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Marlene Warren: The Killer Clown (Part 1)

Marlene Warren: The Killer Clown (Part 1)

Released Friday, 28th June 2024
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Marlene Warren: The Killer Clown (Part 1)

Marlene Warren: The Killer Clown (Part 1)

Marlene Warren: The Killer Clown (Part 1)

Marlene Warren: The Killer Clown (Part 1)

Friday, 28th June 2024
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Episode Transcript

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0:00

With the $5 meal deal at McDonald's,

0:02

you pick a McDouble or a McChicken,

0:04

then get a small fry, a small

0:06

drink, and a four-piece McNuggets. That's a

0:08

lot of McDonald's for not a lot

0:10

of money. Price and participation may vary

0:12

for a limited time only. On

0:27

the morning of May 26, 1990,

0:30

40-year-old Marlene Warren answered the door

0:32

of her upscale Wellington, Florida home

0:34

to find a person dressed as

0:36

a clown holding a flower arrangement

0:38

and two balloons. As Marlene

0:41

reached out for the gifts, the clown

0:43

shot her in the face, leaving Marlene

0:45

gasping for air on the floor as

0:47

the clown calmly walked back to a

0:49

white Chrysler LeBaron and drove away. While

0:51

Marlene was rushed to the hospital in critical

0:53

condition, a massive manhunt for the clown began,

0:56

and as the investigation unfolded, it was revealed

0:58

that Marlene had expressed fears that her husband,

1:01

Michael Warren, was going to kill her. However,

1:03

the police would soon find out Michael couldn't

1:05

be the killer. He'd been with a friend

1:07

when Marlene was shot. But as

1:10

the investigation continued, disturbing information

1:12

about Michael's possible connections to the

1:14

murder began to surface. Hello,

1:28

everybody. Welcome back to Crime Weekly. I'm Stephanie

1:31

Harlow. And I'm Derek LeBasser. and

2:00

why I'm addressing it now

2:02

down the road. But overall, it

2:04

was just a great experience. Every year it gets better and

2:06

better. And the opportunity to meet

2:09

with so many of you in person,

2:11

hear your takes on how

2:13

we're covering cases, what cases we're covering, and

2:15

how they've impacted you and helped you in

2:17

certain ways in your own lives, it really

2:19

does drive home the point

2:21

of why we do this and why

2:24

it's so special, because we're very lucky to

2:26

be in a position where we

2:28

have a platform, where people

2:30

come every week to listen or watch the

2:33

information that we're putting out. And we don't take it

2:35

for granted. We had a line

2:38

from the Friday that we started all the way

2:40

to the Sunday that we packed up. And we

2:43

wouldn't have been able to do it without

2:45

our team, Bella, Sam, and Shannon, and also

2:47

just your patience. We wanted to spend time

2:49

with each and every person that came through

2:52

the line. So we didn't wanna

2:54

rush it. We didn't just take a photo. We were

2:56

having conversations, some really good ones actually. And

2:58

from meeting all of you, to

3:01

the Clue Awards, to

3:03

just the whole experience, Nashville is amazing. We're

3:05

just really fortunate to be in the position

3:07

we're in, and we wouldn't be in this

3:09

position without you. So thank you

3:12

to everybody who attended. If

3:14

we got to meet you one-on-one during a

3:16

VIP event, you can go over to crimeweeklypodcast.com.

3:19

We have some photos up there from

3:21

Nashville and from some other Crime Cons

3:24

that Sam had taken for us while he was

3:26

at the event. So go over there and check

3:28

out those photos. And we already have a link

3:30

up for Crime Con Denver next year

3:32

if you would like to attend. There's a code

3:34

there as well, I believe, that'll allow you to

3:37

get a discount on general passes. So again,

3:39

just wanted to thank everybody for coming out. We

3:42

know it's not guaranteed, and we're gonna

3:44

continue to grow and learn on

3:47

this channel to make sure that we're constantly

3:50

evolving and listening to you guys

3:52

when we get the opportunity to speak to you in

3:54

person so we can give you the best content possible

3:56

in the way that you wanna receive it. Absolutely,

3:59

yeah. CrimeCon was great. Loved

4:01

hanging out with you guys. Loved seeing you guys. We

4:03

always, and that's really why like

4:05

every year we go back to CrimeCon because getting

4:08

to interact with you personally is just such a

4:10

treat. And honestly, like it's like

4:12

all year. It's kind of like a family reunion for us, you

4:14

know, at CrimeCon. Like we get to meet up with all the

4:16

creators that we talk to throughout the year, but we never see

4:18

in person. We get to meet up with you guys that we

4:20

talk to all year, but never see in person. It's like a

4:23

big family reunion every year. And that's why we love CrimeCon and

4:25

that's why we love you guys. We've really made

4:27

some good friends too. Shout out Kathy and

4:29

Joe, like some of our best friends now.

