Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, was scheduled to be executed by lethal injection on Thursday for the 1996 kidnapping and strangling of Richard Allen Montgomery. Conahan's scheduled execution makes him the 15th person put to death in Florida this year, and the state has carried out more than half of the 24 total executions in the U.S. so far in 2026.
Montgomery's mutilated body was discovered in a wooded area of Charlotte County, Florida, known for the "Hog Trail Murders." Over a three-year period in the 1990s, authorities found the remains of at least six people in the swampy, wooded locations, a series of homicides that garnered significant media attention and were featured on true-crime programs.
Conahan, who has maintained his innocence, was identified by authorities as a person of interest in other deaths associated with the "Hog Trail Murders" but was never charged in those cases. He argued that the evidence against him was circumstantial. Investigators began focusing on Conahan in 1996 after a man imprisoned for stealing Conahan's car claimed Conahan had lured him to a remote area and offered him money to pose for nude photos before the man fled in the vehicle after seeing a knife. Later, detectives discovered a similar case in Fort Myers where a victim alleged a man offering cash for nude photos had tied him to a tree and attempted to strangle him.
Conahan was initially arrested and charged with attempted murder. Several months later, he was also charged in Montgomery's death. Conahan waived his right to a jury trial, and a judge convicted him of murder and kidnapping in August 1999. A sheriff's office report concluded that all victims found within a 10-mile radius were likely killed by the same individual.
In 2007, eight bodies were discovered in Fort Myers by a land survey crew. Four of these victims were identified as homeless and exhibited injuries similar to those found in Charlotte County. At the time, Conahan, already on Florida's death row, was publicly named a person of interest in these cases, though he was not charged.
Florida has seen a significant number of executions in recent years. In 2025, the state carried out 19 lethal injections, a record since the reinstatement of the death penalty in 1976. In July of that year, Florida executed two prisoners in a single day, the first state in nearly a decade to do so.
The Florida Supreme Court recently denied Conahan's final appeals, including a request for additional DNA testing on evidence collected from the victim, ruling that proving Montgomery had DNA from someone other than Conahan would not exonerate him. A final appeal is still pending before the U.S. Supreme Court.