KILLED BY A CLOWN

MARLENE WARREN OPENED HER FRONT DOOR TO A COSTUMED ASSAILANT WHO SHOT HER ON THE SPOT-AND ELUDED CAPTURE FOR DECADES

- K. C. BAKER

A Mom Gunned Down; Husband's New Wife Arrested 27 Years Later

Looking back at his youth in Wellington, Fla.-where his stepdad, Michael Warren, ran a used-car dealership, while his mom, Marlene, managed rental properties and took care of her two sons-Joe Ahrens remembers happy days when his mother went out of her way to make even routine chores seem like fun. "As kids, when we had to clean the house, she would turn the radio on and just get us in the groove," recalls Joe, now 56. "She had that way about her to see the positive in everything."

The morning of May 26, 1990, the first day of Memorial Day weekend, started like any other Saturday in the family's affluent South Florida community, where large homes were clustered around a private airport. Marlene, 40, had gotten up early to make breakfast for Joe, then 21 years old and recovering from a broken leg, and a trio of friends who had stayed overnight, as the pals watched TV in the living room. Unexpectedly, at 10:45 a.m., a knock came on the front door. Marlene, who rushed to answer it, found what appeared to be a delivery person dressed as a clown on the porch, carrying balloons and a basket of flowers.

As chance would have it, Marlene loved clowns-since she was a little girl, she had been fascinated by their expressive faces. Even as an adult she liked to paint pictures of them to hang on the walls of the house. But this was no entertainer: As Joe watched horrified from the couch, the clown pulled out a gun and shot his mother in the face, then walked to a car in the driveway and fled. Joe recalls dialing 911 in a desperate state. "It happened so fast, and I was so much in shock and confused. Like, why?... I had no idea who it could be."