they were believed to belong to a woman. So far, it seems like this is the same person, same person at the house, same person matching a description at Publix, same car, and now evidence that someone driving the car may have matched the description. So going back to Michael, it's pretty standard to suspect the husband. So after Marlene passed and Michael was finally able to be questioned, he said that he had a solid alibi. His story of

driving to the racetrack at the time checked out. But this did not mean he wasn't conspiring with someone else who actually committed this crime. Someone else, like a woman named Sheila Keene. Sheila Keene was more of a deep South Florida girl. She grew up in a small town around the Everglades, which is a wetland in Florida, and it's much different than Wellington. That's for sure. But it's actually really beautiful in its own way, and it is very special. It is the only remaining subtropical wilderness in the United States. It consists of 1.5.5. million acres of sawgrass marshes, mangrove forest, and hardwood hammocks, and it's the home to many endangered, rare and exotic animals. My dad told me that many criminals would dump bodies in

the Everglades to never be seen again because the alligators would take care of them. Sheila was a true country girl. She was very pretty. She always had the attention of all the boys around her, but one thing everybody knew about Sheila was that she had big dreams. She wanted to get out of the Everglades and be rich. She was super into money and she wanted to live the good life. The way that Sheila was brought up, she was a tough girl and she found herself in a tough business. She repossessed cars. People told police that she was the type of person that wasn't scared of walking up to just anybody, anyone's home, whether it was day or night, and confronting them. or just pulling up her flatbed truck and taking their car.

Sheila was 26 years old. She was a single mother at the time and she was separated from her husband. And her and Michael ended up connecting because Michael needed someone to repossess cars he sold when people could not come up with their payments. And these cars were talking about they're not the greatest. They were described as cars that someone pretty desperate would buy. people that had bad credit, criminal records, sketchy pasts, and therefore it was said that Sheila carried a gun with her just in case anything went south. It's not unusual for people to be

strapped in Florida. I was too when I lived in downtown Jacksonville. It can get pretty rough out there. And rightfully so, Sheila had encounters where people would come out of their house with shotguns while she was trying to repossess their vehicles. Some sources say that Sheila worked directly under Michael, but then other people reported that she was sort of a freelance worker, if you will, an independent contractor, and that she had more of a partnership relationship with Michael. But regardless of which version is accurate, the two of them had a very close working relationship. Marlene herself was also very heavily involved in the used car lot. So she knew Sheila as well.

And as a matter of fact, a lot of the businesses were in Marlene's name. Michael was questioned about this possible affair with Sheila and he was adamant that they were strictly in business together. However, there were accounts from employees that they would go on long lunches together. This doesn't necessarily mean that people are cheating, but okay, I guess that's fair, but they could have been talking about business. But then something else happens that makes them take an even closer look at Sheila. Remember the anonymous phone call that I said I was going to get back to later? The reason they told police to look into Michael is because there were rumors around town that Michael was helping Sheila financially. And it wasn't just related to helping

her with a job and paying her as an employee. There was more to it. At this time in 1990, Sheila was married to a man named Richard Keene, who also worked in the car repossession business. So if the rumors were true about the affair, it meant that both of them were cheating on their spouses, Michael and Sheila. And Sheila's marriage was definitely not a good one. And she was living in her own apartment. Some people believe that Michael was paying her rent at this apartment. Supposedly, Marlene knew about the affair. And her mother even told police that she had confided in her that the marriage was on the rocks. Joe said to police that only two weeks before her murder, Marlene told him that she planned to move out and find her own place.

