Two store employees have revealed their fears that they sold a costume to the alleged clown killer who is accused of dressing up to murder her current husband’s first wife 27 years ago.
Barbara Castricone and Deborah Offord spoke to ABC’s 20/20 in an interview which will air on Friday night.
In it, they told how in the night before Marlene Warren’s murder, a woman visited their store and urgently demanded a full clown’s costume, paid in cash and then left.
Marlene, 40, was shot in the face by someone dressed in a clown’s outfit who rang her doorbell at 9.30am on May 26.
Police now say that person was Sheila Warren, her husband Michael’s current wife who he was suspected of having an affair with at the time.
Last month, Sheila was arrested after police used new DNA technology to test evidence they gathered from the scene almost three decades ago.
Their suspicion was spiked when a journalist who was reviewing Marlene’s murder for its 27th anniversary discovered that Michael and Sheila had quietly married in 2002 and moved out of state to start a quiet life in Virginia.
In their interview with ABC, Barbara wept as she relived the horror of being told by police about Marlene’s murder and asked if she had sold a clown costume to anyone in the days before it.
Former store worker Barbara Castricone (pictured) wept as she recalled selling a clown costume to a woman in Palm Beach in May 1990 days before Marlene Warren was shot in the face by someone wearing a similar outfit
Police say Sheila (left in her September mugshot) dressed up as a clown to murder Marlene Warren (right) on her doorstep in Palm Beach in 1990. Sheila is now married to Marlene’s husband at the time of her death
Michael Warren (pictured above for the first time with his wife Sheila) says she is innocent of killing his first wife Marlene in 1990
‘My heart dropped,’ she said of the moment she learned the killer had been in a costume matching the description of the one they sold.
In a teaser for 20/20 episode, Deborah, another store employee, told how they had just closed up for the night when a woman appeared, demanding a clown costume.
She recalled asking the woman to come back tomorrow but she refused and replied: ‘No, I really need this tonight. I need to get a costume tonight.’
Once inside, the woman bought a ‘Ruby’s clown costume, an afro wig, Bob Kelly clown make-up and a sponge nose,’ they said.
The total sale was either $79 or $89 which she paid in cash then fled.
After Marlene’s murder, police asked the store employees if anyone had purchased a clown costume recently and they gave the customer’s description.
Repeating it on the show, Deborah said: ‘Rather tall, I’d say probably around 5’8, brown eyes, long chocolate hair, thick head of hair, work boots.
‘I don’t know why I remember that. I do, and jeans, and a men’s work shirt, a button down collar.’
Deborah Offord (right) was also in the store at the time. She said the customer demanded to buy the outfit even though they were closed and described her as a woman with dark eyes and chocolate brown hair
The teaser did not reveal if they identified Sheila, 54, as the customer who bought the costume.
Her husband insists she is innocent and told ABC that he believes she is being ‘unfairly’ treated. He has always denied having any role in his first wife’s murder.
Until this year, there was no hint of who may have killed her until a local newspaper reporter reviewing the case for its 27th anniversary in May discovered that in the years since, Michael and Sheila – who were acquaintances at the time – had quietly married and moved out of Florida.
Sheila Warren is shown above in her driver’s license with dark hair. It is now blonde
They were found living in Abingdon, Virginia, in a $500,000 lake-front home where neighbors knew them as Debbie and Mike and where none had ever heard of Marlene and her death.
Police who had never closed the investigation used new DNA technology to test existing evidence which they had gathered from the scene and they linked it to Sheila who was extradited from Virginia to Florida to face charges.
She now remains in custody on a murder charge and is facing the death penalty if convicted.
Palm Beach sheriffs previously said that they had suspected Michael and Sheila of having an affair in the 1990s but that they could not link either of them to the murder.
No charges have been filed against Michael since his wife’s arrest last month.
On Thursday, the State’s Attorney refused to tell DailyMail.com whether he is being investigated on the suspicion that he may have been involved in a plot to kill Marlene.
One question surrounding the case remains which is did Sheila act alone to carry out the murder and win Michael over once he was widowed, or did she and Michael plot the murder together so that they could be together.
