• On Memorial Day weekend in 1990, Marlene Warren opened the door to what she thought was a clown delivering flowers and balloons.

• Warren was shot and killed and police spent years seeking justice

• In 2017, Warren’s son, Joe Ahrens, was shocked to learn who pulled the trigger that fateful morning.

Looking back on his youth in Wellington, Fla., where his stepfather, Michael Warren, ran a used-car dealership and his mother, Marlene, managed rental properties and cared for her two sons, Joe Ahrens remembers the happy days when his mother was there. He did his best to make even routine tasks fun.

“When we were kids and we had to clean the house, he would turn on the radio and get us in the mood,” recalls Joe, now 56. “He had the attitude to see the positive side of everything.”

The morning of May 26, 1990, the first day of Memorial Day weekend, began like any other Saturday in the family’s affluent South Florida community, where large homes cluster around a private airport.

Marlene, 40, had risen early to make breakfast for Joe, 21, who was recovering from a broken leg, and three friends who had spent the night watching television in the living room.

Unexpectedly, at 10:45 in the morning, there was a knock on the front door. Rushing to answer, Marlene found what appeared to be a delivery man on the porch, dressed as a clown, carrying balloons and a basket of flowers.

Luckily, Marlene loved clowns; He had been fascinated by their expressive faces since he was little. Even as an adult, he loved to take pictures of them and hang them on the walls of the house.

But this wasn’t any fun: As Joe watched in horror from the couch, the clown pulled out his gun and shot his mother in the face, then walked toward a car in the driveway and fled. Joe remembers dialing 911 in a desperate situation. “It all happened so fast I was in shock and confused. Like why? “I had no idea who it could be.”

Nor could Joe have imagined that it would take nearly three decades to wait for answers about the shocking crime that turned his life upside down and tore his family apart. Who killed his mother and why? questions are the focus of the show’s upcoming episode, “Sex. Clowns. Murder.” People Magazine Investigates It will air on Monday, November 4th at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery and will stream on Max. (An exclusive clip is shown below.)

The episode follows an elusive killer’s dogged pursuit of Palm Beach County, Fla. details his long pursuit by investigators; This resulted in the arrest in 2017 of a suspect with a surprising connection to the victim. “Our goal in this office is to administer justice,” said Palm Beach County State’s Attorney Dave Aronberg. People that year. “We will get justice for Marlene Warren.”

Looking for Clues

Palm Beach County Sheriff Ric Bradshaw says there’s little crime to speak of in the exclusive Wellington community known as the Aero Club. When Marlene was shot in the foyer of her five-bedroom home in 1990, pressure mounted to find her killer.

Police began following leads that included a Chrysler LeBaron convertible that Joe said was parked in front of a nearby grocery store as he drove away from the murder scene. Inside the car, detectives collected strands of orange synthetic hair as well as human hair.

Based on eyewitness accounts that Marlene’s attacker was dressed as a clown, investigators recently visited costume stores in the area, hoping to find a store that sold or rented clown costumes. At a mall in West Palm Beach, they encountered potential pay dirt when an employee at the store handed over a receipt from a woman who had purchased a full clown costume and a colorful wig a few days earlier.

State’s Attorney Aronberg says that unknown to Marlene, the woman in question was Sheila Keen, then 26 years old and a business partner of Marlene’s husband, Michael, with whom he had reportedly been having an affair.

Investigators immediately became suspicious of Michael, whom Marlene, the mother of two boys from a previous relationship, married in 1972, and focused on the couple’s troubled relationship. Joe, who viewed his stepfather as a loving father figure, told authorities that just a week earlier, his mother had admitted that she “didn’t care anymore” after the sudden death of Michael’s 22-year-old son, John, in 1988. Joe said he wanted to leave the marriage.

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Investigators alleged that most of the couple’s rental properties were registered in Marlene’s name and that Michael stood to benefit from her death. “He was the sole beneficiary of all his assets,” says Palm Beach County Assistant State’s Attorney Aleathea McRoberts.

When questioned by police, Sheila and Michael denied having an affair or any involvement in Marlene’s death. And because there was little evidence to rely on, no arrests were made; The case has been concluded.

A New Life for Michael and Sheila

“I started doing roofing and carpentry,” says Joe. “But I got involved with drugs and alcohol. Every year I would yell and scream, calling the sheriff’s department drunk and belligerent. I wanted something to happen. “I was reaching out for help, but I couldn’t get it.” While Joe struggled with his mother’s death, Michael and Sheila built a life together beyond the gaze of their families in Florida.

They married in Las Vegas in 2002 after Michael served three years in prison for grand theft, racketeering and tampering with the odometers of cars he sold at his dealership. He and Sheila (now called Debbie) moved to Abingdon, Va. They owned a fast-food restaurant and hosted get-togethers at the docks where they docked their pontoon boats. “They were always outgoing,” says neighbor Brook Blevins.

Just as Michael, now 72, and Sheila, 61, appeared to have left the darkness of their lives in Florida behind, police received a federal grant to solve cold cases with new DNA technology and decided to reopen the investigation into Marlene’s death in 2014. Using a high-powered microscope, a scientist found orange fibers that matched orange fibers found in the car and on a ribbon attached to a balloon in Sheila’s apartment. In September 2017, Sheila was arrested in Virginia on suspicion of first-degree murder. He was returning home from visiting his mother.

Initially Sheila did not admit her guilt. Blevins checked in with Michael, who was out of town the day Marlene was killed and was never charged with Marlene’s death, and asked how Sheila was handling being at the center of a criminal case. “’He’s doing well,’ he said. He knows he will be cleared,” Blevins recalls. However, on April 25, 2023, Sheila admitted to Marlene’s murder.

Sheila, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison, is expected to be released in January 2025. Meanwhile, Joe says he wishes Sheila received a life sentence for killing her mother. “I lost my whole family. But it’s so comforting to have two angels: my mom and my brother. “They watch me and guide me home.”

“Sex. Clowns. Murder” next episode People Magazine InvestigatesIt will air on Monday, November 4th at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery and will stream on Max.