Then Marlene's mother confirmed this because she told Marlene that she was welcome to come back home in Vegas. This one day when Michael had detailers working on a customer's car in the lot, the customer said Marlene showed up out of nowhere and started yelling at him. According to this customer, Marlene specifically said to Michael that he was a sinking ship and that he would lose every f-thing thing he owned if he kept screwing with her. Her words. Now tell me what you think about this. After Marlene left, the men detailing the car that worked for him said that he was. went up to them and said that one of them could be the richest man alive and a very happy person that would never have to work again if one of them would get rid of the bitch. Does this sound like a

joke to you? I don't know. Maybe. And it's pretty unknown where this timeline of events occurred. But let me let me just say, it's not that uncommon to say things you don't actually mean. And this isn't in defense of Michael. I'm really, not a fan of people saying things as a joke or out of frustration that can be very hurtful. Sometimes there's truth to it. Even if they just mean to release it out of frustration, I'm pretty sure either you've said something like that, you've heard someone say something like that. They sometimes say like, oh, I could just kill you. Or if I find out he's cheating, I'll kill him. But they don't actually mean it. Considering the circumstances that happened and then he's

talking to other men and he's embarrassed in the moment, do you think he's joking or not? one interesting lead came in that Sheila had allegedly been seen wearing a clown costume into an auto parts store that she used to go to very often to entertain the owner's children. But this was never confirmed. So we don't know if someone's making it up to put the blame on her. But while looking into Sheila, they discovered some weird things about her husband Richard. He was 20 years older, which I don't know, that doesn't seem that weird. to me, but what is weird is he was involved in the KKK, supposedly. When they questioned Sheila's

husband about whether she owned a gun, he said that they did own a 38, but that Sheila had misplaced it about a month before Marlene's death. Oh, that's convenient. When police questioned Sheila, she denied having the affair. She said, they were merely good friends. So now they're not just business associates or partners, but they're really good friends, or I'm sorry, merely good friends. Of course, police interviewed the tenants at the apartment where Sheila lived, and they said they thought Sheila and Michael were married because they saw them together so much. The security guard, it's surprising that Sheila's apartment building had the security guard and Michael and Marlins didn't, but he said that Sheila told him to add Michael to a list of people

that could come in the gate without having to call her to approve their visits. Okay, I thought this was weird, but then again, if he was just trying to be nice, if he was just trying to help her, I mean, she is a young single mother. I've been there. Maybe he just had a soft spot for this woman, and he didn't want his wife to get the wrong idea. Maybe he was just being low-key about it. What if they went to lunch there because it was close by where they were working? But either way, police got a warrant to search her apartment.

They took some of her clothing, as well as some hairs from her trash bin to compare to the hair they found. in the vehicle. Now they're turning their attention back to Michael once again after hearing that he's frequenting Sheila's apartment. And they really want to nail down Michael's alibi. And it turns out there was proof that he was driving to a racetrack 50 miles away when the crime occurred. And he had witnesses because his friends were there with him in the car. But what we have to take into account is that the person who stood to gain a lot was Michael. Marlene's life insurance policy, and by inheriting all the businesses, he wouldn't have to split anything in the event of a divorce. It would have been an over seven-figure inheritance. Marlene's parents were convinced that Michael, at the very least,

knew more than he was letting on, and Marlene's father decided to confront Michael. I mean, I would, too. He didn't think that Michael physically hurt Marlene, but he thought, that Michael had information that he wasn't giving up, but Michael just denied it. And he just responded with, honestly, I don't know anything. But the police aren't so sure about that. If Michael was not in town, who would have had access to Marlene through knowledge of her whereabouts? They were concerned that Marlene may have been taken out of the picture because he was helping Sheila financially. perhaps she wanted him to contribute more. And he could do that and give her more if Marlene was gone.

They could just do away with her and then live the good life. But just like Michael, Sheila had her own alibi that she would give police. She said it's impossible for her to be the one that committed the crime because she was out doing her job, repossessing cars. They don't even have surveillance to figure out if there's a clown driving a car. So how would they prove or disprove where Sheila was? Remember the white Labaron? Well, guess what? I really wish you could guess and then I could hear you and I could respond.

