Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder. Reader discretion is advised.
An episode of 48 Hours titled “Murder by Clown” will air on ID on Sunday, May 19, 2024, at 10 p.m. ET. It will follow the Killer Clown cold case, which led to the conviction of Sheila Keen-Warren over 30 years after she killed Marlene Warren.
Marlene Warren was 40 on May 26, 1990, when she was having breakfast with her son, Joe Ahrens, and his friends. Ahrens was recovering from a broken leg at the time. Right before 11 a.m. that morning, someone dressed up as a clown arrived at the front door, and Marlene went to answer them. The clown had a basket of flowers and some balloons. They then took out a gun and shot Marlene before fleeing in the white Chrysler LeBaron. The Killer Clown was identified to be Sheila Keen-Warren 30 years later, CBS News reported.
During the investigation after the murder, friends and family of Marlene Warren revealed suspicions that Michael might be having an affair with Sheile Keen, who was employed with him as a repossession agent. Michael ran a rental car service and a used car lot. When authorities questioned Michael and Sheila about it, they denied involvement in any such relationship. However, the couple married in 2002, 12 years after the Killer Clown killed Marlene, ABC News reported.
After their marriage, the couple moved to Virginia and had been running a burger joint for many years. The place was called the Purple Cow and was close to the Tennessee border. Sheila Keen-Warren pleaded guilty to killing Marlene Warren in 2023 after DNA evidence matched her to the crime. Authorities believe that she committed the crime dressed up as the Killer Clown owing to the affair she had with Michael Warren.
How did the police solve the Killer Clown cold case?
Marlene Warren died in the hospital two days after she was shot. The Killer Clown left behind the flowers and the balloons that were brought along. The police tracked down the stores from where the flowers, balloons and costumes were bought by the culprit. Although the revelation of a possible affair between Michael Warren and Sheila Keen made them probable suspects, the police had no evidence against them.
Michael Warren had a strong alibi. He was on his way to a Miami racetrack with his friends when the Killer Clown killed Marlene Warren. However, Ahrens told CBS News about his mother, saying that Michael would likely be responsible if anything ever happened to her. She reportedly hoped to get a divorce but feared the consequences.
A major clue that solved the crime decades later came in when the police found an abandoned white Chrysler LeBaron only days later. It was identified as the one driven by the Killer Clown. Inside the vehicle, they found an artificial hair fiber from a wig that the killer wore. They also found another human hair. However, they could not identify at the time owing to a lack of advancement in DNA technology. Moreover, the woman at the costume store identified Sheila Keen as the customer who bought the clown costume.
However, the police did not find anything when they searched her home. It was only in 2017 that detectives made use of the advancements in DNA technology and tested the hair they found in the car. The hair was matched to Sheila Keen-Warren’s DNA, and she was arrested in relation to Marlene Warren’s murder.
How much prison time did Sheila Keen-Warren get for killing Marlene Warren?
NBC News reported that when she was initially arrested for the murder of Marlene Warren in 2017, Sheila Keen-Warren insisted that she was innocent. She denied involvement in the murder and said that she wasn’t actually the Killer Clown. However, she pleaded guilty in 2023 after being in custody for 6 years. She reportedly agreed to a plea deal that guaranteed her a shorter prison term. She was then convicted of second-degree murder and was sentenced to 12 years in prison, as per the plea deal. However, she had already served 6 years behind bars awaiting trial.
As per a report by The Guardian, 1990 Florida Law gave a lot of time off for good behavior. This led to reports expecting her to serve less than two years in prison. She is currently incarcerated at the Gadsden Correctional Facility in Quincy, Florida. If she had not agreed to the plea deal and were found guilty of dressing up as the Killer Clown and killing Marlene Warren, Sheila Keen-Warren would have had to spend the rest of her life behind bars.
Michael Warren was reportedly imprisoned for four years from 1994. This sentence followed after he was convicted of grand theft, racketeering, and odometer tampering. His attorneys strongly believe that he was given such a harsh sentence for relatively small crimes. This was allegedly only because of the authorities and the public’s suspicions that he was the Killer Clown who killed his wife.
“Murder by Clown” is an episode of 48 Hours that will air on ID on Sunday, May 19, 2024, at 10 p.m. ET. It will follow the Killer Clown case. It will also explore how the case was successfully solved nearly three decades after Sheila Keen-Warren killed Marlene Warren.
