A Florida man convicted in a 1990s killing tied to the suspected "Hog Trail Murders" was scheduled Thursday to become the state's 15th prisoner executed this year.
Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, was sentenced to death for the 1996 kidnapping and strangulation of Richard Allen Montgomery. Montgomery’s mutilated body was uncovered in a wooded area in southwest Florida, where law enforcement officers discovered the remains of at least six individuals across a three-year period.
Although Conahan has maintained his innocence, authorities previously identified him as a person of interest in the remaining deaths, though he faced no charges. He has asserted that the case brought against him depended on circumstantial evidence.
Conahan was slated for execution via lethal injection in the country’s most active death chamber. Florida has executed more than half of the 24 individuals put to death across the U.S. so far this year under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who leaves office in January.
Serial killer preyed on homeless men before police ended 'Hog Trail' horror
In July 1996, authorities arrested Conahan following a two-year investigation by local and state police into a series of homicides. The inquiry began after mutilated, decomposing remains were uncovered in a wooded area of Charlotte County, located north of Fort Myers.
As the body count grew, media coverage expanded, and the deaths were eventually dubbed the "Hog Trail Murders" owing to the swampy, wooded locations where the remains were discovered. Over the past three decades, the case has been featured many times on true-crime television shows, YouTube channels, and podcasts.
Hunters discovered the initial body in February 1994, followed by at least five additional sets of remains uncovered over the subsequent three years. Although most of the remains were severely decomposed, investigators believed Montgomery had been dead for less than a day when he was found. Detectives ultimately determined that the killer was targeting homeless men.
Florida Supreme Court shut down Conahan’s latest appeal but is final appeal is now with SCOTUS
Detectives finally zeroed in on Daniel Conahan in 1996 after a car thief turned him in with a chilling story. The inmate claimed Conahan lured him into the woods with cash for nude photos—only to flash a knife, prompting the man to steal Conahan's car and flee.
Investigators soon linked that close call to a similar horror in Fort Myers, where another survivor claimed a man offered him money for nude pictures, tied him to a tree, and tried to strangle him. Conahan was initially arrested and charged with attempted murder before prosecutors slapped him with a murder charge in the death of Richard Montgomery.
Conahan waived his right to a jury trial, and a judge convicted him of murder and kidnapping in August 1999, landing him on Florida’s death row.
While Conahan was never charged with additional homicides, a sheriff's office report concluded that all the victims found within a 10-mile radius were likely slaughtered by the same killer. The horror deepened in 2007 when a land survey crew stumbled upon eight bodies in Fort Myers. The four victims authorities identified were homeless men who suffered injuries similar to the Charlotte County victims. Investigators publicly named Conahan a person of interest, though he was never charged in those deaths.
Now, the killer's legal options are running out. The Florida Supreme Court rejected Conahan's latest appeals, including a bid for additional DNA testing. Justices ruled that even if another person's DNA were found on Montgomery's body, it would not exonerate Conahan.
His final appeal remains pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.
Florida led nationwide wave with record 19 executions in 2025
The United States carried out 47 executions in 2025, led by Florida with a state record of 19 lethal injections since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976. In July, Florida executed two prisoners on the same day, becoming the first state to do so in nearly a decade.
