This episode may contain content of a graphic nature, including descriptions of physical and
sexual violence against adults, children, and animals. Listener discretion is advised.
Hi everyone, I'm Talia and I'm Tanya, and together we are Crimes and
Consequences, a true crime podcast. Hi Tanya, Hi Talia. Welcome back
everybody to this week's episode of Crimes and Consequences. It is a story that
I think a lot of people have heard, but it's kind of older and
it's really interesting. But if you don't like clowns, oh you're not gonna
like this. Oh great, I don't like clowns, like personally like diff
I'm matter clown. It probably would be okay, but I don't know.
It's only John Wayne Gacy though. Yeah. And Stephen King's it Nay,
he was a little fucked up too. Yeah. Well, I hadn't hit
the subscribe or foul button yet or like button or whatever the hell button it's
going on these days. Please do it whatever helps us, please, And
with that we're going to start. Let's do it, okay. So this
is a story of Marlene May McKinnon Warren. She was born in Michigan.
Really just like me, me, too in nineteen fifty and I was not
born in nineteen fifteen. She was a middle child of some sisters, and
I'm just going to give you a background. When she was a child,
she spent most of her time at her grandfather's farm in a small town north
of Detroit. The town is actually Mount Clements, which is where we go
to court. Yes, the county courthouses in Mount Clements. Yeah, it's
kind of strange. So she spent a long time into grandfather's farm, which
there aren't any farms that I know of in Mount Clements, not anymore,
not anymore. She was described by the people that loved her as outgoing.
She was funny and really kind. Oh that's nice. I don't think people
would call me outgoing. No, No, do you think I'm outgoing?
No? Yeah, exactly. I think you're funny, and I think you're
extremely kind. Thank you. I think you are too well. Thank you.
I would you think you were outgoing? No? No, I fake
it. I fake a lot, right, you kind of have to.
I talk to people like co hurt and and then when I go home,
I have to be alone because I need to decompress it. People would say
she lit up the room. Oh, she lit up the room as so
okay when she walked in. And she was a type of person that would
do anything for anyone. I bet there's a lot of people that would say
otherwise. I mean, there's always two sides of the story. And she
really liked clowns really okay, good for her. That's kind of an understatement
when I say really liked Unlike most people, she was obsessed with clowns.
Really. She actually had a clown theme bedroom, stop it. Yeah she
did. Oh my goodness, she really does like clowns. Yeah, and
she painted portraits of clowns and she was actually pretty talented with They're supposed to
make people happy. Yeah, that was their original. Yeah, still are
I think now it's just everybody's creeped out because of it from the clown I
don't know if people know what happened in Michigan, but clowns would just pop
up places enact creepy mysterious Yes, yeah, scared people anyway. Her mother
surely still has one painting in particular, which she'll never part with. And
it's kind of strange to think that in the end, Marlene's life was taken
by a clown. Oh, man, it's kind of ironic. Yeah.
Marlene met her first husband. His name was John Aaron's and they were really
young and they got married in the nineteen sixties when she was eighteen years old
old. Soon after they got married, John and Marlene welcome to two boys,
John Junior and Joseph. By the time Marlene was twenty years of age,
she was a widow. John died tragically, so sad, and obviously
she's just very close with her sons and they were all each other had once
John passed away. I mean they're little. Yeah. She taught both of
the boys how to grow up, how to be successful, how to be
helpful, kind respective, she led her children into actually a very stable life,
even though given the tragedy that they had. So now we're at nineteen
eighty Marlene, she's a widow with two children. She met a guy named
Michael Warren. The two had a two year age gap, which is nothing,
right, not even really an age gap, No, not really,
and they fell head over heels in love, of course they did. They
got married pretty quickly and then they settled in Wellington, Florida. Oh and
that's an exclusive community known as the Aero Club. I don't know. I
don't know Wellington, what's up right next to the our lights? Okay,
And it is considered to be one of the richest areas of Palm Beach County.
