More than 40 years after a traveling auto parts salesman was found brutally slain in his Holiday Inn room in Ohio, authorities say they have charged a suspect in the long-unsolved killing. The break came years after items belonging to the victim were discovered behind a Cracker Barrel restaurant in Georgia, officials said Monday.
Randy Lane McAllister, 62, of Columbus, has been indicted by a Warren County grand jury in connection with the Oct. 17, 1985, death of John Christopher Warren.
McAllister faces charges of aggravated murder and murder after investigators reopened the cold case and used forensic evidence to advance the investigation.
Randy McAllister has been charged in the 1985 murder of traveling auto parts salesman John Christopher Warren in an Ohio hotel room. Authorities said McAllister was arrested after evidence from Warren’s belongings, which were found near a Cracker Barrel in Georgia, connected him to the killing. (Warren County District Attorney’s Office; Getty Images)
Warren was discovered dead one day after checking into the now-shuttered Holiday Inn in Middletown, Ohio, outside Cincinnati, where he had traveled for business meetings. At the time, detectives believed the killing was likely tied to a robbery.
Investigators said several of Warren’s possessions were missing after his death, including his 1985 Oldsmobile. Some of those belongings later turned up behind a Cracker Barrel in Dalton, Georgia, while his car was eventually located 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,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
A general view of a Cracker Barrel Country Store in Nashville, Tenn., on Aug. 29, 2025. (Zak Bennett for INC News)
The murder went unsolved for years until investigators reopened the case in 2019. Several of Warren’s belongings recovered from the crime scenes were sent for analysis. That led detectives to McAllister and a now-deceased accomplice, prosecutors said.
“This is a case involving extreme violence,” Assistant Prosecutor Brian Goodyear told a Warren County court judge during McAllister’s first court appearance on Tuesday, Fox 19 Now reported. “The victim was beaten to death and strangled with a ligature. This was a very violent death.”
McAllister, who has three prior violent felony convictions, including felonious assault and aggravated robbery, has been on the run for 40 years, Goodyear said.
The prosecutor’s office has not disclosed how Warren’s items were connected to McAllister.
