Scary Stories To Tell In The Dark

The Cold Case Clown

On May 26, 1990, at 10:45 a.m., in Wellington, Florida, Marlene Warren opened her door to a find a bulb-nosed clown holding a bouquet of red and white flowers and two balloons, one emblazoned with a picture of Snow White. The clown shot her point-blank in the face, and she died at the hospital two days later. Warren's teenage son saw the clown run to a white Chrysler LeBaron and escape, never to be found.

"This is the strangest thing I've seen in all my 19 years in law enforcement," Palm Beach County sheriff's spokesman Bob Ferrell

Warren's husband, Michael Warren, was a prime suspect in the crime. Police searched his office at a West Palm Beach car dealership and found evidence that he'd , but nothing to connect him to his wife's murder. However, a suspected affair and five-figure life insurance policy looked suspicious.

Michael Warren was allegedly romantically involved with a female employee. The flowers and balloons delivered before Marlene Warren's murder were purchased at stores near the employee's apartment, and costume shop employees tentatively identified her as the woman who had purchased a clown costume the same day as the killing. Neither was charged in the murder, and the case remains unsolved.