4:31

Oh, Kathy and Joe. Kathy and Joe, the

4:33

plumber out of Florida. If you need a plumber out of Florida,

4:35

go see them. They're family. They

4:39

are like family. So shout out to them. I

4:41

do have a question for you, Stephanie. I'm going

4:43

to put you under the gun right now.

4:45

Okay. Okay. Because a lot of people have

4:47

been asking, and based on your stance

4:49

a couple of weeks ago, I'm kind of putting you in

4:52

a corner here. Okay. You ready for this? Yeah.

4:55

Are you going to CrimeCon Cruise? I

4:58

thought you said you didn't want me to. No, I

5:00

didn't say I didn't want you to. You said I'm

5:02

not letting you go to CrimeCon Cruise. Yes, because of

5:05

your stance on cruises. So

5:08

you don't have to answer right now, but the people are

5:10

asking, I believe that's in November.

5:14

I think I can make it happen. Oh,

5:16

so you're going to go on a cruise

5:18

after basically criminalizing everybody who decides to go

5:20

on a cruise because of how dangerous it

5:22

is. You're going to be there. I mean, you'll be there to

5:25

protect me. Oh my

5:27

God. You just spun that completely. So

5:29

it's a tentative yes is what you're saying. It's

5:32

tentative. Yes. Okay. I

5:34

need to face my fears, you know, like. Cruises

5:36

are amazing. I know you like had all the

5:38

statistics and the ammo ready to go. Last time

5:41

we talked about it to the point where I

5:43

questioned myself about ever going on

5:45

a cruise, but I love cruises. I do get

5:47

a little motion sickness sometimes on these cruises, but

5:49

if it's in the Caribbean, it's not too bad.

5:51

We will. A lot of you have asked in

5:53

the comments. That's why I'm asking

5:56

Stephanie. We've talked about it briefly, but

5:58

if it's something that we're going to. Jean

44:00

heard Michael check all the rooms to

44:02

see if people were still there. He

44:04

opened the door and looked into her

44:06

room, but didn't say anything. Michael then

44:08

left to drive to the horse races

44:10

in Miami, which was a side business

44:12

of Michael's, another side business of Michael's.

44:15

So when everyone else in the house woke

44:17

up, Jean started making breakfast. Just before 11

44:19

a.m., everyone was finishing up breakfast when

44:22

a white Chrysler LeBaron pulled into the driveway.

44:24

A person dressed as a clown

44:26

got out of the car and walked up to

44:28

the front door carrying a wicker basket of red

44:30

and white carnations and two Mylar balloons. One

44:33

of the balloons was a red heart which read,

44:35

You're the Greatest in White Curse of Letters, and

44:38

the other had a picture of Snow White

44:40

and the Seven Dwarves. Marlene, who

44:42

loved going to the circus growing up and

44:44

had a clown-themed room in her childhood home,

44:47

opened the front door to accept the flower

44:49

arrangement and balloons. She said, Oh,

44:51

how pretty! But the person dressed

44:53

as the clown didn't say anything back. They

44:56

said, They shot Marlene right in the face. As

44:59

she collapsed on the ground, the clown calmly walked

45:01

back to the LeBaron and drove away. Now

45:04

Joe, Marlene's son, later recalled the whole scenario,

45:07

which breaks my heart that he was there to witness

45:09

this. You know, he said it was like slow motion.

