At a rest stop, two people are murdered and a third is wounded by a man posing as a police officer.
Gordon & Jackie McAllister
A man robbed them and killed Jackie
CASE DETAILS
The killer is still wanted
On the morning of June 28th, 1991, Gord and Jackie McAllister of Lindsay, Ontario, Canada, were the only two people in the Blind River, Ontario Rest Stop. At 12:55 AM, they were sleeping peacefully when a man identifying himself as a police officer woke them by pounding on their window. He told them they needed to move their RV. When Jackie opened the door, the man barged in and demanded money and valuables. He was armed with a 22-caliber rifle and a 20-gauge shotgun. As Jackie went through her purse, the gunman shot her. Gord was also shot, but he managed to jump out of the vehicle:
“I rolled underneath the motor home, and I notice that another car had driven in to the rest area. And this guy had got out and was standing beside the car.”
Twenty-nine year-old Bryan Major got back in his car, but there was no escape. The gunman shot him, too, then ran off:
“And I was lying there, just praying to God that he’d keep on running, and he did. Soon as he went by I rolled back out and got up, into our motor home, and drove out onto the highway. I knew I had to get out onto the highway to get some help.”
The blue van headed straight toward his car
Gordy flagged down a trucker, but it was too late. Gord’s wife, Jackie, was already dead. The gunman’s other victim, Bryan Major, also died at the scene. He left behind a wife and a young son. Gord’s injuries were minor.
When Ontario papers published a drawing of the gunman based on Gord’s description, a witness came forward. He said that a few minutes after 1 AM on the night of the murders, a blue van peeled out of the Blind River Rest Stop and headed straight toward his car. The van continued dead east, toward Sudbury, Ontario. The witness didn’t notice if it had Canadian or U.S. plates.
Police turned to computer technology
Police checked out more than 3,500 blue vans on both sides of the border, but, according to Detective Inspector Frank Ryder of the Ontario Provincial Police, they found no matches:
“The fortunate situation here is that we do have a survivor. Gord McAllister survived his wounds, and hopefully, he can point out the killer someday.”
Gordon looked through hundreds of mug shots, but none jumped out. Then, the police turned to computer technology, hoping to improve on the original rough sketch of the killer. Gord helped work on a new drawing:
“I’ll never forget his face. It wasn’t a robbery gone bad. There was no resistance to this guy. He just simply was going to kill somebody. For no reason.”
Watch this case now on Amazon Prime in season five with Robert Stack and season four with Dennis Farina. Also available on YouTube with Dennis Farina.
Gozzy
What they didn’t mention is that before all the killings at the rest stop, they dropped their kids off at my dads house and my grandparents took care of them. Just for the cops to come when the parents didn’t return. Weird how they never used the DNA from the kids in order to find him.. The kids were so young, they don’t even remember their parents.. lucky for them
Cornel houston
Who dropped their kids off at your dad’s?
Gozzy
He did. My grandparents took in lots of people in need. Fosters, adoptions even hockey players. My grandparents were huge into the church as well. My grandparents thought nothing of it but just a man who needed food for his kids. (At the time my grandparents had kids their age, not my dad he was older) my grandparents cooked dinner, they all ate & had a good time. Then he asked if they didn’t mind if my grandparents could watch the kids while he did some running around. He never came back, and police were called to come get the children.
Ronald
What you are describing makes no kind of sense to this case.
David Melton
I saw this case on Unsolved Mysteries and it’s a shame the killer hasn’t been caught.
T
As this this morning and I instantly went back to that sketch Look so similar I know they said they have a person of interest but I remember this case very well growing up and watching the show just wanted to submit.
https://katu.com/news/local/vancouver-police-search-for-missing-and-endangered-elderly-man
Jo
Uncanny resemblance…
Someone should let the officers know
2pac
that’s crazy, the ages match up as well
Sausage
Great head of hair!
Jay
Ronald Glenn West police identified him as a “person of interest” in the Blind River Rest Stop murders. When he was arrested in 1995, he was living in Blind River with his wife and children.
There is some circumstantial evidence that links West to the crime. At the time of the murders, he lived about twelve miles away from the crime scene. He also owned a .22-caliber rifle and a 20-gauge shotgun, the same type of weapons that were used in the murders. His ex-wife also noted that he owned a blue van and looked similar to the composite, but with a blonde wig. Finally, he was a former police officer, which would match up with the gunman identifying himself as such.
West was never charged with the Blind River murders. He later pleaded guilty to the 1970 murders and was sentenced to life in prison.
Sadly, on February 14, 2012, Gord passed away at the age of eighty-three, without ever seeing a resolution to Jackie’s murder.
Aurora
This so sad rip to her please help the family get justice no matter how long it takes
Jason
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/man-charged-in-70-murders-suspect-in-91-murders-1.191188
Bob Valpo
They have not found him. That article is 21 years old
Sam Sloane
Unsolved is the case resolved?