But you know what business Michael is in, right? Yeah, cars. And guess where that LeBaron was connected? Yeah. Good old Mikey has a lot of. of explaining to do because they discover that the car had been stolen from another used car lot and somehow ended up in Michael's lot. What? How is this possible? A competitor of Michael's that owned a dealership called Payless. We got bargain motors. We got pay less. He was running an ad and says that

Michael ends up allegedly purposely copying this ad. And this was about a month before. Marlene's death. And there was a couple that rented the LeBaron from Payless. And when they were bringing it back, they got confused and they mistakenly returned it to Michael's lot where employees allegedly told the couple to just park the car on the street, leave the keys in the visor, and they would take care of it. Mysteriously, the LeBeran was stolen from the street that night. Of course, police end up doing an even more extensive investigation into the used car lot. And after five hours in there, going through everything, it couldn't prove that Michael stole the car and there wasn't any evidence connecting him to Marlene's murder. But what they did find was evidence that sneaky Mikey was tampering with the odometers.

I'm sure you know what that is, but in case you don't, it is the dial on your car that tells you how many miles are on it. And he was advertising that car is. had way less miles than they really did. It turns out that this can actually be a very lucrative business. It makes the cars more valuable than they really are. He would buy them low and then sell them way higher and he had been doing this for years. So you can only imagine how many cars were tampered with. So they arrest him. They charge him for fraud and they actually charge him with 66 crimes in total related to his used car business. Not good news. He's convicted of 43 counts of racketeering, theft, and of course the fraud related to the odometer. One of his bookkeepers comes forward,

Delaw Ward. She was actually on Michael's side. She was upset because she said cops kept pressuring her to talk about Michael and it seemed like they just wanted to pin everything on him. But she refused to do that because she said he's not a cold. old-hearted person. He was always very good to her and she did not believe he would hurt Marlene. But I was thinking, maybe, just maybe, she was scared she would get in trouble because she was his bookkeeper. And if those books were cooked, then she, you know, she has something to worry about. Going back 13 months before Marlene was murdered, there was another incident that in hindsight should have been a red flag of what was to come. Remember that Joe, Marlene's son, was on trial.

Well, apparently, Michael had gone up to Joe's lawyer, Christopher DeSantis, and asked him a really weird question. If a husband would inherit his wife's estate, if he murdered her. Oh my God, Michael. Because this is a giant waving red flag to anyone with common sense. But that's, The police didn't learn about this until 1991, so they interviewed the lawyer to learn more about it. I'll say the rest of what he said in a moment, but let's go back to 1990 and the white car. Even though they could not prove it with Sheila who bought the costume, they had reasonable cause for suspicion. And when they searched the apartment in Pine Ridge of Haverhill, there was a pair of shoes they found that fit the description of what the clown was wearing. and on the shoes, they found strands of brown hair and orange synthetic fibers that looked like

they came from a wig. Unfortunately, back in 1990, the DNA technology wasn't advanced enough, so they couldn't confirm that the fibers were exactly the same as the ones found in the car. They could only say they were similar. So this means the tests are inconclusive. But at the very least, now you have this connection that it's a lot of the same. that is much more solid than an eyewitness account, especially because at this point the case is so public that many eyewitnesses,

whether it's at the costume store or in publics, they're coming forward and saying that the person they saw buying the items in connection with a case matched Sheila's description. But you can never be 100% sure about eyewitness testimony. It can change. Once people get more information, they tend to make a connection that, might not be there. And also legally speaking, it is not illegal for a woman to be buying flowers and

balloons and a clown suit. And something I found interesting was as a matter of fact, people that were employed as clowns at this time while they were being interviewed during the case, they told investigators that the entire clown industry had taken a hit. The entertainers were not able to be financially stable as they were before because no one wanted to hire a clown. And then the regular items they would purchase for events became suspicious. You know, they would get stared at when they came into costume stores and people would even call the police. I mean, I don't blame them. People were just probably trying to be very diligent. They still didn't have enough evidence to give to prosecutors to get a conviction for Sheila. So she was not arrested. And you may be angry about this, but in the eyes of the law,

they want to be really confident that they have the right person. And more importantly, that they have enough evidence for justice because if not, the killer could go free. If a jury finds that reasonable doubt, that's it. And here, they had circumstantial evidence and there's just no do-overs. So remember the incident in regard to Michael Sun Joe's lawyer and the weird comments?

