Sheila Keen Warren – Killer Clown

      No Comments on Sheila Keen Warren – Killer Clown
Sheila Keen Warren - Killer Clown

It would take 27 years for Sheila Keen Warren to be arrested in the 1990 murder of Marlene Warren. Who was this killer; mistress, clown, murderer, or perhaps all three? Listen to the long and winding road this case took investigators on to finally bring a killer clown to justice.

creepy clown
Subscribe

Wellington, Florida

The village of Wellington is just west of West Palm Beach and is known for its equestrian and polo events. It’s the most populous village in Florida. It is also home to Vanilla Ice, Zsa Zsa Gabor, Bill Gates, and Madonna.

1972

In 1972, Michael Warren married Marlene Ahrens, who had just gotten out of her first marriage. She had two sons from her first marriage:  Johnny & Joe. Michael and Marlene owned several businesses together including Bargain Motors, some rental properties, and various retail businesses. These businesses allowed them to live an upper-class lifestyle.

The Warrens were living in the affluent Aero Club Development where the neighborhood had a private landing strip with taxiways to each home.. They also owned a racehorse and an airplane.

1988

In 1988, John Ahrens Jr. was 22 when he was killed in a traffic accident. This was around the time that Michael and Marlene’s marriage began to fall apart.

1990

Sheila Keen (age 27) was an employee of Michael’s who repossessed cars for Bargain Motors. She filed for divorce from her husband, Richard Keen in 1990 on grounds of domestic violence. Sheila moved into an apartment owned by the Warrens.

Rumor had it that Sheila and Michael were having an affair, as neighbors spotted them together frequently and Michael was actually paying her rent

May 26, 1990 Memorial Day Weekend

Marlene was at home the morning of Memorial Day weekend with her son, Joe, and some of his friends. Around 10 am they noticed a white Chrysler LeBaron pull into the driveway. The doorbell rang and Marlene went to answer the door. Marlene saw that there was a clown holding flowers and two balloons.  Joe heard her say “oh how pretty” then heard two shots.

Marlene was lying on the ground having been shot twice in her mouth.

The clown was dressed in an orange wig, red bulb nose, gloves, and a smile painted in red over white facial makeup. The clown then turned and walked back to a white Chrysler LeBaron and drove off. Marlene was rushed to the Palm Springs Hospital where she was soon placed on life support.

Police immediately started looking for the white LeBaron and talked with neighbors who may have witnessed the attack. The police received a call later that evening from workers at the Capezio Spotlight Costume Shop in West Palm Beach.  Workers told detectives that a woman had bought a clown costume, clown makeup, an orange wig, and two red noses (the same as the clown seen at Marlene’s door).  

May 28, 1990

Marlene Warrens dies from her gunshot wounds on May 28, 1990.

May 30, 1990

Police discovered the LeBaron that was allegedly used the morning of the murder in a Winn Dixie parking lot in Royal Palm Beach. It looks to have been abandoned. The inside of the car contained brown hair and orange fibers that look like they may have come from a clown wig. They also found a receipt from the store where the clown costume was purchased. Police traced the car back to a car rental agency that was later linked to Michael Warren’s car dealership.

Investigation Continues

Police looked into Michael Warren’s alibi.  At the time of the shooting, Michael was with friends hundreds of miles away at a horse race. Three hours after the shooting, police had received an anonymous call urging police to look into Michael and also gave them Sheila Keen’s name. Police also started looking at Sheila Keen after having heard that she and Michael were having an affair.

Police showed a photo lineup to the workers at the costume shop and they were able to pick out Sheila Keen as the woman who purchased the clown costume. Clerks at Publix supermarket also picked Sheila out as having purchased flowers and balloons the morning of the shooting. This store was less than a mile from Shelia’s apartment. Police also learned that Sheila had once gone into a Pahokee auto parts store where she was a regular customer dressed as a clown.

Within weeks of Marlene’s murder, police searched Sheila’s apartment and they found fibers from a bright orange wig, but nothing else.  No costume or murder weapon was found. The case soon went cold due to police needing probable cause per a spokeswoman for the Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office.

1992

In 1992, Michael Warren was arrested for racketeering, odometer tampering, and grand theft.  Warren was also accused of repossessing cars that he sold at his West Palm Beach auto dealership, saying that these cars had been stolen and collecting the insurance money. He was convicted and received 9 years.

March 31, 1994

Michael Warren goes to prison.

December 31, 1997

Michael Warren is released from prison after serving 3 years and 9 months.