Oh nice. The aero club was built around a grass airstrip so that
the residents could land their plane. Oh stop it, they're that rich or
they got money helicopters. Okay, So yes, hunts why it's a very
nice. Yeah area to live. Just gonna find my helicopter like I did
today to get ready. No, I didn't. Many of the homes around
their head plane hangars, and the residents would keep their aircrafts and their hangers,
you know right, Oh sure, I know all about it. Got
a hanger in my backyard. While Marlene was on her second mirror. This
was the first marriage for Michael. The two went matched really well together and
they really built a great life for themselves and the blended family that they had.
Marlene and Michael worked hard and it worked really well together. Michael owned
and operated a used car dealership, and with the dealership, he also had
a corontal service. Both of the businesses were under Marlene's name. I don't
know exactly why, but They also bought and rented houses. They running them
out to people across West Palm Beach. But the rental properties that they had,
they weren't in the best area of town. Okay, they had roughly
forty goodness, yes, that's a lot. And they were very successful,
and Marlene was a part of it. She helped basically run the properties Michael
owned. It was called Bargain Motors on North Dixie Highway and Lost Palm Beach
and the run of properties worth were worth well over one or two million dollars
for the married couple and the two boys. Everything was looking good. Yeah,
you know, prosperous. They're living in Florida and nice that property making
the money was all over her planes. But then something really sad happened.
Marlene's oldest son, John Junior, he lost his life in a car accident
when he was twenty two years Oh no, really, Oh my god,
this poor woman, right right, Oh, that's so sad. Marlene became
exceptionally close to Joseph after losing John Junior, but her relationship with Michael began
deteriorating, and he started distancing himself from Marlene and Joseph. He was spending
a lot more time at work, and work really took up most of his
life, like that's all he was doing, was working, And their distance
grew more and more, and she suspected that he was having an affair with
maybe one of his employees, particularly Sheila Keene, who was in the repo
business. Oh okay, Marlene thought about leaving Michael. She wondered if I
left, would anything really legally be mine even though it's in her name.
I think she was just afraid, right, Yeah, I can imagine.
I mean, if the divorce ever happened, she knew it would be messy,
it'd be difficulty, And at this point they've been married twenty years.
Before Marlene could divorce Michael, something bad happened to her. Oh she was
murdered. Oh no, it sounds kind of suspicious, but you think it's
Michael, right, But Michael has an alibi. She was in Miami,
Florida. Okay, Okay, then I will go back to thinking Michael's at
least halfway decent. Maybe I made twenty six, nineteen ninety, Marlene was
home with Joseph, who was then twenty two, and some of his friends
were there. There was a knock at the door, and it was about
ten forty five am. Marlene answered the door, and when she did,
she was staring into the eyes of a clown. That's weird. Nobody was
expecting this clown like that. No, no, no, no, no.
It's ten forty five then, and you not if someone knocks on your
door, you open it. There's a fucking clown. The clown was holding
balloons and a basket of red and white carnations for Marlene. Okay, clowns,
Oh yeah they did, right, did they? I've seen the I
don't I don't know. Maybe like well, I don't think they do it
now like a singing telegram. They don't do it. No, nobody wants
a clown. No, I wouldn't even answer my fucking door. Are you
kidding me? So, don't send me shit. So the clowns holding balloons
a basket of red and white carnations, and when Marlene went to take the
balloons and flower, the clown shot her on the head and then just walked
away into a white sedan that was parked in the driveway of her home.
What the fuck the car just drove off. Joseph got into his car and
he tried to chase down the clown and the white sedan. He didn't give
a fuck about using roads during the chase. He didn't give a fuck about
speed limits. He was going through neighborhoods and his mother was shot in front
of him and his friends. They were actually there by the door when she
was shot. He could see that the clown was wearing an orange wig,
a red nose. Sorry, this is ridiculous, A red nose, A
clown two and I painted on happy face. The Warrens neighbors they all heard
this and saw the commotion, and they acted quickly, and they would never
forget that day, my bad. One of the neighbors heard a noise that
sounded pretty close to a nail gun, that's what they thought it was.
