On this day in May 1990, when she opened the door to her house in Wellington, near Miami (Florida), Marlene Warren, 40, faced a clown with an orange wig on her head and silver balloons in her hand. On one of the balloons is written “You are the best”, the media will report, citing the testimony of one of the victim's sons. “How nice,” Marlene Warren exclaims when the clown hands her the balloons. Then the individual pulls out a gun, shoots him in the head and flees.
At the time, the affair caused a great stir. If the victim's husband's lover was in the investigators' sights from the start, it took 27 years for her to be confused. In light of new evidence, Sheila Keen, 61, was indeed arrested in 2017, reports NBCnews. Incarcerated since then, she pleaded guilty in 2023 and was sentenced to 12 years in prison. A little less than 2 years later, the murderer was released on Saturday, due to a reduced sentence for good behavior.
Initially, suspicion fell on Michael Warren, the victim's husband. Relatives confided to investigators about the couple's marital problems. The victim would have wanted to leave her husband, but questions of heritage would have held her back. There is also this suspected affair with Marlene Keen, the employee of his car rental agency. Michael Warren had paid the latter's rent after her separation from her first husband.
Marriage of the two lovers in 2002
And then there is the husband's legal profile. In 1992, Michael Warren was sentenced to prison for scams linked to his rental agency: 43 counts ranging from odometer tampering, to robbery, to racketeering, reported the Palm Beach Post at the time, as cited by NBCnews.
After three years in prison and his release in 1997, Michael Warren is no longer talked about. Until 2002, when he married Sheila Keen. Since then, according to the Associated Press, the couple has run a restaurant in Abingdon, Virginia. Meanwhile, the murder of Marlene Warren gradually becomes a cold case.
It was once again DNA which allowed Sheila Keen to be confused for the murder. In the car, stolen from the parking lot of Michael Warren's agency, orange hair could be linked to the suspect. By following the balloon trail, the investigators also discovered that only one store, located near Sheila Keen's home, sold the famous “You are the best” balloon. Store employees also claim to have seen a woman resembling her buy the accessory, an hour before the murder. Marlene Warren further reportedly told her mother, “If anything happens to me, Mike did it. »
“She did not commit this crime”
The latter was never charged and has always denied any involvement. Just like his mistress, now wife, who would have only agreed to plead guilty to reduce her sentence. If she had been found guilty at trial, the sixty-year-old faced life imprisonment. “We are absolutely delighted that Ms. Keen-Warren is out of prison and reunited with her family,” her lawyer Greg Rosenfeld said on Saturday. As we have said from the beginning, she did not commit this crime.”
An opinion that is clearly opposed to Palm Beach County Prosecutor Dave Aronberg. According to the magistrate, who spoke in a press release: “Sheila Keen-Warren will always be a convicted murderer and will carry this stain every day for the rest of her life. »
