Requires subscription and macOS 11. You can reach her at Support local investigative journalism. Point Blank Dateline NBC True Crime Listen on Apple Podcasts. Holly Baltz is the investigations and schools editor at The Palm Beach Post. He remembered telling Michael Warren something else:Ī killer dressed as a clown would likely 'get off' because witnesses couldn't tell whether it was a man or a woman. Michael Warren has never been arrested in connection with Marlene Warren's death.Īttorney Desantis talked again to police around the time Keen-Warren was arrested in 2017. They had bought a house worth $600,000 in 2004. They had just sold a restaurant they were running named the Purple Cow in Kingsport, Tenn. Michael and Shelia Keen-Warren had been married in 2002 and were living in southwest Virginia near the Tennessee line when she was arrested in 2017. They also found matches between her hair and hair found in the car.

The tests found an identical match on orange hairs inside the LeBaron and those found in her apartment. It would take three years to get the results. They followed hundreds of tips, including a 'clown coven ' in Greenacres.ĭetectives in 2013 started running DNA tests on the original evidence. No suspect would be arrested until 27 years after the killing.īut Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office detectives didn't give up. 'Not only that,' Desantis went on, 'but if he had a friend who did it and they couldn't tie him as an accessory to the friend.

'It really isn't an issue of whether a man kills his wife. The question is whether the man is convicted of murdering his wife because if he's convicted of murdering his wife, he wouldn't inherit, but if he were convicted of a lower charge, he would. In this case, Florida law was 'peculiar,' Desantis told Michael Warren. The attorney said he figured the question was a curiosity, like a law school question. The evidence: Defense: Evidence does not prove woman dressed as clown, killed Wellington mom in 1990 Hiding a suspect? Lawyers for woman accused in Wellington clown murder accuse state of hiding possible suspect Desantis said he always thought there were no problems in the Warrens' marriage. Desantis had been representing Marlene's son in a 1986 assault case and Marlene talked to Desantis frequently.

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