PALM BEACH COUNTY, Fla. _ After 29 years of hearing blame for his wife's murder by someone in a clown costume, Michael Warren is seething.
He recently spoke to the South Florida Sun Sentinel for close to an hour, insisting both he and his current wife, Sheila, are innocent of the slaying of Marlene Warren inside a Wellington estate.
Michael Warren _ in his first extensive interview since Sheila was arrested in 2017 based on new DNA evidence _ said he's angry investigators more recently explored allegations he's also responsible for the killing.
He said Palm Beach County sheriff's detectives have gone "on a witch hunt" this past year, searching a canal for a car suspected of holding the clown outfit and the murder weapon. Records for a cellphone allegedly used by Michael Warren also were examined.
These new leads apparently turned up empty, yet it highlights the continued uncertainty over whether he'll ever be charged along with his spouse.
"They had nothing before, they have nothing now," said Warren, 66, who lives in the home he shared with Sheila in southwest Virginia. "It's not the person that they've got locked up, I would bet anything on it. I know sure to hell it's not me."
Detectives and prosecutors won't comment about the case, or the recent investigation, outside of court.
Sheila Warren, 55, remains jailed in solitary confinement without bond, awaiting a February death penalty trial on a first-degree murder count.
Michael Warren says his wife calls him from the jail every day. He said he tried visiting her a few times, but it became pointless because he could only speak to her through a small monitor from another building.
"It's really sad," he said. "Like how are they ever going to pay Sheila back for costing her three years of her life locked up in a cell? It is no fairness. It is a lie. I am so flustered over this whole thing."
Speculation over Michael and Sheila Warren's possible involvement began with anonymous tips to authorities within minutes of the shooting, when she was then known as Sheila Keen.
There were rumors back then they were having an affair, and soon they were identified as persons of interest. But they weren't charged and the high-profile case went cold.
