Ohio suspect in 40-year-old murder case finally put in cuffs thanks to evidence found stashed behind a Cracker Barrel 400 miles away

The cold case of an Ohio man who was murdered over 40 years ago has at long last been solved thanks to evidence which was found behind a Cracker Barrel 400 miles away from the scene of the crime.

John Warren, 44, was murdered while staying at a since-demolished Holiday Inn 40 miles North of Cincinnati in October 1985. He had been in the area for sales meetings, reports the New York Post, however, his dead body was found in his hotel room the following morning. Some of Warren’s belongings, including his car, a 1985 Oldsmobile, were reportedly missing as well.

Some of the items that had been taken were found days after the murder some 400 miles away, dumped behind a Cracker Barrel in Dalton, Georgia. As for the car, it was later found in Redington Beach, Florida.

Despite the evidence they did have, it wasn’t enough, detectives had a hard time closing the case with the multiple leads only resulting in dead ends. While three men were named as suspects in the death of John Warren the charges were eventually dropped and the case slowly grew cold with no major updates for four whole decades, until now at least.

A re-examination of the evidence

Detectives re-opened the case in 2019 and immediately started re-examining the evidence. Similar to a case involving a California woman who killed her baby in 2009, the evidence collected in the John Warren case was looked at with new forensic technology which was able to tell detectives more in 2019 than it could have in 1985.

Some of the items found by detectives were sent to a lab to be analyzed and Randy McCallister and an unidentified, dead accomplice were named as suspects. The new evidence gathered by detectives was presented to a grand jury last week.

Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said that the investigation had gotten to a point “that our office believed we had sufficient evidence to charge McCallister for the murder of John Warren. And the grand jury agreed.” Fornshell explained that many cold cases go cold even if there is evidence, “Many times there is some evidence that points to a suspect, but just not enough evidence to move forward. And leads diminish over time.”

The exact evidence that detectives believe pin McCallister and his accomplice to the murder has not been revealed. Randy McCallister is currently being held on aggravated murder and and murder charges at Warren County Jail and he is expected to be arraigned on Tuesday.