Marlene's Murder Case Paper

The perfect time for a murder is the middle of the night when no one can see, right? According to Marlene Warrens murderer, it is not. Marlene was murdered at around 10:45 on the Saturday morning of May 26, 1990 by an individual wearing a clown costume and offering balloons and flowers (Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office). She had just finished eating breakfast with her children when they saw a white Chrysler LaBaron pull into the driveway and a clown walk up to their front door with flowers and balloons. When Marlene opened the door to accept the gifts, the clown pulled out a gun, shot Marlene in the face, and drove away. After this shocking event, Marlene was taken to a hospital only to die two days later from her injuries. This murder

Marlene’s case had very few witnesses, which was part of the reason why no one was able to solve this case for 27 years. Some of these few witnesses included the women that had been working at a costume shop in town, Deborah Offord and Barbara Castricone (Dubreuil, Jim, et al.). When the employees were approached by detectives they distinctly remembered a customer purchasing a clown costume a day or two earlier. When the customer arrived shortly after the costume’s shop close time at 6 pm, Offord asked her to come back tomorrow since they were closed but the woman said she needed the costume tonight. Offord said the customer insisted the costume be circus wear and finally ended up purchasing “A Rubie’s clown costume, an Afro clown wig, Bob Kelly clown makeup, and a sponge nose.” When Offord gave a description of the woman who had bought the costume, it is similar to how someone would describe Sheila Keen Warren, “Rather tall, I’d say probably around 5’8, brown eyes, long chocolate hair, thick head of hair, work boots…jeans, and a men’s work shirt, a button down collar.” Because of the makeup and clown costume the murderer had on, no one else could provide a description of what they looked like since the costume hid every part of their identity. This is the only description of what the murderer looks like and it is an important piece of evidence

The white Chrysler LeBaron has been one of the key elements in helping police solve this murder. Marlene’s husband Michael Warren ran a car business called ‘A Bargain Motors’ (Santaniello). When Michael turned himself in to the police after investigators had gone through records at the car shop, he was facing the charges of, “racketeering, grand theft, conspiring to commit grand theft, operating a chop shop and dealing in stolen property.” This happened in October the same year that Marlene had been killed, about 5 months later. When his car shop was searched there were several stolen cars found, one being a white Chrysler LeBaron.evidence number 2 It was said that Michael had stolen the vehicle from another car shop in an attempt to get revenge for a lawsuit that had been filed against him from the competitor. Detectives suspected the car had been the one used as the getaway car in the murder of Marlene Warren. Sheila Warren, the woman now married to Michael Warren, had been working for him at the shop repossessing cars. It was not a known fact that Sheila and Michael were having an affair, but they were often seen getting lunch together and it was discovered that they had traveled together, so it became obvious there was something more going on between them than besides just working together (“Real Life