A Florida inmate convicted in a notorious 1990s case linked to the suspected “Hog Trail Murders” was scheduled to be executed Thursday, marking what would be the state’s 15th execution this year.
Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, received a death sentence for the 1996 kidnapping and strangulation of Richard Allen Montgomery, whose mutilated remains were discovered in a wooded area of southwest Florida. Over a three-year period, investigators found the remains of at least six people in the same region.
Conahan has long insisted he is innocent. Authorities previously named him as a person of interest in the other deaths, though he was never formally charged in those cases.
He has also contended that the case against him relied on circumstantial evidence.
Conahan was set to die by lethal injection in Florida’s death chamber, which has been the busiest in the nation this year.
Under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who leaves office in January, Florida has carried out more than half of the 24 executions conducted across the United States so far this year.
Multiple bodies found in popular hunting area
Conahan was taken into custody in July 1996 after local and state investigators spent more than two years probing a string of killings in Charlotte County, north of Fort Myers, where mutilated and badly decomposed bodies had been found in dense woods.
As more bodies were uncovered, the case drew growing media attention and became one of southwest Florida’s most chilling crime stories.
The deaths eventually were dubbed the “Hog Trail Murders” because of the swampy, wooded locations where the bodies were found.
The case has been featured many times over the past three decades on true-crime television shows, YouTube channels and podcasts.
The first body was found by hunters in February 1994, followed by at least five more bodies over the next three years.
Most of the remains were severely decomposed, but investigators believed Montgomery had been dead for less than a day when he was found.
Investigators eventually determined that the killer was targeting homeless men.
Investigators found similarities in cases
Detectives started looking into Conahan in 1996 after a man in prison for stealing Conahan’s car claimed that Conahan had lured him to a remote area and offered to pay him to pose for nude photos.
The man said he drove off in the car after seeing a knife.
Later, detectives learned about a case with similarities in Fort Myers, in which a victim claimed a man who offered cash for nude photos had tied him to a tree and attempted to strangle him.
Conahan was initially arrested and charged with attempted murder, and several months later was also charged in Montgomery’s death.
Conahan waived his right to a jury trial and was convicted by a judge of murder and kidnapping in August 1999.
Conahan was never charged with any other homicides, but a sheriff’s office report about the investigation concluded that all of the victims discovered within a 10-mile radius were likely killed by the same person.
In 2007, a land survey crew discovered eight bodies in Fort Myers.
The four victims identified by authorities were homeless, and officials said they all suffered similar injuries to the Charlotte County victims.
Investigators at the time publicly identified Conahan, who was already on Florida’s death row, as a person of interest, but he was never charged.
The Florida Supreme Court last week denied Conahan’s final appeals, including one requesting additional testing on DNA collected from the victim.
The court ruled that proving Montgomery had DNA on his body from someone other than Conahan wouldn’t exonerate him.
A final appeal remains pending before the US Supreme Court.
Florida leads the way in executions
A total of 47 people were executed in the US in 2025. Florida led the way with 19 lethal injections, a state record since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.
In July, Florida executed two prisoners in one day, the first state in nearly a decade to do so.
