A Woman Answers The Door To A Clown Delivering Flowers Before Being Shot Dead

On the morning of Saturday, May 26th 1990, 40 year old Marlene Warren was at home in Wellington, Florida, having breakfast with her 21 year old son, Joey.

At around 10:45am, their morning was interrupted by a knock at the front door. Joey, still recovering from a broken leg, was unable to answer it, so Marlene went instead.

When she opened the door, she was met with a bizarre sight: a person dressed as a clown, holding a basket of carnations and two balloons.

From inside the house, Joey heard his mother say, “Oh, how pretty”—the final words she would ever speak. As Marlene reached out to accept the gifts, the assailant drew a gun and shot her point-blank in the face.

Hearing the gunshot, Joey rushed to the doorway, where his mother had collapsed.

The killer—still wearing the orange wig, red nose, and painted smile—turned and looked directly at him. Joey would later recall the assailant’s “deep brown eyes.”

The killer then turned away and calmly walked to a white Chrysler LeBaron convertible, which was missing its license plates.

Marlene was rushed to Palms West Hospital in critical condition and placed on life support. She died two days later.

An investigation was swiftly launched to identify Marlene’s killer, with detectives concluding early on that the attack was not random, but a cold and calculated assassination.

Days later, the abandoned getaway car—a white Chrysler LeBaron—was discovered eight miles from the crime scene. A forensic examination of the vehicle uncovered orange synthetic fibres consistent with a clown wig, along with strands of the suspect’s natural brown hair.

Investigators also found a receipt from a local Publix store for the purchase of the clown costume, further confirming the killing had been carefully planned.

As investigators examined anyone who may have held a personal grudge against Marlene, suspicion soon fell on her husband, Michael. The couple had been married for 20 years and jointly owned a car lot in West Palm Beach. However, Marlene had reportedly told her son on a previous occasion:

The abandoned getaway car was later identified as a vehicle stolen months earlier from Michael’s car lot. Although investigators scrutinised Michael closely, he was ultimately cleared after providing a solid alibi for the time of Marlene’s murder.

As the investigation widened to include his personal life, detectives uncovered a secret affair between Michael and one of his employees—27 year old Sheila Keen, who was married at the time.

Disturbingly, witnesses later recalled that Sheila had dressed as a clown the previous Halloween—an unsettling detail made even more chilling by the existence of photographs confirming it.

Law enforcement shifted their focus to the mysterious brunette. After interviewing employees at the Publix store listed on the receipt found in the suspect’s car, investigators confirmed that a clown costume had recently been sold to a woman matching Sheila’s description.

The encounter had been particularly memorable: after closing time, the woman had reportedly banged on the store’s shutters, begging employees to sell her the clown outfit.

Further fuelling suspicion, one of the balloons given to Marlene bore the phrase “You’re the greatest”—a design sold exclusively by Publix.

With a search warrant approved, officers searched Sheila’s apartment, where they discovered fibres matching an orange wig—the same type found inside the abandoned getaway car.

Investigators were convinced they had identified their killer, yet despite the mounting circumstantial evidence, prosecutors determined there was still insufficient proof to bring charges. With no arrest made, the investigation stalled, and the case slowly went cold, remaining unsolved for years.

In 2002, more than a decade after his wife’s murder, Michael married Sheila Keen—the primary suspect in her death. The couple later moved to Tennessee, where they opened a burger restaurant called Purple Cow.

In the decades that followed, the couple blended into their community, living a quiet, unassuming life. But back in Florida, Marlene Warren’s case never closed. Detectives had not forgotten the unsolved murder, and as forensic technology advanced, they were ready to use it to their advantage.

In 2014, the case was finally reopened, and new DNA testing was conducted. A cold case team confirmed that the hair recovered from the getaway vehicle belonged to Sheila.

In September 2017—nearly 27 years after Marlene’s murder—Sheila was arrested and extradited back to Florida, where she was charged with first-degree murder.

The trial was delayed repeatedly due to the COVID-19 pandemic, leaving Sheila behind bars for five years while awaiting trial. In April 2023, she accepted a plea deal, pleading guilty to the lesser charge of second-degree murder.

Sheila, now 54 years old, was sentenced to 12 years in prison, with credit for time already served. After serving just 18 months, she was released for good behaviour—a devastating blow to Marlene’s son, Joey, who had waited decades to see justice for his mother.

Joey has since revealed that the pain and trauma he carried his entire life from his mother’s murder drove him into years of depression and alcoholism. Fortunately, after seeking treatment at a rehabilitation centre, he was able to turn his life around, and his mental health has significantly improved. Reflecting on his mother’s killer, he said:

As of 2026, Sheila Keen-Warren is a free woman. It remains unclear as to whether Michael played a part in his wife's murder, but he has never faced charges.