MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — A man is charged with murder in the “cold case” death of a salesman more than 40 years ago at a Middletown hotel.
Randy Lane McAllister, 62, of Columbus, is scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday, July 7, in Warren County Common Pleas Court after a county grand jury indicted him for aggravated murder and murder.
He is charged in the death of John Warren, a guest on Oct. 16, 1985, at the Holiday Inn near Interstate 75 in Middletown. A traveling salesman for an auto parts company, Warren was in town for sales meetings when he was found deceased the following morning in his hotel room.
A number of Warren’s possessions, including his 1985 Oldsmobile, were taken from the hotel that has long since been torn down, Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said in an update posted on social media.
Police in Dalton, Georgia, recovered some of Warren’s belongings and other relevant items discarded behind a Cracker Barrel restaurant. His car was found in Redington Beach, Florida.
“Although detectives at the time followed up on a number of leads, there was not sufficient evidence to move forward on the case,” Fornshell said.
Warren County Sheriff’s detectives in 2019 reinvestigated the case and a number of items recovered nearly 41 years ago from all three crime scenes were submitted to a crime lab for analysis.
"Based on this information, detectives identified Randy McAllister, 62, of Columbus, and a now-deceased accomplice as potential suspects,” Fornshell said.
Since 2021, detectives in coordination with the Warren County Prosecutor’s Office continued to investigate before the case was presented to a grand jury at the end of June.
“'Cold case investigations are cold for a reason. Many times there is some evidence that points to a suspect, but just not enough evidence to move forward. And leads diminish over time.
“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,” Fornshell said.
McAllister is in the Warren County Jail without bond awaiting arraignment.
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