Jillian Perreault
I believe they found him:
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/man-charged-in-70-murders-suspect-in-91-murders-1.191188
Mario West
I remember this case. Thanks for posting this article and so glad they caught this guy.
Rick Freeman
Gordy was my wife’s uncle. The day they left for their trip they stopped at my in-laws and asked them to come with them. I don’t think if Gord had this big plan to kill Jackie he would have invited his sister and brother-in-law. It’s too bad that people try to come up with these ideas because it wasn’t a clean case. I’ve met the family many times and everyone always had a great time. It’s sad that most of the family have passed now without the case solved.
Sus
My father had stop in that rest stop earlier in the evening.
Hanzo Hattori
I’ve watched this episode and it really have me wondering about this couple. The wife was killed but the husband wasn’t? I think it is really fishy not to think that killers would normally leave no witnesses behind. Sadly we won’t see this case ever getting solved.
S.Mc
To Carlos V. Castrillo, and uh.. Sue who have posted that Gord McAllister hired a hitman, I can tell you that that is 10000% not true. He was my uncle, and him and my aunt were happy then, and always had been. Him, and the rest of my family were devastated by the loss of my auntie Jackie I can’t believe people who don’t know anything about my family would post this kind of BS. Shame on you who think this type of thing, it’s hurtful to the family who still mourn her, and have mourned all these years. Knowing my uncle never got to see her murderer brought to justice. I just can’t even…So you can take your theory.. and blow it out your… well you know what. If you were hoping for a reaction.. I hope you are enjoying it. Was it everything you hoped it would be, Carlos V. Castrillo???
Kathy
Thank you for posting Sue. I Miss Auntie Jackie everyday.
Ian Harris
It’s tasteless for a person to suggest that Gord hired a hitman unless they have proof. If he had hired a hitman to kill his wife, why would the “hitman” shoot him as well and kill the guy that pulled in? I was curious to know if Gord knew about Ronald West. He was still alive when Ronald West was arrested for two previous murders and he was suspected of the Blind River killings. I honestly believe Ronald West did it and it’s pointless to charge him for it since he is already serving two life sentences for the other murders and from what I read, it’s unlikely he will ever be paroled.
mark musial
Was it possibly a wig the shooter had on???
Steve O
The man wanted asked my family for a ride my father said no and then seen his drawing in the paper the next day I was so young at the time and remember seeing the story on unsolved mystery’s months or weeks after
Jessica Potvin
I need to know who I can contact about who this man might be. I am almost confident that I know who that is, if not they are identical twins… never heard of this but my mother shared this story with me and I knew right away I need to say something to someone
CARLOS V CASTRILLO
Thinkingoutloud, so i see you read my posts.lol
But in all seriousness, someone should ask his relatives if their marriage was happy etc. I doubt it will be officially solved since gord is dead, but i suppose the shooter could still be alive. Still I wonder if the cops considered this and ruled it out. It just doesnt make any sense otherwise. Even some maniac who just kills for fun as they say wouldnt leave a 60 year old man alive 5 feet away from a closed crime scene.
thinkingoutloud
seems that Gordy hired a hitman to kill his wife and this other person go in the way so they had him killed too. How is it that both his wife and this bystander are killed but Gordy survived? why didn’t the killer make sure all of them were dead and leave no witnesses? Gordy sees his wife has been shot, and he gets shot and instead of trying to fight off the man or even check on his wife he just goes and hides? he wanted to make sure his wife was killed. and i heard he got re-married shortly after so it all adds up
Kcoolboy
This is such a sad story brought me to tears two innocent lives taken
Sue
The husband did it. For sure. It’s too weird
CARLOS V CASTRILLO
Charles, this is exactly my problem with the reported facts of this case. I wrote about it 3 down on how this seems like a good way for the older man to get rid of his wife by hiring and covering for a hitman. The innocent bystander was either a convenient way of making it look random or was part of the plan to wait for someone before setting the murder in motion. Gord remarried shortly after and i just dont see how someone escapes a madman in close quarters when he is desperate to eliminate witnesses.
Charles
If it wasn’t Ronald West, then this was a psychopath robber who left no evidence. The circumstances are odd, I suppose it is conceivable that some people would not be bothered by sleeping in an empty parking lot in a desolate area, but why in the world would you open the door like that…
Marie
This is very sad and needs to be resolved.
CARLOS V CASTRILLO
Guys, I’m going to put the truth out there. A truth that no one has ever considered or even mentioned on the internet. Gord McAllister paid a hitman to kill his wife. The witness was eliminated and of course you can’t find the guy because his description is false as it was given by gord. It’s the perfect cover.
Now before you freak out, allow me to explain. The couple were sleeping at a somewhat secluded rest stop. In the 80s everyone assumed rest stops were dangerous and filthy. It’s not difficult to see this being an ideal setting for an “unsolved maniac murder-botched robbery” to occur.
