TALLAHASSEE, FL — A Florida man convicted in a 1996 kidnapping and killing linked to the long-running “Hog Trail Murders” case was scheduled to die Thursday, putting him on track to become the state’s 15th execution this year.
Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, was sentenced to death for the abduction and strangling of Richard Allen Montgomery, whose mutilated body was discovered in a wooded area of southwest Florida. Investigators later found the remains of at least six people across the same region over a three-year span, a series of deaths that drew national attention and decades of scrutiny.
Conahan has repeatedly said he is innocent and has argued that the evidence against him was only circumstantial. State and federal appeals have continued for years, but Florida’s highest court rejected his latest challenge last week, clearing the way for the execution process to move forward.
How the Hog Trail case grew from one body to a string of suspected murders
The investigation began after hunters found the first body in February 1994 in Charlotte County, north of Fort Myers. Over the next several years, authorities uncovered at least five more bodies in wooded, swampy areas that investigators later connected to the same broad case.
As the number of victims grew, the killings became known as the “Hog Trail Murders,” a name tied to the remote terrain where the bodies were found. Most of the remains were badly decomposed by the time they were recovered, but investigators believed Montgomery had been killed within a day before his body was found.
Authorities later concluded that the victims were homeless men. The gruesome nature of the discoveries helped turn the case into a fixture of true-crime coverage, with documentaries, podcasts and online videos revisiting the killings over the years.
What investigators said led them to Conahan in 1996
Detectives began focusing on Conahan after a man serving time for stealing his car said Conahan had lured him to a remote area and offered money to pose for nude photographs. That witness said he drove away in Conahan’s car after spotting a knife.
Investigators then learned of another case in Fort Myers with a similar pattern. In that incident, a victim said a man who offered cash for nude photos tied him to a tree and tried to strangle him.
Conahan was first arrested and charged with attempted murder. Several months later, prosecutors also charged him in Montgomery’s death. He was never charged in the other homicides that investigators examined during the broader inquiry.
Judge conviction and the death sentence that followed
Conahan gave up his right to a jury trial and was tried before a judge. In August 1999, he was convicted of murder and kidnapping in Montgomery’s killing.
That conviction made him one of the central figures in a case that still carried open questions about the other deaths discovered in the same general area. A sheriff’s office report later said all of the victims found within a 10-mile radius were likely killed by the same person.
Even so, authorities never filed additional homicide charges against Conahan. His lawyers have long pointed to the circumstantial nature of the case, while prosecutors have continued to rely on the conviction in Montgomery’s death as the basis for the sentence.
Other bodies found in 2007 kept investigators focused on the case
The investigation did not end with Conahan’s conviction. In 2007, a land survey crew found eight bodies in Fort Myers, and authorities said four of the identified victims were homeless and had injuries similar to those seen in the Charlotte County deaths.
At the time, investigators publicly identified Conahan, who was already on Florida’s death row, as a person of interest in those deaths as well. He was not charged in connection with the 2007 discoveries.
Those later findings reinforced the sense that the Hog Trail case had not been fully closed, even as the state continued to move ahead on Conahan’s sentence for the 1996 murder of Montgomery.
Florida execution pace and the last court fights before the scheduled date
Florida has carried out more than half of the 24 executions completed in the United States so far this year, making it the nation’s busiest death chamber in 2026. Conahan’s execution would be part of that pace.
The Florida Supreme Court denied his final appeals last week, including a request for more DNA testing on evidence collected from Montgomery’s body. The justices said showing that DNA from someone else was on the victim would not erase the conviction already in place.
A final appeal remains pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Until that court acts, or otherwise intervenes, Conahan remains scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection.
A death sentence tied to a case that still draws attention decades later
The Hog Trail killings remain one of southwest Florida’s most unsettling criminal investigations because of the number of victims, the setting where they were found and the years it took authorities to connect the deaths. The case has kept returning to public view because of its unresolved questions and the repeated focus on Conahan.
State records show Florida has led the country in executions this year, including two prisoners put to death in a single day in July, the first such instance in nearly a decade. Conahan’s case now sits within that broader pattern of aggressive use of capital punishment in the state.
For investigators, the central conviction remains Montgomery’s killing. For Conahan, the fight has been about whether the circumstantial evidence used to convict him was enough to justify death.
Florida execution pace and the last court fights before the scheduled date
Florida has carried out more than half of the 24 executions completed in the United States so far this year, making it the nation’s busiest death chamber in 2026. Conahan’s execution would be part of that pace.
The Florida Supreme Court denied his final appeals last week, including a request for more DNA testing on evidence collected from Montgomery’s body. The justices said showing that DNA from someone else was on the victim would not erase the conviction already in place.
A final appeal remains pending before the U.S. Supreme Court. Until that court acts, or otherwise intervenes, Conahan remains scheduled to be put to death by lethal injection.
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