1990 Wellington Killer Clown
Marlene Warren
Saturday May 26, 1990, Marlene Warren was at home with her son, Joseph Ahrens, in an exclusive area and their home was part of the Aero Club community, a community in Wellington, FL where every house had access to a private runway. Marlene worked hard to enable them to live there and her life had not been easy. She was a successful businesswoman and owned multiple rental properties in West Palm Beach, a used car rental business, an airplane and a racehorse. She also worked as a cargo ship inspector.
Wellington Killer Clown
Marlene Warren
Marlene Warren was born on 15 April 1950 in Mount Clemens, Michigan
As a teenager, Marlene married her first husband and had two sons, John and Joseph Ahrens. That marriage ended when Marlene was just 20 years old. Marlene was a single mom of two boys when she met Michael. He was 18, and she was 20. She later married her second husband, Michael “Mike” Warren, The couple ultimately moved to Florida, where Michael opened a car lot that became hugely successful. Michael managed their car rental business, A Bargain Motors. For a while, life was good. However, Marlene’s happiness was shattered in the fall of 1988 when her son, John Ahrens Jr., died in a car accident. After the tragic accident and loss of her some, Marlene’s marriage started falling apart.
Wellington Killer Clown
Marlene Warren
May 26, 1990
- 10:00 AM that morning Michael Warren’ was on his way to the horse track with friends.
- 10:45 AM Marlene Warren, answered the door to her Wellington, Fla., home to accept a bouquet and balloons from a clown wearing an orange wig, a red bulb nose, gloves and a painted-on smile. She was greeted with gunfire, shot at least once in the face. Her 21-year-old son, Joey Ahrens, ran to her as she collapsed in the doorway and looked the clown in the eye, deep brown eyes, he told the police. After firing, the person dressed as a clown calmly walked to a white convertible Chrysler LeBaron, no license plate, and drove away.
- 1:18 PM Detectives received a call from anonymous female caller who stated that Marlene Warren was just shot and suggested that the Sheriffs Office might want to question Sheila Keen and Mike Warren.
- 3:18 PM Detectives Interviewed Michael Warren
- 7:30 PM Owner of Costume Shop contacted Detectives.
May 28, 1990
- 9:30 PM – Marlene Warren, 40, died two days later at Palms West Hospital.
Within weeks of the slaying, police reportedly viewed Michael Warren and Sheila Keen as suspects. He was 38. She was 27. She repossessed cars for Michael Warren’s Florida used-car dealership and, detectives learned, had been having an affair with him. But no arrests were made and the case went cold — for nearly 30 years.
Michael’s employees point police to Sheila Keen
Car lot employees revealed to police that Michael was having a brazen long-term affair with a young co-worker named Sheila Keen.
“It was no secret that he was a player. They’d leave the doors right open. There was no hiding it,”
Sheila’s then-husband, Spud, was a “repo man,” and she worked with him on repossess cars, how she first met Michael. But Michael and Sheila adamantly denied the affairs in separate interviews with police.
Investigation
Police traced the flower basket and balloons back to a nearby Publix.
- The detectives interviewed two employees from a Publix at 2948 North Military Trail in West Palm Beach, who recalled a female purchasing the exact flower and balloon ensemble found at the scene less than two hours before the murder. Both of the employees described the person who purchased the items as a white female with long brown hair tied in a ponytail and having male mannerisms. The Publix was located approximately one mile from Sheila’s apartment.
- Sheila was interviewed but denied shopping at that Publix that morning. She also denied romantic involvement with Michael Warren and stated she had never been in a Chrysler LeBaron.
They located a clown shop in West Palm Beach that sold a clown costume to a woman a few days before the murder. Employees stated women purchased everything — the wig, the red nose, the suit — except for the clown shoes. Two employees ID’d a photo of Sheila as the customer.
- Two employees at the Spotlight Costume shop located at 5612 South Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach told the detectives that a tall thin white female with long brown hair came into the shop two days prior to the murder and purchased
a clown costume. The person stated that they needed enough white makeup to cover the entire face and that the costume would be for a female. The person did not purchase any clown shoes with the costume. Based on the receipts form
the store, detectives purchased an identical wig as the one purchased just days earlier by the clown from the Spotlight. The wig was identical in composition and material. Both witnesses were able to positively identify the Sheila
from photo lineups and a newspaper article as the person they recall buying the clown costume.