Let’s start bit by bit from the beginning. Gord says a man pretending to be a police officer knocked on his trailer until his wife answered the door. I’m not sure about you guys but even if I had lost my mind and decided to actually answer the door late at night in a rest stop it most assuredly would have been me and not my wife answering it. But who knows it could have happened. The killer comes in and says quote, “I’m here to rob you and then I’m going to kill you…”. Now I’m not an expert murderer or Thief but if one were to to be a professional killer or Thief, you don’t want to let the couple you’re about to kill know you’re going to kill them until you’re actually done with the robbery. If it was simply a maniac, then the whole preface of saying this is a robbery would be ridiculous. This is even assuming that there are actually any Maniac killings out there. There are serial killers and there are spree killers, but the old 50 stereotype of some Maniac killing people is so rare as to be absurd. If he did happen to be some guy who flipped the switch then wouldn’t he have just driven his van to a gas station or someone’s house shortly after and blew them away too?
Still I suppose we can still assume the above happened with a straight face, but what can’t be accepted is that a grown man with a shotgun in closed quarters, having just shot an elderly woman would allow an elderly man to turn into Jason Bourne and roll out of the trailer without shooting him and managed to duck under the trailer without him simply stepping off and shoot him in the face. The witness then became a very fortunate distraction for police as it gave some sliver of an excuse for how Gord would survive and Escape. Keep in mind his gunshot was very mild and the killer would have known an elderly man wouldn’t be far away and having already eliminated one witness would have found it imperative to take an extra 10 seconds to get rid of gord before fleeing.
There are several other things I won’t belabor you with but it is fairly clear through his reactions and later statements as well as him remarrying and coming into a bit of money that this was clearly a murder for hire set up to be unsolvable as well as provide Gord very convenient way of being above suspicion and for the hit man to never get caught. And hence 27 years later he still hasn’t been caught because no one is looking for the right man and the one who masterminded it is now dead. Cvc
Bill Blaski
Any updates?
Dale
Sadly, Gord McAllister passed away in February 2012. He never got to see this person brought to justice. He did remarry at some point. Hopefully, he had his final years spent among loved ones and his new wife brought him some happiness.
rob main
any updates on Ronald glen west did they prove he did it.robbmain@Hotmail.com
john smith
I cant believe this happened an hr away from my home town, creepy that this has transpired in a small community.
Jack
Where can I send a picture of a possible suspect?
unsolved
Hi Jack – you can email it to us at unsolved@unsolved.com, or send it to us through our app. Thanks.
James Ryan
On the night of June 28/91 my brother and I were on our way to Toronto when we delayed at the Blind River rest stop due to what turned out to be the murder of Jackie McAllister and Bryan Major. There were approximately three cars and a tractor trailer in front of us. We were allowed to pass after a short time. Shortly afterwards we were stopped by OPP during a road block check somewhere around Massey I believe. After a brief check of what our destination was our names and the time we left Sault Ste Marie we were allowed to carry on with our trip. Out of curiosity I checked the news the next day in Toronto to find out what had occured at the rest stop to cause the delay and found out about the shootings.I have always been interested in this case because in a small way I feel apart of this incident due to are having arrived at the scene only minutes after the shooting had occured. The mere fact that there were only three cars in front of us and the tractor trailer leads me to believe that we must have arrived at the scene only minutes afterwards. I always suspected that the suspect was a local. My suspisions based on the time frame involved in our arrival and the OPP road block check near Massey ( still uncertain it was Massey). Had we not stopped at the Husky East Service Station at the edge of Sault Ste Marie for gas I believe we may have arrived at the Blind River rest stop much closer if not at the time of the shootings at the rest stop. I am posting this message simply because I am very much interested in this case and only wished we had arrived earlier and maybe had the opportunity to have had witnessed something to have helped break this case such as maybe the plate of the blue van had we been behind it. Mere minutes seperated us from what could have been a very important time in our lives.I really am of the believe that Ronald West is in fact responsible for the Blind River rest stop shootings based on my belief that the suspect was a local all along and the time frame involved. There was nothing my brother our myself could add to the investigation as because earlier stated we arrived at the scene minutes later. The fact that Ronald West is serving two life sentences is in itself satisfying however I do wish tha if in fact he is guilty o the Blind River murders that he is found guilty and convicted so as to lay to rest this case and bring closure for remaining family and friends of The McAllisters and Bryan Major.
A.
I have to think that it was Ronald Glenn West, a former Ontario police officer who is in prison for multiple rape and killings.
Apparently, he may have owned a blue vehicle and lived close to the area. He looks very similar to that of the composite one. How many people in Blind River just kill two people out of nowhere? Not many. He did it before, he would have surely done it again.
Also, not surprised he said he was a cop; if he was a former cop, he’d be able to convince them that he was one.
It’s sad that Gord passed without closure, and West was reportedly charged with the crime, anyway. Of course, we won’t know for sure, but at least the person who likely may have done it is behind bars.
Anonymous
They think it was a former police officer who admitted to it while he was in prison for another murder. He knew every detail about the case. Before the police could go talk to him about it he died.
Unsolved Lover
What’s the status on this case??
unsolved
It is still unsolved.