A\u00a0Florida man\u00a0convicted in one of a series of suspected killings that became known as the \u201cHog Trail Murders\u201d in the 1990s was scheduled Thursday to become the state\u2019s 15th person\u00a0executed this year.<\/p>\n
Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, was sentenced to die for the 1996 kidnapping and strangling of Richard Allen Montgomery, whose mutilated body was found in a wooded southwest Florida area where authorities found the remains of at least six people over a three-year span.<\/p>\n
Conahan, who has maintained his innocence, has previously been identified by authorities as a person of interest in the other deaths, but he was never charged. <\/p>\n
Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, was scheduled Thursday to become Florida\u2019s 15th person\u00a0executed this year. Florida Department of Corrections<\/p>\n
He has argued the evidence against him was circumstantial.<\/p>\n
Conahan was scheduled to die by lethal injection in the nation\u2019s busiest death chamber. <\/p>\n
Florida has carried out more than half of the 24 total executions in the US<\/a> so far this year under\u00a0Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who leaves office in January.<\/p>\n Multiple bodies found in popular hunting area<\/p>\n Conahan was arrested in July 1996 after local and state law enforcement officials spent more than two years investigating a series of homicides in which mutilated and decomposing bodies were discovered in a wooded area of Charlotte County, north of Fort Myers.<\/p>\n As the number of bodies increased, so did media coverage. <\/p>\n The deaths eventually were dubbed the \u201cHog Trail Murders\u201d because of the swampy, wooded locations where the bodies were found. <\/p>\n Conahan Jr. was sentenced to die at the Florida state prison for the kidnapping and strangling of Richard Allen Montgomery, whose mutilated body was found in a wooded Florida area in 1996. AP Photo\/David Fischer<\/p>\n The case has been featured many times over the past three decades on true-crime television shows, YouTube channels and podcasts.<\/p>\n The first body was found by hunters in February 1994, followed by at least five more bodies over the next three years. <\/p>\n Most of the remains were severely decomposed, but investigators believed Montgomery had been dead for less than a day when he was found. <\/p>\n Investigators eventually determined that the killer was targeting homeless men.<\/p>\n Investigators found similarities in cases<\/p>\n Detectives started looking into Conahan in 1996 after a man in prison for stealing Conahan\u2019s car claimed that Conahan had lured him to a remote area and offered to pay him to pose for nude photos. <\/p>\n The man said he drove off in the car after seeing a knife.<\/p>\n 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. <\/p>\n Conahan was arrested in July 1996 after law officials spent more than two years investigating a series of homicides in which eight mutilated and decomposing bodies were discovered in a wooded area north of Fort Myers. AP<\/p>\n Conahan was initially arrested and charged with attempted murder, and several months later was also charged in Montgomery\u2019s death.<\/p>\n Conahan waived his right to a jury trial and was convicted by a judge of murder and kidnapping in August 1999.<\/p>\n Conahan was never charged with any other homicides, but a sheriff\u2019s office report about the investigation concluded that all of the victims discovered within a 10-mile radius were likely killed by the same person.<\/p>\n In 2007, a land survey crew discovered eight bodies in Fort Myers. <\/p>\n The four victims identified by authorities were homeless, and officials said they all suffered similar injuries to the Charlotte County victims. <\/p>\n Investigators at the time publicly identified Conahan, who was already on Florida\u2019s death row, as a person of interest, but he was never charged.<\/p>\n The Florida Supreme Court last week denied Conahan\u2019s final appeals, including one requesting additional testing on DNA collected from the victim. <\/p>\n The court ruled that proving Montgomery had DNA on his body from someone other than Conahan wouldn\u2019t exonerate him.<\/p>\n A final appeal remains pending before the US Supreme Court.<\/p>\n Florida leads the way in executions<\/p>\n A total of\u00a047 people\u00a0were executed in the US in 2025. Florida led the way with 19 lethal injections<\/a>, a state record since the death penalty was reinstated in 1976.<\/p>\n