He was with his dog when he heard a pop, and he rushed over
to where the sound came from, along with another neighbor who happened to be
a doctor. The two men entered the house because she's in the entryway of
the house, and they try to help Marlene. The doctor was instructing the
fellow neighbor on how to make her as comfortable as possible, and so the
ambulance arrived soon after the paramedics arrived, the two neighbors backed away and they
let EMTs do their thing. Marlene must all lie when the mts got there,
and she was gasping for air from the blow to her face. It's
her head, but it's also like in her face, but not like in
the middle of her face. I don't know, maybe like the forehead area.
Okay, from the blow to the face, she had bone and metal
embedded in her tongue. What When the police arrived on the scene, they
immediately sent a blow out for that white sedan. The investigation started and witnesses
at the home try to remember anything they could to help catch this killer clown.
Marline was rushed to the hospital, but she died two days later.
The white sedan was found in a local parking lot. Four days after the
shooting, Michael was instantly broadening, but I'm in Miami, I'm in Miami.
How could I do it in Miami? He was actually on his way
to a racetrack in Miami when basically she was shot point blank in the face.
But it was the upper face, as I said, And friends and
family and Marline pointed police in the direction of Sheila Keene because everybody had heard
the rumors. But Michael's like, again, zummy, but I don't think
he said Sheila. But the two were both questioned and they denied the rumors
about them having an a fair absolutely well yeah, I mean that's what people
do. They like. I mean, I don't know. I don't have
confirmation they're having a fear. But okay. So Sheila was twenty seven at
the time this happened and was married, oh boy, married to a man
named Richard. Both he and Sheila were in the repo business, and Michael
hired them in nineteen ninety five, months before Marlene's murder, to help him
out with his car business. People are a pan, go get it,
go get it. One of the reasons the police really started looking into Sheila
was because somebody, an anonymous woman, called about five hours after the death
of Marlene and gave them a tip about Sheila, but they never found out
who it was anonymous tip. Marlene's parents told the police that their daughter and
Michael were having some marital problems, and that Marlene had told her family in
the past quote anything happens to me, oh my husband did it? Oh
shit, oh shit, I've never said that have you ever said that?
No? Yeah, no, never never. A year prior to Marlene's death,
Michael had been at Palm Beach County Courthouse with an attorney and he'd ask
this lawyer, quote, if a husband were to kill his wife, oh,
what would happen to her state? Oh? Really? Really? All
come on him? I know, I know I called him girl, I
did it on purpose. Really, you don't know what's going to happen to
your dead wife's estate. Chris De Santis was the lawyer and he represented Marlene's
son in an assault case I don't know from nineteen eighty six. Santa said
to the police, quote, my first impression was, is this guy nuts?
Exactly what are you saying this out loud for? Because why would you
ask that question with your wife there? Then I looked around and his wife
wasn't there? Does that? The lawyers spoke with Marlene often and figured that
Michael question, which just you know, he's being curious, sure, just
wondering. The attorney one on tell Michael that Florida law is kind of weird
when it comes to things like that. It is the issue is not if
a man killed his wife, it's the conviction that would stop the inheritance.
What you only you only don't get it if you're convicted. Okay, but
the charge is okay, don't charge, it's dismissed. But what if a
man is convicted of a lesser charge, like the husband, he would inherit
all of his wife's assets. Nice, So you have that great advice to
give to your fucking client. Luck just get convicted, take a plea of
a lesser charge, right, I mean, that's what I would say to
Santa just continued quote. Not only that, but if he had a friend
who did it, and they and he means law enforcement couldn't tie him as
an accessory to the front, he would get away scott free. Perfect.
I love lawyers like us. Wow, why we hate lawyers like us?
Marlene's death had an immense impact. I think about Joseph. Oh my god,
poor Joseph lost his brother, and then he witnesses and head. He's
only twenty two at the time, He's just soul, just got ripped out.