Chrysler LeBaron turned up in an Winn-Dixie parking lot at Okeechobee and Royal Palm Beach boulevards.
- Detectives also interviewed several witnesses from “A Bargain Motors” : Numerous witnesses recall an incident occurring approximately 45-days prior to the murder where a married couple (Mr .and Mrs. Restivo) called “A Bargain Motors,” believing it to be “Payless Car Rental”, trying to return a white Chrysler LeBaron they had rented. The witnesses recalled Michael Warren telling the couple to just leave the keys in the visor and that the car would be picked up. Mr. Claude Poitres, an employee of “A Bargain Motors” told investigators that shortly after the phone call, he drove Michael Warren and the Defendant to Payless Car Rentals and observed them get into a white Chrysler LeBaron and drive away. Poitres stated that Warren told him not to say anything to anyone about the LeBaron.
- This is also the vehicle witness Claude Poitres observed Michael Warren and the Defendant steal approximately forty-five days before the murder. It was also consistent with the description of the vehicle witnesses observed the clown get into after shooting Marlene Warren.
Sheila’s home Search
- Items were collected from the Sheila’s home, including two pair of black lace up style shoes consistent with the observations made by the witnesses inside the home.
- CSIs processed the shoes and recovered various hair fibers from the bottoms of the shoes, specifically, orange yellow acrylic fibers and burgundy fibers.
Police found fibers from the clown wig and human hair in the car and after searching Keen’s apartment Detectives found orange fibers investigators say matched the description of the wig the clown was wearing. The costume nor the gun was ever found.
- Microscopic analysis on the orange/yellow acrylic hairs located in the white Chrysler LeBaron, on the shoes located in Keen’s home, on the ribbon from the balloons at the crime scene and orange/yellow acrylic hairs from the wig purchased at the Spotlight costumers concluded that they were identical in composition. Microscopic analysis of the burgundy hairs located on the boots of Sheila Keen and the burgundy fibers from the carpet of the LeBaron located in the Winn Dixie parking lot concluded that they were identical in composition.
- Microscopic hair analysis on the human hair located in the LeBaron concluded that the hair was identical to a sample of hair from the Defendant. DNA analysis on the hair concluded that Keen could not be excluded at the source of the hair. Further, DNA analysis on the skin portion of the hair root concluded that the Defendant is the source of the skin on the hair located in the Chrysler LeBaron.
Michael Warren arrested for fraud
During the murder investigation, detectives discovered Michael Warren was rolling back odometers on vehicles at his used-car lot. He was convicted of racketeering and multiple other felonies and served nearly four years in a minimum-security state prison in Florida.
He was released on New Year’s Eve 1997. Michael wanted a fresh start and moved to Virginia with a new wife Debbie was blonde. But it was later discovered that his new wife was actually Sheila Keen Warren, and she had been living
under the alias for 17 years.
Wellington Killer Clown
Wellington Killer Clown Timeline
Here’s a timeline of events surrounding Marlene Warren, Michael Warren, Sheila Keen, and the related case:
04/27/1972 – Michael Warren marries Marlene Ahrens.
05/13/1987 – Richard Keen marries Sheila Sheltra. Three months later, their son, Charles, is born.
01/17/1990 – Sheila Keen files a petition for an injunction against domestic violence from Richard Keen, which is granted temporarily due to reported abuse. Sheila moves into an apartment allegedly paid for by Michael Warren amid rumors of an affair between them.
04/15/ 1990 – Payless Rental Car reported 1990 Chrysler Lebaron stolen
05/24/1990 Sheila Purchased purchased a clown costume.
05/26/1990 10:45 AM – Marlene Warren is shot by a person dressed as a clown who arrived at her home with flowers and balloons. Witnesses hear a gunshot and see the clown calmly leaving the scene.
05/28/1990 – Marlene Warren dies from the gunshot wound at Palms West Hospital.
05/29/1990 – Autopsy Preformed on Marlene Warren. She was killed by the projectile .38/.357 caliber.
05/30/1990 – Detectives recover the white Chrysler LeBaron allegedly used in the murder. They find brown hair and orange fibers, and begin considering potential suspects, including Keen and Warren, though both deny involvement.
10/26/1990 – Michael Warren is arrested on charges of racketeering, odometer tampering, and grand theft.