45:12

He saw his mother fall to the floor. He

45:14

ran over to her, realized she'd been shot. She

45:17

was gasping for air. He called 911, told them

45:19

his mother had been shot, and repeated

45:21

his address twice. He dropped

45:23

the phone, grabbed some car keys, and

45:25

started chasing after the LeBaron in his

45:27

car while his friends ran outside yelling,

45:29

They shot Joey's mom. Thankfully,

45:31

one of the Warren's neighbors, who was actually

45:34

a doctor, heard all of the commotion and

45:36

grabbed another neighbor. They ran to the Warren's

45:38

home, and the doctor rendered aid to Marlene

45:40

until an ambulance arrived. Unfortunately, Joe

45:43

couldn't find the car or the clown. And

45:45

by the time he returned to the house, police and

45:47

paramedics were swarming the place. Joe

45:50

then called Michael's car phone, as he was still on his

45:52

way to Miami to see a racehorse with a friend, and

45:54

told him about the shooting. Michael turned around

45:57

and headed to the hospital where Marlene

45:59

was transported. He

1:06:00

has people around him. Yeah, he's insulated. Yeah the kind

1:06:02

of business he's in I'm sure he deals with People

1:06:05

who are kind of willing to do whatever it takes

1:06:07

for some money So it doesn't even have

1:06:09

to be Michael himself. He could have been in the car on the

1:06:11

way to Miami with his friend He could have been you know

1:06:14

completely not anywhere near the house But it

1:06:16

doesn't mean he didn't set it up or

1:06:18

plan it no of course Yeah No based

1:06:20

on the mo that we have for this

1:06:22

killer so far It doesn't appear that

1:06:24

they would take out the wrong person or

1:06:27

they would just take out someone because they were present at

1:06:29

the time When they carried it out It

1:06:31

does seem like this individual would know whether or

1:06:33

not Michael was there and if he was the

1:06:35

target of this of this hit That's

1:06:38

who would have been killed in the first place. Let's

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1:11:06

before we dive back into the script,

1:11:12

can I just ask you, because I was thinking about this whole thing,

1:11:14

like what would happen if a clown showed up in my house? Like,

1:11:17

do clowns not terrify you? I don't know, like I'm not

1:11:19

the kind of person who's like, oh, I can't even watch

1:11:21

it. And every time I see a clown, I'm scared. But

1:11:23

like if a clown was at

1:11:26

my door, I definitely feel

1:11:28

like this is, like anybody

1:11:30

who comes to my door wearing a mask

1:11:32

or concealing their true identity in

1:11:35

any way is

1:11:37

gonna be faced with a closed door. It's not getting opened.

1:11:40

Like, are you feeling the same though? Like

1:11:42

if a clown showed up at your house,

1:11:44

is it because we're paranoid? Yeah, I

1:11:46

think in hindsight, it's always easy to say that.

1:11:48

But if you're there with friends and you're not

1:11:50

expecting any of this- And it's the middle of the day.

1:11:52

It's the middle of the day and this seemingly

1:11:55

friendly clown pulls up the door with

1:11:57

what appears to be presents and balloons.