Well, in 1991, the police finally brought to Santis in for an interview. In addition to what I previously mentioned, he said there was even more incriminating evidence. Hold on to your phones or your computer because supposedly Mr. DeSantis actually answered Michael in depth, in my opinion, especially since later on he said Michael was nuts and that he didn't take him seriously. Really? Well, then why did this attorney respond with this? Do you ready? Quote, it really isn't an issue of whether a man kills his wife.

The question is whether a man is convicted of murdering his wife. Because if he's convicted of murdering his wife, then he wouldn't inherit. But if he were convicted of a lower charge, he would. But if he had a friend do it and they couldn't tie him as an accessory to the friend, he get away Scott free. While none of this proves that Michael actually took the advice literally and did anything, It does provide a potential motive. But before I talk about that, let's talk about the elephant in the room here.

You mean to tell me that a lawyer admits he seriously told a man that if he hired someone to murder his wife, but he wasn't caught, that he would inherit his wife's estate? I don't recall learning to give that advice when I was in law school. I think the fact that Michael was even asking a lawyer about murder related to his wife is really gross. And the fact that the lawyer even responded was super unprofessional in my opinion because Michael wasn't even his client. Upon his wife's death, not only did Michael receive a payout of Marlene's life insurance policy, but he received all of her estate. he was the sole owner of all the rental properties and the used car business and supposedly he even cut Joe off from getting much of anything.

When Michael was questioned by police, he said that money was of no importance to him. But okay, what about the alleged comments he made at the car dealership or him having an airplane or him betting on horses at the racetrack? You're not doing it for money? He actually states, no, his wife is the one that owns the properties, that some of the tenants in their properties may have had a vendetta. And that because Marlene was the one that handled everything in regard to the business and the tenants, that someone could have been mad about being evicted and they hurt Marlene. But the police could not find any connection there. Unfortunately for Michael, he was not spending any of the

money that he inherited anytime soon because he was charged in in 1992. for the aforementioned crimes, and eventually he was sentenced to nine years in prison. Michael had a good lawyer. He had money. So he only served three years and nine months of his sentence. All the while Marlene's case went cold. So both Michael and Sheila got to move on with our lives while Marlene's killer walked the street. Michael was out around 1997, and in 2000, Sheila divorced her husband for good. And she left town with her son and no one. nobody talked about her again. I'm sure they did, but you know what I mean. It wasn't as publicized. People had forgotten about the case. By 2004, Michael had actually moved almost 1,000 miles away to a

cute little small town called Abington, Virginia, which is a part of the Blue Ridge Mountains. It was nice and secluded. And he ended up getting remarried. And him and his new wife, Debbie, who he affectionately referred to as Deb. He told friends that this was her child nickname given to her by her dad, and he liked to continue that tradition. They were such an adorable sweet couple, according to friends. And even though they were far away from the fast life in Palm Beach, they were still living in their own little paradise in a place called Heron Point, which was on the South Houston Lake. And this was in another well-to-do community. I found a picture of the home, and as you can see, it's not the typical small town style home by any means. It has a

private dock on the lake. I'm sure they spent a lot of time enjoying nature and living the more private life, especially after such a public tragedy had occurred in Michael's life. The couple invested in a local restaurant to make a living and the restaurant was just across the border in Kingsport, Tennessee. It was called the Purple Cow. Debbie was 39 and Michael was 48 and the couple fit right in. they made friends really fast in their neighborhood and they were really close to one of their neighbors on one side of their house. So Michael goes by Mike now and everyone described them as a lovely caring couple. So maybe everyone was wrong about Michael and they were just blinded by the rumors spreading around town. So maybe what happened to Marlene changed Mike and he didn't