Joseph said, quote last words, I heard my mom say, we're
oh, how pretty. Oh man, this story sucks, and then I
heard a bang. Oh god. The fact that the investigators weren't able to
identify the killer despite the many witnesses at the home, caused Joseph to really
spiral downward. He was angry, and he felt a lot of animosity about
life, like we just said, Yeah, that's normal, that's one of
the stage. So he started drinking. Oh, Joseph, No, he
was depressed. Yeah, I mean hello, self medicating fuck Yeah. Yeah,
A fucking clown comes and kills your mom at your fucking house. Yeah,
I'm a little depressed. I'm gonna have to have a fucking dream.
This went on for years, but eventually he got rehabilitated and he worked through
all the issues of his life. So that's good. Yeah good. And
Joseph, like I said, his success and rehabilitation and all that, he
found a purpose by working with people who struggle with addiction and similar issues that
he went through. Joseph remembers the day his mother was killed very vividly.
At first, the pop sound gave him the illusion that maybe a balloon he
saw it had popped, But then his mom collapsed and he ran to his
mom and she fell to the ground, and when he got to her,
he looked the killer clown in the eyes. He recalled the eyes being brown,
and Joseph said that the clown stepped away from the front door of the
home and then climbed into those white Chrysler LeBaron, But the car had no
plates. That kind of car was reported stolen from Michael's used car lot a
month before the murder, really from his car line. But we'll talk about
that clown drove away as if he or she or it or they hadn't shot.
Somebody didn't care. It wasn't like the clown was in a rush.
That's so weird. Joseph later stated on a local radio show that he thought
that the person dressed as the clown was a male because the person seemed very
large in stature and had large hands. But before I tell you more,
we're going to take a quick break. Marlene's mother, Shirley and her stop
father Bill, they were notified of Marlene's death and at the time in nineteen
ninety, they were visiting some friends in Phoenix in Maricopa County, and the
sheriff's deputy. They ended up leaving a business card at the friend's house saying
please call us. That's never Yeah, Shirley, I already had this gut
feeling about Marlene that something was wrong. Marlene had previously told them, as
I told you, if something were to happen to me, Michael did it.
When Shirley and Bill called the number in the business card, they were
told that Marlene was in the hospital in Florida, but the police didn't tell
them anything else, like she'd been shot or anything. Marlene's mom and stepdad
they lived in Las Vegas, so they flew from Vegas to Arizona, packed
a bag and got up early in the morning to go out to West Palm
Beach. Shirley said that it was early afternoon when they arrived at the hospital.
Marlene was on life support, and she said that everything with Marlene seemed
normal, her pulse were breathing, but she just knew her daughter was gone.
And then again on the second day after being shot, Marline surely had
to make the decision to unplug Marline from life support. Marlene's funeral was held
about a week later, on July first, in nineteen ninety. Investigators were
there hiding, checking everybody out, taking pictures of all the attendees. They
kept track of who was there and how each person was acting and what they
were all doing. Usually when spouses are killed or when they just pass on,
the surviving spouse, is you heartbroken right? Crushed? Right? Kind
of struggling with things. As we know, everybody handles things and you can't
judge people on their emotions. But Michael didn't seem very upset. As a
matter of fact, they thought he seemed completely fine, really like another day
at the funeral, Like it's not your wife of twenty years. Michael wasn't
a very educated man, but he's a really good salesman. He was a
smooth talker, he was confident, but friends and family members around him didn't
consider these traits to be compliments he seemed to. I think it was more
of an arrogance, narcissistic kind of thing. He seemed to always have bad
luck, and those around him said that his bad luck just followed him everywhere
he went. One time, his plane went missing but was found later.
I don't know how a plane goes missing, but it was found later with
a broken engine, and nobody ever knew what happened, So I don't know
when somebody stole his plane and broke his engine. He also had race horses.