In ABC’S 20/20 episode, Marlene’s parents also take part and say they suspected he knows more about their daughter’s killing than he lets on but that they do not believe he himself carried it out.
Authorities have so far given no indication that they believe he was involved.
Marlene’s son Joe Ahrens appears satisfied with Sheila’s arrest. He celebrated the news on social media last month saying police had ‘finally’ caught his mother’s murderer.
In May 1990, a person dressed up as a clown rang the doorbell of Marlene and Michael’s home in Palm Beach Florida. Marlene answered and received a delivery of a bouquet of carnations and some balloons. She was then shot in the face and the clown fled. Marlene (seen above being taken to hospital after being shot) died two days later
Pictured are the two balloons and flowers which the clown gave to Marlene. One of the balloons said ‘You’re the greatest’ and the other had a photograph of Snow White on it
The white sedan the clown used to drive up to Marlene’s home then away again was later found abandoned (above) in a parking lot
Crime scene investigators are pictured at the Warren home after Marlene was shot. The small bouquet of flowers that the clown gave her is pictured
Michael was jailed in 1992 for racketeering (above left in court) and then dropped off the map after spending three years in jail in Florida. When his wife was killed, police suspected he was having an affair with Sheila (right in her driver’s license) but they denied it
Michael and Sheila married in Las Vegas in 2002 then quietly moved to Kingsport, Tennessee, and later on to Abingdon, Virginia where they are pictured recently. Neighbors described them to DailyMail.com as a sweet couple who were friendly. They said they never brought up Marlene or Michael’s first marriage
Michael is not Joe’s biological father. Joe was in the home with his friends when Marlene was killed on the doorstep.
Some suspected that Marlene and Sheila had been having an affair when Marlene died and police say they questioned the pair about it but found no proof.
Her parents said in 2000 that Marlene confided in them that she and Michael had been having marital problems and said she believed he had a mistress.
Neither has ever given any explanation or version of events about how they came to get married.
In 1994, Michael was jailed in a separate case on racketeering charges related to his car rental agency. He was released in 1997 then slipped out of public view for 20 years.
In May this year, Palm Beach Post reporter Barbara Marshall was reviewing Marlene’s murder for a feature to commemorate its 27th anniversary.
She discovered during her research that Michael and Sheila had gotten married in Las Vegas in 2002 and that they were now living in Abingdon, Virginia.
They had recently sold The Purple Cow, a restaurant they owned in Tennessee and were living in a $500,000 lake-front home in a gated community when Sheila was arrested.
The Purple Cow restaurant in Kingsport, Tennessee, which Michael and Sheila owned until last year
Sheila (above during a court appearance in Florida this month after being extradited) now faces the death penalty
Shocked: The Warrens’ Virginia neighbor Brooke Blevins said she believes Sheila, her ‘sweet, sweet friend’ is innocent. She says she never heard either Michael or his wife talk about his first wife or her murder
Michael (left), now 65, says his 54-year-old wife (right in a mugshot taken since September) is being treated unfairly and that she is innocent. Sheila remains in jail without bond and is awaiting her next court date
Neighbors told DailyMail.com on Thursday. they were shocked by Sheila’s arrest.
‘There has to have been some mistake along the way. She was my sweet, sweet friend,’ Brooke Blevins, who lives near them, said.
Neither of them ever mentioned Marlene’s death or the fact that Michael had been married before, she added.
Blevins also appears in the ABC episode where she described Michael and Sheila as ‘very happy, outgoing and nice’.
‘She was a very affectionate person. They would hug you when you’d go to see them,’ she said.
Blevins said she had been in ‘shock’ ever since Warren’s arrest. Her husband said he ‘couldn’t believe it’.
They are the only ones to have seen Michael since his wife’s arrest and say he is holed up in their $500,000 lake-front home.
‘He’s distraught,’ Blevins said.
Earlier this month, Florida’s State Attorney David Aronberg said he was pursuing the death penalty.
Sheila remains behind bars without bond and is awaiting her next court date.
- Michael’s interview with ABC’s 20/20 will air on Friday at 9pm.