take anything for granted anymore. He definitely seemed to, to be very in love with Debbie. They were seen being affectionate to one another, and people that knew them said Mike was definitely smitten by Debbie. Their restaurant, the Purple Cow, was very popular locally, and it was also very unique. Here are some pictures of it. It was pretty famous for this huge hamburger named after Mike himself called Mike's Intimidator. Mike and Debbie weren't just the owners. They got into the nitty-gritty. They helped. helped with a prep. The couple was extremely hardworking and they were gems in their community. Nobody knows about Michael's past. There were some employees that told a different story because

reportedly Debbie was intolerable to work for. She was always irritable and she was often pretty unreasonable when asked to accommodate the employee's request, whether they needed time off or it was just something really simple. She demanded perfection. And she would let her employees know that when their performance wasn't up to her standards, but that's kind of understandable. That's your business's reputation. But despite all this, Debbie would supposedly go out and drink with the employees. And this happened pretty often.

And I guess some people could see that as unprofessional, but who knows? In 2013, though, Florida State Police were given a grant to reopen the now freezing cold case. of Marlene Warren. And this time around, things were different. DNA testing had come leaps and bounds since 1990. First, they started recalling old witnesses to let them know they were reopening the case. Eventually, with the new technology, they were able to confirm that the orange fibers that were found in the car did match the ones in Sheila's apartment and that they belonged to a wig. Next, they tested the hairs that were found in the car, and again, it matched what was found in the boots and in Sheila's trash bin. The kicker was that they were able to get skin cells off of the hair because it had been pulled out of the root.

Oh my, I love technology. I think it's so interesting. The DNA in the cells matched Sheila Keen. So arrest her already. This evidence didn't appear overnight, though, so it would still be a fact that. few years before they could make an arrest. And at this point, they were still building their case and searching for the murder weapon. As they were re-investigating the case and interviewing old witnesses, an old employee of Michaels came forward. He said that a few days after the murder, Michael had handed him several firearms and requested that the employee hide them. So he claims

that he took the firearms and he hid them in the attic at his mother's house. He also claimed that he knew where the orange wig was, that it was sitting at the bottom of a nearby river. Police ended up following up on both of these claims, but they could not recover the gun or the costume or the wig, because at this point it had been so many years, the most of that stuff would either be disintegrated or just completely gone. And this ended up completely discrediting this witness, and so far the murder weapon had not been recovered. But a bombshell was about to go off, so hold on tight. This is pretty crazy if it wasn't already a wild ride. In 2016, Michael sells the purple cow and he retires. He's spending more time around the lakehouse and more time

for neighbors on the other side of his house to see a different side to him. They say, they catch him on a tractor on their property stealing rocks. And when they confronted him, he was nasty. All they did was tell him to please leave and that he was trespassing, and all he had to do was ask. But Michael was far from neighborly. He basically told him to F off, and the two men proceeded to get into a yelling match with Mike asking the owner, what are you going to do with your scrawny ass? And then the neighbor yelling back, he was going to beat Mike's fat ass. Those were their words, but the neighbor explained that Michael acted like he had to get whatever he wanted or else.

On the 27th year anniversary of Marlene's death in May of 2017, the investigators are about to close in on the suspected killer. A reporter from the Palm Beach Post is writing an article about the case and while researching. She finds out that Sheila Keene is remarried as well. But at that point, she thought that her eyes were playing tricks on her when she saw the name of Sheila's new husband. none other than Michael Warren. Wait. How can this be? What about Debbie?