They had some money, Damn they did. Fuck. Yeah, I
mean I got I got two cats and two dogs. I don't got a
plane, I don't have race horses. Yeah, and you know when you
got a plane and some racehorses, damn, do you really have that bad
luck? No? Shit right, I don't know. It seems like kind
of some good luck. But one day before he had a race with his
racehorses, one of his horses ended up dead. Oh yes, that's his
bad luck. Yeah, it sounds like real bad luck there to the first
world problem. Yeah, exactly, But I do feel bad for the horse.
I do too. As mentioned earlier, Marlene ran the rental properties.
She was very organized. She had a very smooth operation going. She collected
rent from people, even in rougher neighborhoods. At one point, Marlene was
in the process of evicting a tonant because they didn't pay the rent. So
investigators looked into maybe this tonant hated Marlene so much that he or she killed
her, bought flowers, balloons, a clown costume, and killed her.
But they couldn't pay the goddamn rent. I don't know if that makes monsensel
of effort. Yeah, they didn't really get fired with any of that.
The Warrens had worked really hard for what they had, and Marlene took pride
in her work. She wanted, like I said, she kept everything running
smoothly. She wanted a family to comfortable life. But you can't really say
the same thing for Michael. The white Chrysler LeBaron was found, as I
told you, four days later, in a parking lot, and there's quite
a story behind it, so you got to follow me on this, Okay.
Michael owned Bargain Motors and there was a rival business called Payless Car Rental,
a car company was duped by someone at Bargain Motors a few weeks before
the murder. The LeBaron was actually rented from the rival business, pay Less,
and not Bargain Motors, but the car ended up at Bargain Motors lot
weeks earlier, which seems weird. So other people had run it, okay,
Yeah, the Yellow Pages, the ads for the companies looked pretty much
exactly alike the two car companies, so that customers would get confused from one
company to the other. So when this couple had rented a LeBaron and they
went to return it, they accidentally returned it to Bargain Motors instead of car
rentals. Whoever it answered the phone when the couple called to say they were
dropping the car back off at Palos car Rental at the gates, they were
told to just leave the car unlocked with the keys in it and someone would
come by and pick it up. Okay, So that's how it ended up
on Bargained Motors. I wonder if they were close together. They probably were.
Do you ever see that movie Used Cars with Kurt Russell? No,
It kind of reminds me of this a little bit. I never saw it,
Cult Classic. Okay, I'll have to see it. The couple had
a plane to catch, so they laughed how they were told to, even
though they did kind of think it was a little weird. The employee at
Bargained Motors who was responsible for the mishap was caught, arrested and convicted,
but Michael Tone the company was never charged nor was he held responsible in any
way anyway. So that's kind of just really strange. Bargain Motors had been
under police surveillance for a lot of their shady dealings, such as shit like
that, really drop it off keys, We'll just take that pay less car.
Police conducted a nighttime raid. Wow. Yeah, they got a search
warrant and they took cabinets worth of files and documents. Michael was really worried
he was going to lose his business. Well, yeah, the government doesn't
come and raide your fucking place just on a whim. Yeah. So then
after Marlen's murder, he was a little bit more concerned about that investigation.
So now years go by, nobody's convicted. Wow, which is really really
sad. Yeah, but Michael was arrested for sixty seven counts of racketeering,
my grand theft and a dominant t breath Oh my god. We went to
trial and one of the prosecutors, though, made the mistake of bringing up
how he was a suspect in his wife's murder. Because of this, the
trial seemed more maybe like a witch hunt than actually trying to convict him of
you know what he was caught doing. The jury deliberated for eighteen hours,
and Michael was found guilty still of racketeering, twenty one counts o'domino tampering oh
shit, and eleven counts of grand theft auto wow. But he was acquitted
of whatever other charges. He ended up serving three and a half years in
prison, and he got out in nineteen ninety seven. He was supposed to
get nine years. We're talking white collar, so that's nine years. It's
a pretty decent amount considering we've done cases where people have raped and murdered people.
Yeah, I got that much less. Michael ended up marrying Sheila.
Oh, boys of the roars were probably true. No, they just when
he got out of prison. It was fell in love. Yeah, it
was sar. She was there for him. That was in twenty two.