April 29, 1999

Michael Warren and Sheila Keen get married in Las Vegas and move to Tennessee

2014 (24 years after Marlene’s murder)

Palm Beach Sheriff’s Office receives a grant for unsolved murder cases. They set up a task force that includes officers from PBSO, the state’s attorney’s office, and the FBI. One of the first cases they look at is the murder of Marlene Warren. They sent samples of Sheila Keen’s hair and vials of her blood to be tested. They had gotten the samples through a search warrant back in 1990.  

This established the probable cause that the police were looking for 24 years prior and took the case to the grand jury.

September 26, 2017

Sheila Keen Warren owned the Purple Cow in Kingsport TN
The Purple Cow, Kingsport TN Mike Kalasnik [CC BY-SA 2.0]

Police arrest Sheila Keen Warren in Washington County, Virginia where she and Michael had been living in a three-bedroom house on 1.89 acres of land. They charge her with first-degree murder. Sheila had changed her name to Debbie Warren. They both had owned a burger joint in Kingsport, Tennessee called the Purple Cow.

Keen Warren waves extradition and is booked into the West Palm Beach jail without bond and waived her right to a speedy trial. When Sheila was arrested she asked, “is my husband under arrest?” The DNA testing that was submitted to the FBI crime lab indicated that the hairs found in the LeBaron were consistent with Sheila Keen Warren.

John Moran Jr. Comes Forward

After Sheila’s arrest, John Moran Jr. came forward and told police about what his father, John Moran Sr., told him on his deathbed in 1996. He was afraid to come forward with what he knew until now. John Moran Sr. and Jr. had worked for Michael Warren dumping stolen cars and turning back odometers in his chop shop.

Sr. told Jr. that a second getaway car had been driven that morning and he was the one that was driving it.  He said that information alone would get Jr. anything he wanted from Michael Warren. Moran Jr. also told police that Michael Warren had contacted him shortly after Sheila’s arrest looking for his dad. He was trying to bribe him with buying him a new house if he would testify “on their behalf.”

Police got a search warrant for Moran Jr.’s phone records in March 2018. They were looking for evidence that confirmed Michael Warren’s involvement in his 1st wife’s death. The police were partially able to confirm Moran’s claim of Michael Warren having contacted him. Someone had used a burner phone to contact him around the same time he claims Michael started calling him. This burner phone also shows that it made calls to Shelia’s attorney at the time, Richard Lubin. Moran  Jr. also provided the police Michael Warren’s cell number at the time.

Police Search Canal

John Jr. took the police to a canal where he claimed he had helped his dad dump a car. He claimed that the car should contain the clown costume. He also indicated that the gun would found in the canal as his dad had removed it from his waistband and thrown it in after the car.  John Jr. claimed that his father had contacted him that day and told him to “take swimming” which in chop shop terms meant to get rid of the car. He also told him to go to “gate one” explaining that meant to meet at a specific spot along a canal off of Highway 80 in Palm Beach County, where they would dump cars.

The police sent down dive teams and came up with a 1982 Audi 4000s, tube socks, blue and red pieces of cloth, and a sole of a shoe.  No murder weapon or clown costume. Detectives ran the plate and the car comes back as being reported stolen in 1987 – 3 years before Marlene’s murder. Jr. claims that it is not the right car and they needed to keep searching.

At the time John Jr. thought it was one of their nightly runs. But when he arrived his father was there. This never happened before as his father always sent someone else in his place and was never involved in the actual dumping. John Sr. would not allow Jr. to look in the car nor touch it where he could leave prints.

Why Did He Wait So Long?

John Sr. never talked about that night until February 1996 when he was dying. Why did John Jr. wait so long to tell the police what he knew since his dad died in 1996? John Jr., claims that he didn’t want his children to live with knowing that their grandfather was part of Marlene’s murder while he was still alive. Both John Sr. and Jr. had spoken to police back in 1990 and again in 2014, but didn’t share any information at that time about a 2nd getaway car.

Moran Sr. did share with police at the time of the murder that he wished he could get rid of his wife and wished he had never married her.

Present

Death Penalty

At this time, prosecutors have indicated that they are seeking the death penalty against Sheila Keen-Warren. Keen-Warren has filed for indigent status – meaning she cannot afford her own attorney and is requesting the state provide one. A status check on the case is scheduled for June 24, 2019, with jury selection scheduled for January 2020. She is scheduled for a jury trial starting September 8, 2021.

Resources

You May Also Like