Case overview
On May 26, 1990, Marlene Warren answered her door in Wellington, Florida, and was shot in the face by someone dressed as a clown holding balloons and flowers. The case went cold for decades until DNA evidence and witness statements led to the 2017 arrest of Sheila Keen-Warren, who had worked with Marlene’s husband and later married him. Keen-Warren maintained her innocence but accepted an Alford plea in 2023, closing a case defined by circumstantial evidence, fading memories, and questions about what could be proven after so much time.
The morning of May 26, 1990
Marlene Warren, 40, was at home with her son Joseph Ahrens and several of his friends that Saturday morning. Around 10:45 a.m., someone rang the doorbell. Joseph answered and saw a person dressed in a clown costume standing on the porch, holding carnations and two foil balloons. One balloon read “You’re the Greatest.”
Joseph called his mother to the door. The clown handed her the flowers and balloons, then pulled a gun and shot her in the face. Marlene collapsed in the doorway. The clown walked calmly to a white Chrysler LeBaron parked nearby and drove away. Joseph and the other witnesses described the clown’s orange wig, red nose, white face paint, and baggy costume, but none could identify the person underneath.
Marlene was rushed to the hospital but never regained consciousness. She died two days later.
Early investigation and suspicion
Detectives with the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office focused immediately on Marlene’s husband, Michael Warren. The couple owned a used car dealership and rental properties, but the business was financially troubled and their marriage was strained. Michael Warren was known to have a close relationship with Sheila Keen, an employee at the car lot.
Witnesses told investigators that Sheila Keen had been seen with Michael Warren frequently and that the two appeared romantically involved. Within days of the murder, detectives began looking into whether Sheila or Michael had purchased the clown costume or the balloons and flowers delivered that morning.
Investigators traced the white Chrysler LeBaron seen leaving the scene to a rental lot connected to Michael Warren’s business. Records showed a car matching that description had been rented and returned around the time of the murder. Costume shops in the area were canvassed, and employees at one store reported selling a clown suit to a woman matching Sheila Keen’s description shortly before the shooting.
Despite the circumstantial links, no arrest was made. Detectives lacked physical evidence tying either suspect to the crime scene, and witness identifications were uncertain.
Decades without charges
The case remained open but effectively stalled. Michael Warren was never charged and continued operating his businesses. Sheila Keen left Florida. In 2002, more than a decade after Marlene’s death, Michael Warren and Sheila Keen married and moved to Tennessee, where they ran a restaurant together.
Joseph Ahrens, who had witnessed his mother’s murder, grew up under the weight of the unresolved case. He repeatedly urged investigators not to let it go cold. Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office detectives periodically reviewed the file, but no new leads surfaced for years.
DNA evidence and the 2017 arrest
Advances in DNA testing eventually provided investigators with a new avenue. In 2014, the sheriff’s office sent evidence collected from the clown costume to a lab for reanalysis. The costume had been stored since 1990, and improved forensic techniques allowed scientists to extract DNA from fibers inside the outfit.
Testing identified a partial DNA profile on the costume that was consistent with Sheila Keen-Warren. Additional evidence was found on one of the balloons recovered at the scene. While not a definitive match, the DNA results were strong enough to support probable cause when combined with witness statements and the rental car records.
On September 26, 2017, Sheila Keen-Warren was arrested at her home in Abingdon, Virginia. She was extradited to Florida and charged with first-degree murder. She pleaded not guilty and remained in custody awaiting trial.
Pretrial delays and the strength of the case
The case moved slowly through the court system. Sheila Keen-Warren’s defense team challenged the DNA evidence, arguing that the costume had been mishandled over the years and that degradation made the results unreliable. They also pointed out that no eyewitness had positively identified her as the person in the clown suit.
Prosecutors maintained that the totality of the evidence, including the DNA, the costume purchase, the rental car, and the motive tied to her relationship with Michael Warren, was sufficient for conviction. However, the passage of time had weakened parts of the case. Some witnesses had died, others had fading memories, and records from 1990 were incomplete.
Jury selection was scheduled multiple times and postponed. By 2023, more than 30 years had passed since the murder, and the case had become one of the longest-running unresolved homicides in Palm Beach County history.
The Alford plea and sentencing
On April 25, 2023, Sheila Keen-Warren accepted an Alford plea to second-degree murder. Under this type of plea, a defendant does not admit guilt but acknowledges that the evidence against them could likely result in a conviction at trial. She was sentenced to 12 years in prison but received credit for the time she had already served since her 2017 arrest.
Because of sentencing guidelines in place at the time of the crime and good behavior credits, Sheila Keen-Warren was released from custody days after the plea was finalized. Prosecutors expressed frustration with the outcome but acknowledged the risks of taking a decades-old case to trial with compromised evidence.
Joseph Ahrens, who had waited more than three decades for resolution, said the plea was not the justice he had hoped for but represented the best outcome the legal system could provide given the limitations of the evidence.
What remains unresolved
Sheila Keen-Warren has never publicly admitted to killing Marlene Warren. Michael Warren, who married Sheila years after his first wife’s death, was never charged and has denied any involvement. He was not called to testify during the plea proceedings.
The DNA evidence, while significant, was not conclusive enough to eliminate all doubt. Defense experts argued that trace DNA could have been transferred innocently or through contamination. The costume shop identification, made years after the fact, was based on a decades-old memory.
The case remains a study in the challenges of prosecuting cold cases where physical evidence has degraded, witnesses have aged, and the passage of time erodes certainty. For those who knew Marlene Warren, the plea brought an end to a legal process but not necessarily to the questions that began the morning she answered her door.
Where to look next
- Documentary: “The Clown Did It” (Investigation Discovery)
- Podcast: “Casefile True Crime” (Casefile Presents)
