A Florida man convicted in considered one of a sequence of suspected killings that grew to become often known as the “Hog Path Murders” within the Nineteen Nineties was scheduled Thursday to turn out to be the state’s fifteenth individual executed this yr.
Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, was sentenced to die for the 1996 kidnapping and strangling of Richard Allen Montgomery, whose mutilated physique was present in a wooded southwest Florida space the place authorities discovered the stays of a minimum of six individuals over a three-year span.
Conahan, who has maintained his innocence, has beforehand been recognized by authorities as an individual of curiosity within the different deaths, however he was by no means charged.
He has argued the proof towards him was circumstantial.
Conahan was scheduled to die by deadly injection within the nation’s busiest dying chamber.
Florida has carried out greater than half of the 24 complete executions within the US thus far this yr below Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, who leaves workplace in January.
A number of our bodies present in widespread looking space
Conahan was arrested in July 1996 after native and state legislation enforcement officers spent greater than two years investigating a sequence of homicides during which mutilated and decomposing our bodies had been found in a wooded space of Charlotte County, north of Fort Myers.
Because the variety of our bodies elevated, so did media protection.
The deaths finally had been dubbed the “Hog Path Murders” due to the swampy, wooded places the place the our bodies had been discovered.
The case has been featured many instances over the previous three many years on true-crime tv exhibits, YouTube channels and podcasts.
The primary physique was discovered by hunters in February 1994, adopted by a minimum of 5 extra our bodies over the following three years.
A lot of the stays had been severely decomposed, however investigators believed Montgomery had been lifeless for lower than a day when he was discovered.
Investigators finally decided that the killer was concentrating on homeless males.
Investigators discovered similarities in instances
Detectives began wanting into Conahan in 1996 after a person in jail for stealing Conahan’s automotive claimed that Conahan had lured him to a distant space and supplied to pay him to pose for nude pictures.
The person stated he drove off within the automotive after seeing a knife.
Later, detectives realized a few case with similarities in Fort Myers, during which a sufferer claimed a person who supplied money for nude pictures had tied him to a tree and tried to strangle him.
Conahan was initially arrested and charged with tried homicide, and several other months later was additionally charged in Montgomery’s dying.
Conahan waived his proper to a jury trial and was convicted by a decide of homicide and kidnapping in August 1999.
Conahan was by no means charged with some other homicides, however a sheriff’s workplace report concerning the investigation concluded that all the victims found inside a 10-mile radius had been probably killed by the identical individual.
In 2007, a land survey crew found eight our bodies in Fort Myers.
The 4 victims recognized by authorities had been homeless, and officers stated all of them suffered comparable accidents to the Charlotte County victims.
Investigators on the time publicly recognized Conahan, who was already on Florida’s dying row, as an individual of curiosity, however he was by no means charged.
The Florida Supreme Courtroom final week denied Conahan’s last appeals, together with one requesting extra testing on DNA collected from the sufferer.
The courtroom dominated that proving Montgomery had DNA on his physique from somebody aside from Conahan wouldn’t exonerate him.
A last enchantment stays pending earlier than the US Supreme Courtroom.
Florida leads the best way in executions
A complete of 47 individuals had been executed within the US in 2025. Florida led the best way with 19 deadly injections, a state file for the reason that dying penalty was reinstated in 1976.
In July, Florida executed two prisoners in in the future, the primary state in practically a decade to take action.