1:12:00

I know I've had deliveries to my house

1:12:02

for like edible arrangements and stuff like that

1:12:05

and It's you you lower

1:12:07

your guard, but they're now showing up looking like

1:12:09

a piece of pineapple Oh, but they're literally showing

1:12:11

up it could be anyone think about something right

1:12:13

if someone wanted to get to me They could

1:12:15

throw on a t-shirt They don't even have to

1:12:17

have a uniform Pick up an edible arrangement on

1:12:19

their own Drive up to my house

1:12:21

in a car because a lot of these people just drive

1:12:23

up in their cars now It's not like a delivery truck

1:12:26

And yeah, they pull out they pull up

1:12:28

to the house and a plain t-shirt and

1:12:30

jeans with a bouquet of flowers or a

1:12:33

bunch Of balloons or an edible arrangement. I open

1:12:35

the door and they take me out no ideas

1:12:37

anyone and and that's it So I think in

1:12:39

the world that we live in now where we have

1:12:42

Uber drivers and door dash and

1:12:44

all these different things and even

1:12:46

Amazon where we're kind of desensitized

1:12:48

to Individuals coming to our home

1:12:50

at different times of the day

1:12:52

to make deliveries And

1:12:55

that's now never mind talking back and when

1:12:57

this occurred I do see a

1:12:59

situation where it appears to be friendly

1:13:01

enough you open the door Unsuspecting

1:13:04

and yeah this they can get the

1:13:06

drop on you so it's easy in

1:13:08

hindsight to say no I'm not opening the door. This

1:13:10

is what you know we're talking about 1990 well

1:13:13

before you have like simply safe or ring or

1:13:15

anything like that, so it's a

1:13:17

situation where people are accustomed to Greeting

1:13:20

people in person which does make you more

1:13:22

susceptible to a crime like this I

1:13:25

just think in general for me like yeah

1:13:27

anyone who's concealing yeah anyone who's concealing

1:13:30

their identity When

1:13:32

they approach my door you're not open probably

1:13:34

doesn't have the best intentions like I'm

1:13:37

all set on the singing telegram I don't

1:13:39

want it. You know keep your balloons, but

1:13:41

yeah, I get it She's got her kid

1:13:44

there her kids friends. They're having breakfast the

1:13:46

house smells like bacon It's sunny and bright

1:13:48

outside everything seems to be normal. It's a

1:13:50

weekend You're not on

1:13:52

your guard. You're not here, and you're in your own home,

1:13:54

so you feel safe. You're not on your guard Mm-hmm

1:13:57

absolutely and there's other people there And

1:14:00

yeah, even us, like when I found out, when

1:14:02

I covered this case, when I started researching the

1:14:04

case and like looking into it, when

1:14:07

I found out she had been shot, I assumed she was

1:14:09

home alone. And then when I found out her son and

1:14:11

like a bunch of his friends were there, it was like,

1:14:14

wow, that's brazen. That's ballsy to do

1:14:16

that, knowing that they're there. You know, it's

1:14:18

crazy. Absolutely, yeah, that's the whole thing about

1:14:20

this crime is this person had complete disregard

1:14:23

for anybody else there. And I do think

1:14:25

if it had escalated, this individual

1:14:27

probably would have killed everyone if

1:14:29

they had to, to get away. So

1:14:32

next, Jean's brother, Wendell, and his girlfriend,

1:14:34

Mindy, spoke to detectives separately and their

1:14:36

statements about the clown shooting Marlene ended

1:14:38

up being very similar to Joe's and

1:14:41

Jean's. Wendell described the clown as

1:14:43

being male, around six feet tall, 185 pounds, with

1:14:46

reddish colored clown hair. He

1:14:48

believed that the clown was wearing makeup, not

1:14:50

a mask. And he described the clown's outfit

1:14:52

as being white with red diamonds or hearts

1:14:54

on it. He recalled that the

1:14:56

car was a white, brand new two door

1:14:59

LeBaron with a red emblem that said LeBaron

1:15:01

on it. Mindy described the clown

1:15:03

as being six feet tall with a medium

1:15:05

build, but she couldn't tell if the clown

1:15:07

was male or female. She recalled that the

1:15:10

clown was in a colorful outfit, possibly blue

1:15:12

with dots on it. The clown was wearing

1:15:14

makeup, not a mask, had reddish colored hair,

1:15:16

and was driving an all white car. Now,

1:15:19

obviously, the descriptions of the shooter all

1:15:21

differed, basically and mainly on the outfit.

1:15:23

But the witnesses all agreed on a

1:15:26

few things. The shooter was a tall

1:15:28

clown driving a white LeBaron. Following

1:15:30

the interviews with all the witnesses, detectives

1:15:32

put out a bolo for the white

1:15:34

LeBaron and the clown. The police also

1:15:37

released a statement about the shooting, revealing

1:15:39

that a clown was involved. Immediately

1:15:41

following this, detectives started receiving

1:15:43

multiple clown sightings and leads,

1:15:46

all of which were evaluated and placed

1:15:48

in a clown sighting file. These

1:15:51

calls continued for days, and we're actually

1:15:53

gonna be talking more about this clown

1:15:55

sighting file in a future episode, so

1:15:57

stay tuned for that. But while all

1:15:59

of this was going on, going on,

1:16:01

the Warren Home was also being processed

1:16:03

for evidence. Unfortunately, there was very little

1:16:05

evidence as the clown hadn't entered the

1:16:08

house. He was wearing gloves. There

1:16:10

was no fingerprints. And

1:16:12

obviously, it's 1990, as you had

1:16:14

mentioned, there's not surveillance footage. There's

1:16:17

no doorbell cameras. There's no,

1:16:19

you know, security cameras on

1:16:21

neighbors' houses, things like that is just nothing.

1:16:23

You know, he came in and he went.

1:16:26

The clown also took the gun with them

1:16:28

and there was no shell casing left behind.

1:16:30

So the police didn't even know what kind

1:16:32

of gun had been used to shoot Marlene,

1:16:35

which is interesting. There's no shell casing left

1:16:37

behind because none of these witnesses said

1:16:39

they were called the clown picking up the shell casing.