Okay, despite the rumors of the affair, it wasn't true. Sure.
The two ended up relocating to Virginia. Oddly, Sheila went under a completely
different name when she moved to Virginia. She changed her name to Debbie Warren.
And she played the part of this outgoing, neighbor loving wife. And
they bought a restaurant. They bought a restaurant, or she said she was
a restaurant owner. While in Virginia, Michael and Sheila slash Debbie where we're
gonna call her. Sheila made their home and it's called Abingdon. In fact,
the home they bought was the oldest building in town. It dates back
to seventeen seventy nine, and they made it into a restaurant. Their new
life was quiet and quaint, lovely. Yeah, how sweet, I know,
how fucking sweet. The neighbors around the newly married couple knew the Warrens
as diligent, warm, and generous. Yeah, the great people. None
all of the earth. Yes, none of them had a clue that either
of them been married before, because they never mentioned that, or that they
had originally been from Florida, or that Debby's real name was Sheila. Yeah,
or that Michael's former wife was murdered by the Warrens. The new Warrens,
Debbie Slash Sheila and Michael he went on a trip to Herman and on
the return, which they had recently visited Sheila's mother, they were pulled over
on September twenty six of two thousand and seventeen. Oh damn. This is
fifthteen years after they got married. After they got married in twenty seventeen,
that's twenty seven years after Marlene was murdered. Wow. Deputies from Washington County
Sheriff's office said, Sheila what right on the side of the road, and
they took her into custy for murder. Sheila, Well, he couldn't have
been dressed as the clownies a fucking racetrack. Yeah, that's true. Sheila
applied not guilty. She requested a trial by jury, and the prosecutors in
Florida were seeking the death death penalty. She was held without bond because that's
what happens. We want the death penalty. Yeah, really an option.
You can't really just like just go home, it's okay, Well, we
know you'll come back. So this was shocking to everybody in Virginia that knew
her. Sheila and Michael would throw lavish parties for every birthday, and any
of the neighbors like they would go to their parties, and they were just
big into their neighborhood people who liked them. A woman named Brooke Levelnds,
one of their neighbors, said, quote, how could somebody capable of something
like that be so goodhearted and loving? Well, people are complicated. True,
It's true. The Bevlins were really close to the Warrens, and they
were like best buddies whatever couples that hung out and they even spent holidays together.
Wow. Close. They saw Michael about thirty minutes after Sheila's arrest,
and Michael apparently gave the levelins this pity really sad lost look, huh oh,
poor Michael. Yeah, your wife got arrested. That's fucked up,
dude. I don't know why. Yeah, I don't know. I'm lost
without her. Whatever. So I'm gonna give you a little bit more about
Sheila, okay, because you gotta be fucked up to dress as a fucking
killed. She spent most of her life in her early childhood, at least
in Florida. In nineteen ninety, she moved to Martin County, where she
attended high school. Her dad was Robert. He worked in construction. He
owned his own construction company, and she dated a boy named Butch Away.
He became very close to the family and would eventually accompany them on vacations to
Vermont because I said Sheila had family there. Puchlaw's content was Sheila years ago,
and he was blown away to hear about the arrest. He said,
if Sheila ever wanted anything, she always found a way to get it.
She was arrested for shoplifting in nineteen eighty four. In nineteen eighty six,
she was arrested again for theft and got a felony. Oh. She was
given six months probation. She married a guy named Richard Keane when she was
twenty three and they had a son named Charles. In nineteen ninety, Sheila
filed domestic violence complain against her husband, Richard, and then she moved out
of the house and moved near West Palm Beach. The place she moved into
was owned, oh by Michael and Marlene. Really it's a very tangled web
here. So after Sheila's arrest, Marlene's parents, Shirley and her stepdad Bill,
they'd said they'd always suspected that Michael had a mistress, and they were
really angry that Michael married Sheila. They were shocked that Sheila got away with
murder for so long, and they said, there's just absolutely no way that
Michael didn't know. And they said, if there's a hell, I hope
they rot in it. Amen. So, as you said, it took
twenty seven years, Yeah, twenty seven years. The only evidence of the
house at the time the shooting were the balloons and the carnations. So how
did they figure out what Sheila? They followed up the trail of where these
things may have came from. The balloons the carnations, the clown cast down.