1992 – Michael Warren is convicted on 43 counts, including racketeering, odometer tampering, and grand theft.
03/31/1994 – Michael Warren begins his prison sentence.
12/31/1997 – Michael Warren is released from prison.
04/29/1999 – Richard and Sheila Keen divorce.
08/15/2002 – Michael Warren marries Sheila Keen in Las Vegas.
2014 – The Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office (PBSO) reopens the case with a grant for cold case investigations. A task force including PBSO, the State Attorney’s Office, and the FBI reviews evidence and interviews witnesses.
03/28/2016 – Richard Keen passes away.
2017, Investigators was finally had some movement in the case. A cold case unit had retested old evidence and determined Keen’s DNA matched the hair found in the suspected getaway car. When investigators started looking for Keen, they learned she had started a new life with an old flame—Michael Warren. The couple married in 2002, 12 years after the murder.
- Warrens had been running a burger joint called Purple Cow for several years in Kingsport, Tennessee. Detectives spoke to one employee who said Keen-Warren had dressed as a clown at the restaurant one year during Halloween and even
provided detectives with a picture of her appearing in clown makeup
08/31/2017 – A Palm Beach County grand jury indicts Sheila Keen-Warren for first-degree murder, alleging she shot Marlene Warren in 1990.
09/26/2017 – Sheila Keen-Warren is arrested in Abingdon, Virginia while returning from a trip. PBSO detectives, alongside multiple agencies, take her into custody.
09/27/2017 – Keen-Warren waives extradition in Virginia, planning to return to Palm Beach County for booking.
09/28/2017 – Palm Beach County State Attorney Dave Aaronberg announces Keen-Warren faces either life in prison or the death penalty if convicted, with his office yet to decide on pursuing the latter.
2023, Sheila was offered a “sweetheart” plea deal: in exchange for pleading guilty to second-degree murder, she was sentenced to 12 years in prison.
Sheila Keen Warren, 61, pleaded guilty in April 2023 to being the person who dressed up in a head-to-toe clown costume on the morning of May 26, 1990, and shot Marlene Warren, a Wellington mother and wife, in the face. sentenced Keen Warren to 12 years for one count of second-degree murder, with credit for more than five years of time served in Palm Beach County jail since her arrest. She served her sentence at Gadsden Correctional Facility in Quincy, the seat of Gadsden County in the Panhandle.
November 2024, Sheila Keen Warren was released from jail.
Wellington Killer Clown – Sheila Keen Warren
Sheila Keen Warren
Sheila Keen Warren, born Sheila Marie Sheltra, spent much of her childhood in LaBelle, Fla. Her family moved to Martin County, Fla., around 1980, where she attended high school. Her father, Robert Sheltra, owned a construction company in Indiantown, Fla., where he still lives
In 1984, Sheila Sheltra was arrested for shoplifting in Palm Beach County, Fla.. That was followed up with a felony theft charge in the summer of 1986, records show. She was sentenced to six months probation.
The following month, Sheila Sheltra married Richard C. Keen. She was 23. He was 41. Their son, Charles, was born shortly after. By 1990, both worked for Michael Warren.
Sheila Keen filed a domestic-violence complaint against her husband in January 1990 and moved to an apartment — with rent reportedly paid by Warren — near West Palm Beach, Fla.
She divorced Richard Keen in 2000. In 2002, she married Warren. Her first husband died in 2016. Sheila Keen Warren also owned a house on a quiet cul-de-sac in Kingsport, Tenn. near their former restaurant…
Killer Clown Crime Scene
May 26, 1990, 10:00 AM that morning Michael Warren’ was on his way to the horse track with friends. 10:45 AM Marlene Warren, answered the door to her Wellington, Fla., home to accept a bouquet and balloons from a clown wearing an orange wig, a red bulb nose, gloves and a painted-on smile. She was greeted with gunfire, shot at least once in the face.
Trial: Sheila Keen Warren
FL v. Sheila Marie Keen Warren
May 26, 1990, 10:00 AM that morning Michael Warren’ was on his way to the horse track with friends. 10:45 AM Marlene Warren, answered the door to her Wellington, Fla., home to accept a bouquet and balloons from a clown wearing an orange wig, a red bulb nose, gloves and a painted-on smile. She was greeted with gunfire, shot at least once in the face.