1:16:41

Where did it go? Well, that's what

1:16:43

means it to the revolver. So

1:16:45

they do have a little bit of an indication

1:16:47

of what kind of gun it was. A hundred

1:16:50

percent. Because none of these witnesses saw this clown

1:16:52

pick up a shell casing. Which would make

1:16:54

sense, which you have. You could have one of

1:16:56

two things. If it's a contract killer, they

1:16:58

may have had some type of catching device

1:17:00

that they didn't observe over the extraction port

1:17:02

of the firearm where once the shell casing

1:17:05

extracted and was pulled out from the

1:17:07

gun, it went into a bag or some

1:17:09

type of sack that was taped onto the gun so

1:17:11

that the shell casing would not be left behind. But

1:17:14

more than likely what you have here is a

1:17:16

revolver. And we see that even today where if

1:17:18

we go to a shooting and there's no shell

1:17:20

casings left behind, it could be

1:17:22

one of two things. If it's a drive by, it

1:17:25

could mean that the shell casings were extracted inside the

1:17:27

vehicle. Or it could mean

1:17:29

that the assailants used a revolver with, which

1:17:31

in that case you would not have

1:17:33

shell casings. And I've explained this before, but

1:17:35

with a semi-automatic weapon, the extractor

1:17:37

claw will pull the shell casing out, eject

1:17:40

it from the gun onto the ground,

1:17:43

and then insert a new gun round

1:17:45

into the gun itself. The

1:17:47

revolver, as 99.9% of

1:17:49

you know, you maybe have six

1:17:51

rounds in there where the revolver

1:17:54

spins. And although the revolver will

1:17:56

expel that round when the firing

1:17:58

pin hits the shell casing instead

1:18:00

of the shell casing being ejected after

1:18:02

the round is fired, the revolver just

1:18:04

spins to the next round. And

1:18:07

that would be the only way to reload that gun and

1:18:09

to get rid of those shell casings is to manually open

1:18:12

that revolver up and then empty those shell

1:18:14

casings out. Again, something we've probably all

1:18:17

seen in movies or on TV. So in

1:18:20

some cases, you may have a contract

1:18:22

killer opt for a

1:18:24

revolver because of that reason. It's

1:18:26

harder to identify the gun involved.

1:18:29

There would be no evidence from a

1:18:32

ballistics perspective left behind. Well, the

1:18:34

only evidence of value ended up being the

1:18:36

flower arrangement and the two Mylar balloons, all

1:18:38

of which the clown had brought with them.

1:18:41

Now, these items became the focal point of

1:18:43

the investigation and detectives immediately started trying to

1:18:45

figure out where they came from. They

1:18:48

also tried to determine where the clown

1:18:50

costume could have been rented or purchased.

1:18:52

And of course, detectives also wanted to

1:18:54

figure out why Marlene was killed. So

1:18:56

they started interviewing many people, including Marlene's

1:18:58

husband, Michael, who they spoke to

1:19:00

on the phone at first. Michael said he

1:19:02

had no idea why any of this had taken

1:19:05

place. He mentioned that he and Marlene owned a

1:19:07

lot of rental property and evicted people all the

1:19:09

time. He explained that Marlene handled all

1:19:11

the business concerning the rental properties and he didn't

1:19:13

have anything to do with it. He

1:19:16

suggested that maybe one of their angry tenants

1:19:18

was responsible for the shooting. Then he said

1:19:20

he wanted to see Marlene in the emergency

1:19:22

room and would talk to them later. Detectives

1:19:25

later looked into the angry tenant lead,

1:19:27

but surprise, surprise, there was nothing

1:19:29

there. Not long

1:19:31

after the first call with Michael, detectives spoke

1:19:34

to him again and he briefly talked about

1:19:36

not understanding why any of this had taken

1:19:38

place. He explained that when the

1:19:40

shooting occurred, he was with a friend on

1:19:42

his way to Miami. He didn't know what

1:19:44

was going on until Joe called and told

1:19:46

him that a white LeBaron was seen leaving

1:19:49

the house. Michael told detectives

1:19:51

that he didn't know anybody who owned a

1:19:53

white LeBaron. His car dealership

1:19:55

rental car business dealt only in Chevrolet

1:19:57

products and he did not rent or

1:19:59

sell any Chrysler products. In

1:20:02

an interesting turn of events though, Michael became

1:20:04

very insistent that since the car was a

1:20:06

Chrysler product, it had to be a rental

1:20:08

car and that detectives should check out all

1:20:10

the rental agencies to see if the clown

1:20:12

rented the car. Because yeah, the clown's gonna

1:20:15

go and rent the car in his

1:20:17

clown costume. That's

1:20:20

what gets me too, is they're like, we need all

1:20:22

the sightings of clowns. And it's like, this person is

1:20:25

not walking around all the time dressed like a clown.