What's going on? Was he married to Sheila and then he got divorced and now he's with Debbie? So of course they bring this information to the police thinking that there must be some kind of mix-up, that possibly there's a clerical error of some kind in the courthouse was mixing up things in the case and that the marriage certificate somehow had the wrong information on it. It's not really that probable, but okay. but how crazy is this? The investigators confirm that Michael and Sheila got married 12 years after Marlene's death in 2002 in Vegas in the Little White Wedding Chapel. So where was Sheila now?

Why did Michael marry her? Was this the case of business associates getting close because they were both accused of a crime they didn't commit? And then they decided no one would want to be with either one of them, so they end up together? Or was it something more? And were they still married? And what about Debbie? I was like, oh my God, are they going to find Sheila dead? Is this guy a serial killer? The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office has to contact the police sheriff that's in the small town in Virginia. His name is Fred Newman. They let him know that they were looking for Michael Warren. This guy had never dealt with anything like this before, but his job was to find Michael because they were looking to connect him to a murder in 1990. He devises a plan with the department to wait until the couple leaves their home and to follow

them. So Michael and Debbie were out driving in their Cadillac escalade to go visit Michael's mom. The cops had strategically blocked off different roads and they were watching and waiting and reporting where the SUV was going. They set up some sort of roadblock and finally they were able to pull them over. The cops acted like it was just like a routine checkpoint. And they kindly asked for Michael and Debbie's license. But they're not really concerned about Michael. And I'm like, okay, the story has way too many twists and turns. But they just asked Debbie to step out of the car and they handcuff her.

There is literally footage that I'm going to show you of her in the back of the police car. And she looks as cool as a damn cucumber as far as I'm concerned. And the police say Michael was too. But wouldn't he be freaking out about why his wife was being arrested? No, because Michael knows something that we don't, or maybe you too by now. Debbie was Sheila Keene. Now, Debbie Warren. Why didn't anyone know this was her?

Well, for one, they were in the middle of nowhere. Two, she changed her name and also her appearance. As you can see, she is now blonde. Sheila was arrested on the charge of murdering Marlene Warren. And she asked, oh, is Michael going to be arrested too? but the cops say no. She told detectives she didn't want to speak to them. And when she got to the station,

she just put her head down on the interrogation room table. This woman was weird. She actually smiled when they were booking her. And you know what's creepy? Look at this other booking photo of when she was convicted of shoplifting when she was 21. Wow. She's just all smiles.

Like it doesn't even phase. her. Girl, you are definitely not a Southern Bell. You are a f***ing clown. Of course, their small town was shocked. How could these dangerous people be living right under their noses? Not only that, when some of the people in town were interviewed, police found out that on one occasion, supposedly, allegedly, when Debbie, Sheila was out partying, you know, with the servers and the people from the purple cow. She confessed to one of them, probably when she was wasted, who knows, that her real name was Sheila and that she dressed in a clown costume and killed someone. According to other employees, they had seen pictures of Sheila in a clown costume on several occasions. Did the internet not exist

back then? I mean, this was early 2000 and then recently into 2017 and no one thought to look up this case and just check if their boss was really a killer. But you know, you know, know who does believe that Sheila did it? Marlene's parents, remember the conversation that she had with her mother about the marriage being on the rocks? And now Michael marries the woman? Who is the suspected killer? Come on. This can not be a coincidence. My question, though, is why marry Sheila? What's the story? I'm sure we're going to find out at trial. Because what happened in those 12 years? What about Michael's parents, you may ask, well, according to investigators, Michael's mother, Joyce said that Sheila had told her a month before Marlene's death, that she was in love with Michael.

Joyce had joined a group of them, including Michael and Sheila, at the Calder Racetrack in Fort Lauderdale back in April 1990. Joyce and Sheila get into somewhat of an argument because Sheila threw a tantrum when she couldn't sit next to Michael. Are you serious? But she was 26 years old. So I don't know. This was only a month before what happened to Marlene. And this was the same racetrack that Michael was on his way to the day that Marlene was killed.