They looked at local costume shops and they found one in particular, and
they believed the information they got from their shop was credible. One of the
employees didn't know who the customer was at the time and didn't really understand what
they were being questioned about, had said that Sheila had came into the shop.
Somebody he recognizes. Sheila came into the shop in the evening. The
store was supposed to be closed already, but she kept getting the attention of
the employee, who eventually unlocked the door and let her in. Yeah,
so fucking important, and he told her, you know what, we're closed.
Would come back the following day. She told the employee she had to
have that costume that night. I needed this clown cost down. You have
to sell it to me. It was urgent, but it was anything like
your Halloween. She begged them to just please let her get that costume.
So they did, and then they didn't give much thought. But something like
that is going to stick out in your head. Are actually two employees when
she came in, she just quickly picked it out, didn't waste their time,
got the costume, and she was out within minutes. What she had
purchased was a clown suit, an ragewig and Bob Kelly brand clown makeup,
a kit, and a red sponge nose. One of the things the employees
remembered is they said, well, you probably need some clown shoes too,
and she was like, no, no, no, I'm good. And
they're like, what you have this whole entire coastume, but you don't want
the shoes and she's like, nah, I'm good. It's okay. I
get some sneakers at home. It'll be fine. She ended up wearing military
grade boots when she really The balloons that Sheila handed to Marlene, there were
two of them. One of the two was silver and it was heart shaped
and red You're the Greatest, and the other had a picture of snow White
and the seven dwarfs. That's weird. It's just super weird. These were
purchased at the local Public's supermarket near Sheila's apartment. They were able to trace
that Sheila didn't know that that heart shaped balloon was only sold at Public's and
only sold in that particular area, So investigators ended up talking to employees and
found out that, yeah, she bought two balloons, and they found a
receipt with a basket of Carnaesians. But why did it take yeah, so
long? Because yeah, that's pretty circumstantial. It's not hard evidence, and
yeah, people can be convicted on circumstantial evidence. But and the But at
the time, they also got a search warrant for Sheila's apartment and found orange
hair like fibers. So I still I don't know why it took so long.
Michael has never once thought that Sheila could be the one. Really,
somebody randomly dressed like a fucking clown and shot your wife just out of the
blue, like, oh I woke up today, I'm gonna go shoot somebody.
He was never arrested, oh Man, in connection for the murder Marlin.
Sheila was deemed to be the original and only suspect. It was one
year after Marlene's murder that they add this evidence. Okay, okay, so
Sheila was deemed to be the original suspect, but there were just there wasn't
enough evidence to charge her. So that's why the case went cold. I
mean, you have to remember this is what nineteen Yeah, and DNA analysis
in technology wasn't advanced like it is now. So eventually they reopened the case
and that's how DNA was tested, and it just led prosecutors to the connection
of Sheila, so she left a DNA. Sheila's trial date was postponed for
six months because of COVID. Oh christ, this was recent. Yes,
damn took that long to put her on trial years after her arrest. Well
you know how that works. Yeah, I know. Joseph ended up testifying.
Oh he did because he was there. Yes, he recalled in the
morning of the murder that he was just discussing the plans for the day with
his friends and his mom while they ate breakfast. It was just a regular
morning. They were where the table was was relatively close to the front door,
and then his mother answered it and he heard her say, oh,
those are beautiful and then the bang. You know what's really sad as after
Marlene died, Michael pretty much left Joseph. Really, that's just cold.