1:20:28

That was his disguise. I

1:20:31

think while on the surface, you could

1:20:33

be looking at a situation where law

1:20:35

enforcement's trying to exhaust all resources here

1:20:37

and examine all possible theories. So although

1:20:39

it may lead them one direction, like

1:20:41

this is a contract hit, they're probably

1:20:44

also exploring the theory that this

1:20:46

was a situation where this was

1:20:48

a serial killer or just someone looking

1:20:50

to carry out a crime in an

1:20:52

affluent area for no specific reason. So

1:20:55

maybe they're hoping they get lucky. And

1:20:57

this criminal, which I've said before, they usually don't

1:20:59

get caught unless they make a mistake. Maybe

1:21:01

this person did make a mistake and they were wearing

1:21:04

this costume at some other point, maybe a week

1:21:06

or two prior where they

1:21:08

were, I don't know, doing a rehearsal or something.

1:21:10

Again, it wouldn't make a lot of sense to

1:21:12

us now, but these are how some of these

1:21:15

crimes are solved by the stupidity of the criminals

1:21:17

themselves. So again, it's unlikely, but you

1:21:19

never know where a lead is gonna come from. So

1:21:22

I understand at least checking it out and

1:21:24

putting the bolo out there for this clown.

1:21:27

Although the likelihood of it resulting in

1:21:29

something positive is slim to none.

1:21:32

So the interview ended when Michael

1:21:34

appeared to be upset and stated

1:21:36

that he could provide no further

1:21:38

information to detectives. After this

1:21:40

conversation, detectives set out to verify that Michael

1:21:42

was indeed with a friend in the car

1:21:44

at the time of the murder. One

1:21:47

of his employees said that Michael left work

1:21:49

at approximately 10 30 with a friend to

1:21:51

go to the horse races. That friend also

1:21:53

then told detectives that they were in the

1:21:55

car when Michael received a call from Joe

1:21:57

about the shooting. So it seemed like Michael.

1:21:59

was telling the truth about being on the

1:22:01

way to Miami when Marlene was shot. But

1:22:03

that did not mean that he wasn't involved

1:22:05

in his wife's murder, which we've already kind

1:22:07

of established. He could have gotten one of

1:22:09

his cronies or just paid somebody money. He

1:22:11

deals with people that are kind of living

1:22:13

on the outskirts, the outlaws. This

1:22:15

could have been done intentionally as an alibi.

1:22:17

And by the way, you can't even 100

1:22:19

percent say that the the friend

1:22:21

isn't in on it. This person could have also

1:22:23

been being used as an alibi and maybe lying

1:22:25

to police. You don't know yet at this point.

1:22:27

It would have been better to have an unbiased

1:22:30

witness or someone else come forward saying they

1:22:33

saw Michael or his vehicle. But at

1:22:35

least at this point, this is what we have.

1:22:37

And if you're to take this individual statement at

1:22:39

face value, yes, like you said, it doesn't mean

1:22:41

Michael is not involved, but it means that he

1:22:43

couldn't have been the person dressed up as the

1:22:46

clown. Yes. Well, if this friend

1:22:48

is a valid alibi. Yeah,

1:22:50

exactly. Exactly. So less than 90 minutes

1:22:52

after verifying that Michael was in the

1:22:54

car at the time Marlene was shot,

1:22:56

police interviewed Michael again. And this time

1:22:58

Michael was asked about his relationship with

1:23:00

Marlene. He denied any marital problems and

1:23:02

admitted that there were rumors about him

1:23:04

having an affair with a 27 year

1:23:07

old employee by the name of Sheila.

1:23:09

But he said the rumors weren't true.

1:23:11

This was super interesting to the detectives,

1:23:13

because not long before this conversation, they

1:23:15

actually received an anonymous call from a

1:23:17

woman who stated, quote, you might want

1:23:19

to ask Michael Warren and Sheila Keene

1:23:21

a few questions. End quote. While detectives

1:23:23

were speaking to Michael, they asked for

1:23:25

a contact number for Sheila. And when

1:23:27

the conversation was over, they called Sheila.

1:23:29

But instead of speaking to her, they

1:23:31

got a hold of her estranged husband,

1:23:33

Richard. Yikes. Yeah. Not

1:23:36

the best case scenario for Sheila. Well,

1:23:39

he agreed to come in for an interview

1:23:41

the next day. And not long after that

1:23:43

conversation ended, Sheila called detectives and said she'd

1:23:45

come in the next day as well. While

1:23:47

waiting to speak with Sheila and Richard,

1:23:49

detectives interviewed multiple people who knew Michael.

1:23:52

These people said he was having an

1:23:54

affair with Sheila, and some even described

1:23:56

seeing the two kiss, hug and possibly

1:23:59

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