An Ohio man has been arrested over the 40-year-old murder of a traveling salesman after a breakthrough in new lab analysis, prosecutors say.
Randy McAllister, a 62-year-old based in Columbus, has been accused of killing John Warren all the way back in October 1985. According to Warren County Prosecutor David P. Fornshell, McAllister has been indicted in connection with the cold case.
On October 16, a day before he was found dead, Warren, who worked for an auto parts company, was staying at the Holiday Inn in Middletown in Warren County. He was in the area for sales meetings, Fornshell says.
However, the next morning, Warren was found dead in his hotel room.
A 1985 article published by The Cincinnati Enquirer suggested that Warren had been strangled.
Days after the killing, some of Warren’s property and personal belongings were discovered behind a Cracker Barrel restaurant by police in Dalton, Georgia.
Warren’s vehicle was also located in Redington Beach, Florida.
Back in 2019, detectives from the Warren County Sheriff’s Office reinvestigated the case, and a number of items recovered from the crime scenes were submitted to the crime lab for analysis. McAllister and a now-deceased accomplice were eventually listed as potential suspects, based on the results, Fornshell says.
In 2021, detectives, working with the Warren County Prosecutor’s Office, continued to investigate the case, which was presented to a grand jury in June 2026.
McAllister has been indicted by the grand jury for both murder and aggravated murder, according to Fornshell.
Jail records obtained by The Cincinnati Enquirer revealed that McAllister was booked into the Warren County Jail on July 1. Court records seen by the publication state that McAllister is set to appear for an arraignment on July 7.
“Cold case investigations are ‘cold’ for a reason,” Fornshell said. “Many times, there is some evidence that points to a suspect, but just not enough evidence to move forward. And leads diminish over time.”
Fornshell continued, “But particularly over the past five years, Warren County Sheriff’s Office detectives have been tenacious in their investigation of this case to get it to a point that our office believed we had sufficient evidence to charge McAllister for the murder of John Warren.”
“And the grand jury agreed,” he concluded.
