Killer Clown Cold Case: Florida Woman Arrested For 3-Decades-Old Murder

Police in Florida said Tuesday they’ve arrested a woman, Sheila Keen Warren, 54, who has been accused of dressing up like a clown 27 years ago and fatally shooting her husband’s ex-wife.

Warren was arrested in the 'killer clown' cold case without incident in Washington County, Virginia. A Florida grand jury indicted her on a first-degree murder charge with use of a firearm in the shooting death of Marlene Warren, 40, in May 1990, reports said citing officials. Sheila Keen had been a suspect since the incident took place but was not arrested due to lack of evidence.

In 2014, Palm Beach County deputies reopened the case and conducted a fresh DNA analysis. At that time, investigators also discovered that Sheila Keen got married to Marlene’s widower, Michael Warren, in 2002, and the couple was said to have moved to Tennessee, according to the Washington Post.

Detectives haven’t said anything regarding Michael being involved in his former wife’s death 27 years ago. Although before she was killed, Marlene had said Michael would kill her, according to The Palm Beach Post. She apparently wanted to leave her husband but their auto business and real estate properties, worth more than $1 million, were in her name.

Sheila Keen, who has been scheduled to be arraigned Wednesday afternoon in Washington County General District Court, was being held pending extradition to Florida at the Southwest Virginia Regional Jail, officials said.

"Thousands of man-hours have been put in in the last 27 years," Washington County Sheriff Fred Newman said at a news conference Tuesday, NBC News reported. "We're more than glad to be able to help to bring this to a successful conclusion."

On May 26, 1990, a person dressed as a clown in an orange wig with white face paint, carrying flowers and two balloons drove up to Marlene's home. The clown parked a white Chrysler convertible in her driveway at 14570 Takeoff Place in Wellington. Marlene answered the door. Her 21-year-old son, Joseph Aherns, and his friends were also present in the house. The clown gave her the flowers and balloons.

"Oh, how pretty," Aherns remembered her saying, he had told the Palm Beach Post in 2000.

Soon after the flowers and balloons were handed over to Marlene, the clown pulled out a gun and shot her in the face. Aherns, who was in a cast at the time because he had experienced a car crash earlier, said he somehow made his way to his mother and yelled at the clown, which led the shooter to turn around. He said he had noticed the clown's brown eyes.

Aherns called 911 and also attempted to look for the white Chrysler convertible but in vain. His stepfather Michael reportedly was on Interstate 95 on his way to a casino in Miami. Marlene died two days later from her gun wounds.

A white Chrysler convertible had been found abandoned on Royal Palm Beach, which matched Aherns' description, reports said at the time. However, no fingerprints, or gun, or blood, or the clown suit had been discovered. "This is the strangest thing I've seen in all my 19 years in law enforcement," Bob Ferrell, a former spokesman for the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, told the Fort Lauderdale Sun-Sentinel newspaper, a day after the shooting.

However, once the investigation was reopened, the detectives discovered an association between the Chrysler convertible to Michael’s car business through a stolen car report that had been filed just a month before the shooting took place. Inside the car, detectives said, they found orange fibers — which were apparently from the orange clown wig — and brown hair. In the 1990s,, however, the DNA analysis was not as advanced.

The balloons that the clown carried were only sold at a Publix at Community and Military Trail, near Sheila Keen’s home, according to the investigators. The balloons were bought an hour before the shooting and the salesperson described the woman, who bought the balloons, as having long brown hair like the accused.

At a nearby costume shop, salespeople identified Sheila as the woman who bought a clown costume few days before the shooting.

Recent information about Michael and Sheila's current lives was not available; however, the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office said they probably ran a restaurant in Tennessee. However, no restaurants could be found under any of their names in Virginia or Tennessee business registries, according to NBC News.