Oh, it's not over. This is a long video. There are a lot of details here. We're almost done, but not so fast. Joyce, having this weird argument with Sheila asked her, do you love my son? And Sheila says yes, but wait for the next statement. A friend of Michaels, who was also at the racetrack, later told investigators that Joyce had also turned to Michael and asked whether Michael loved Sheila. Listen to what this man said. And I quote,

I love myself. What a weirdo. Oh wait, there's more. When going through tons of Michael's financial statements, and I find this to be super suspicious, almost more suspicious than some of the other things we've heard. They were going through bank records, and they found something very odd. Michael's mom received nearly $150,000 from the sale of bonds and stocks just six months before her daughter-in-law's murder. She opened a savings account in a safe deposit box at a southeast bank in for Lauderdale in May of 1990, May 17th, to be exact, that was less than two weeks before Marlene's death. These accounts were opened by Joyce, Michael, and Michael's sister, Gale. And get this, a bank statement for that account had two deposits

with a total close to 60,000 that had been made on May 29th. Three days. Three days. days after the shooting, tell me that someone wasn't being paid off for something. Y'all, that's not the end of the story, not at all. Remember the lawyer DeSantis? He was re-interviewed in 2017 right after Sheila was arrested. And you know what he tells prosecutors? No, you don't, but you're going to find out this is just, this can't be real. He tells prosecutors that he remembered specifically telling Michael during that conversation

that if a killer dressed as a clown were to murder his wife, they would get off because witnesses wouldn't be able to determine whether the assailant was a male or a female. Come on. All along, I'm sitting here thinking that Michael was just so sick. And he knew that Marlene loved clowns. And he knew that she would open the door to a clown bearing gifts. And that's why he might have chosen the clown but to find out that an attorney actually went so far as to suggest this is appalling. It's just sickening and unprofessional and really concerning. They should honestly be checking the lawyers, bank statements too. Last year in 2020, Sheila made pleas to be let out on bail pending her trial.

It was supposed to happen in 2020, but because of the pandemic, it didn't. Her defense team claims that she posed no threat to anyone because she was in a sent to fall charges and that she wasn't a flight risk. And they had been waving this banner since she was first arrested, but then recently they added another reason that she should be allowed out. Her lawyers argued that because of the pandemic, she should be allowed to go home because she could get sick. And they believe that since she was not officially convicted of her crimes, she shouldn't be made to stay in this place that increases her risk of getting sick. Nice tribe. Sheila and Michael have money. So of course, they've hired a top defense attorney and friends of Sheila that know her as Debbie still love her. And they said they're not going to abandon her, even if she's found guilty. Damn. Did they pay for their friends too? Nevertheless, the judge wasn't as caring. He strongly disagreed with her pleas. And the judge said, not only does Sheila have the means to flee, the charges against her carry enough weight to keep her in custody. The judge cited a

previous crime that she had been convicted of as more evidence that she should not be released because in 1984, she was arrested for shoplifting and charged with a felony in 1986. She only served six months probation for those offenses. Despite the judge's willingness to keep Sheila in prison, the prosecution is still worried about this case falling apart. At the moment, the case is allegedly being held upon these things. One, the fact that Sheila was involved in the theft of the white car that the clown was seen driving. Two, a person matching her description was seen buying the clown costume.

Three, the orange fibers were found in the shoes that she owned. And four, the hair was found in the car that was linked to her. So wait, fellow fact finders, can we pause for a moment to think about this? I know it seems like the evidence points clearly to Sheila without a shadow of a doubt, but let's play the defense for just one moment. Sheila worked around the used car lot. She actually repossessed the cars that were found on said lot. So wouldn't there be some reasonable doubt regarding why her hair,

and we don't even know how much was found, was found in the car? Only eyewitnesses placed her at the stores buying the items connected to the crime, no fingerprints, no weapon, no blood, orange fibers found in shoes she owned, but is there any possibility that the defense could argue that transfer happened between the small fibers that may have landed in Michael's home and then later embedded in a pair of his socks or shoes

and then transferred to Sheila's apartment when he visited, then transferring to the floor and two Sheila socks and eventually shoes that Sheila wore or owned. We're talking fibers. Fibers are very small and they can fly around. I mean, it's like the little dust that comes off of our clothing. So as I was stating before with the educational piece from earlier, you have to remember if we're looking at this holistically on both sides.