He didn't say in his life, Wow, I told you he moved to
Las Vegas. Oh that's right. I mean that's really sad because this kid
spend in your life for like twenty years. Poor Joseph just breaks my heart,
like he loses his mom, his brother. Eventually, all the records
were released by the Palm Beach Prosecution Team and it just shed light on the
arrest and then the eventual conviction of Sheila. Sheila had drunkenly bragged to a
co worker how she about a clown costume, dressed up his clown and killed
her lover's wife. Oh ha ha over drinks. The costume and the gun
were never found. There were hairs that belonged to Sheila found in the white
Chrysler. That was some of the DNA. I don't know if I mentioned
it earlier, but Michael was a beneficiary Marlene's life insurance policy, which was
worth fifty four thousand. Nice and the attorney to see into this I talked
about earlier. Yeah, I was like, hey, you know you're gonna
your wife gets killed? Yeah, what would he happen to her estate?
Right? He made a joke that if someone were to dress up as a
clown and kill somebody, they'd probably never get caught. He did, Yes,
Okay, that's weird. In April of twenty twenty three, Oh,
that was just a few months ago, She'll admitted to dressing up as a
clown and shooting Marline at point blank range. She admitted it. She did.
She pled guilty. This is how long it took. She pled guilty
to secondary murder inside a Palm Beach Counting courtroom. This was part of a
plea deal that was reached right before the trial started. So the testimony I
was talking about before was eliminary examinations. Okay, she originally had plied not
guilty, but she changed it. So in the plea deal, it meant
that she had to spend at least twelve years behind bars. Twelve, but
her attorney told reporters, I think she'll get about ten months. What the
judge in the case said, he accepted her two thousand thirty nine days in
jail as time served towards her sentence. Oh so six years, yeah,
six years. Damn. Her attorney, his name was Rosenfeld, still maintains
that his client is innocent and that she only accepted the plea deal because she
just wanted to go home. Well. Yeah, in the state of Florida,
if she was convicted of first screen murder would probably given her the death
penalty. Yeah, he said, quote, it was an extremely hard decision
for our client, saying you did something that you didn't do. Sure,
there's nothing harder than that. Sure. So she looked at a total of
twelve years, but she could be out as early as next year, which
is why her attorney said she'll be out in ten months. Yeah, yeah,
damn, so that'll be like seven years. That's fucking bullshit. That's
fucking bullshit. She planned it, bought the fucking clown costume, shot this
woman in the face, got to live her life. This bullshit. Well,
the biggest part of the bullshit is Michael. Yeah, he fucking knew.
Fuck yeah, he knew, he knew. That's bullshit. This makes
me angry. And you think after them being together twenty seven years and she
she already was drunk telling employees she did it. You think our friends or
whatever it was, you think she didn't fucking get drunk and tell her husband.
Of course she did, of course. This bullshit. This fucking makes
me mad. Poor Marlene, Poor Marlene. She got the rod deal man.
Why didn't he just fucking divorce her? Who had to give up money?
Yeah, but they didn't have any minor children, so he didn't give
up that much. Just half the same reason. People killed their spouses all
the time, it's always fucking money. It's ridiculous they hadn't hit a lot
or I mean, but yeah, I don't know. Whatever. It makes
me mad you yeah, me, I'm pissed. I know it. So
the justice system is fucked sometimes, but it's still the best. I guess
there's out there where where's better. I know, Canada maybe maybe, No,
Canada is not better. No where they let fucking killers go? Right?
No, where I go? Where? North Korea not better? No?
China, Yeah, I doubt it. I don't think so. I
don't know much about their legal system, but I'm just I'm sure you know
Russia, No, no, no, definitely, But we love all those
countries and people from there. I'm strictly talking about the justice system there or
the lack of ours is bad. No, ours is bad. But I
don't know of any place. Yeah. Maybe maybe Switzerland, Yeah maybe maybe,
I don't know. Well, Well, thanks for that to Leah.
Yeah, well calmed me out today. I'm just a little on fire right
now. Yeah, that's fine, Right now, that's fine. It's all
right. We always are after we're done. Yeah, but I want to
thank you all for taking the time to listen to us and this story and
our hearts do go out to Marlene and our family and Joseph. And if
you like our stories, subscribe like follow Beck for more. However, you
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