Was the evidence handled correctly? Was the scene secure? did any of those 10 mistakes that are common in crime scenes happen in this case? But what personally puts the gavel to the soundblock for me is the marriage to Michael. I mean, come on. They're just living their best lives right now. He gets out of prison. She marries him.

Wow. I don't understand. That does it for me because I can't understand why that would be such a coincidence. If we can find some reasonable doubt, I'm sure prosecutors are worried about the jury doing so. We are almost at the end here, but I want to tell you one more thing that prosecutors are worried about. And this did happen last year in 2020, so I don't know if it's as relevant, but I wanted to make it a point to tell you. There is a testimony from a man named Jay Mullins. He is a detective on the original case. And he is supposedly the only way they feel that they can link

the little DNA evidence they have to Sheila's property. So keep in mind. what I just said about the scene and the mistakes and all of that. He's the one that has the ability to testify that when he was on the scene and collected everything, it was done properly. However, because 2020 and all the stuff that was going on, they didn't know if he would be able to make it into court. So the prosecutors had requested his testimony be recorded and then shown to the jury, but no, because the defense has a great argument. and a rebuttal to that, and that is, that's not fair because they cannot cross-examine that witness. The prosecution came back and argued, well, this person is old.

You know, he may get sick and he may not be able to travel. The judge denied their request. He said to the prosecution that they had an obligation to either produce Mr. Mullins or not use his testimony at all. Mr. Edmondson's quotes are alarming that he made to the paper in 1990. Pardon me, 2000. Just this one portion, state attorney's office spokesperson, Mike Edmondson said the open bags of evidence don't alarm prosecutors. Our only issue is if a defense attorney can successfully raise an evidence tampering issue. This hasn't happened.

And then a portion of the quote is not included in the article, so we don't know what else is there. We have complete confidence in Sherman and the sheriff's office. Now, the significance of this evidence goes without saying, Your Honor has heard. most of the evidence at the bond hearing, the state prosecuted this case after 26 years based on this fiber and DNA. So this is one of the basis for them picking up this case. And, you know, this evidence contamination goes to our theory of defense. What is what is your evidence that they tampered with, that there was a tampering, actual intentional tampering with evidence? Not, no, I'm not saying intentional tampering. I mean, contamination is what I've,

believe. And my evidence is in 1990, this exact evidence was reviewed by PBSO crime lab and the FBI. And they did not find a six to eight inch fiber. And then after these bags were found open in 2013, this fiber suddenly appears. Sheila has been in the Palm Beach County Jail since her arrest. And her case is about to go to trial this year. I wanted to quickly come on and give you an update on this case because as of this year, April 25th, 2023, there has been new information. Sheila Keene Warren pled guilty to the 1990 shooting. However, even though Sheila pleaded guilty, she maintains her innocence. She took a plea deal for 12 years in prison. However, she might actually end up getting out next year because of good behavior. She's already served six years,

of that agreed upon 12-year sentence according to the New York Post. And all the while, she's saying that she's just pleading guilty to a crime that she did not commit so that, well, she can get it over with. Get out, move on with her life. And one of the things the article pointed out was that her DNA was tied to this case. Hair fibers were found in that getaway car. Well, that's all I have for you at this point. I think she did it.

I think it's pretty obvious why. Someone stole the rest of Marlene's life, her husband, and her money. And these actions left Joe without a mom. All of this hurt, all this pain. And this woman was able to get off free for 27 years. And she probably believed she would get away with it. I think she did it. I think it's pretty obvious why.

So I will see you in my next episode.