Conahan suspected in at least 12 other 1990s murders
Florida carried out its 15th execution of 2026 on Thursday evening, putting Daniel Conahan to death by lethal injection for the April 1996 killing of Richard Allen Montgomery in Charlotte County on the state’s Gulf Coast, United Press International reported. Conahan, 72, was pronounced dead at 6:12 p.m. ET.
The execution brings to 25 the number carried out in the United States this year, with Florida accounting for 15 of them, according to UPI.
Montgomery, 21, was found nude and mutilated in wooded game trails in Charlotte County. Investigators believe Conahan was responsible for at least 12 other murders in the 1990s, UPI reported, and they consider him the most likely suspect in a series of killings attributed to a serial figure known as the “Hog Trail Killer.”
According to investigators, the “Hog Trail Killer” targeted homeless men, offering them money to pose naked in bondage photographs before tying them up in the woods and torturing them, UPI reported. Investigators tied Conahan to the killings but he was tried only for Montgomery’s death.
Conahan always denied killing anyone. In recent weeks, his attorneys argued for a reprieve, contending he had been found guilty on largely circumstantial evidence and that further DNA testing would have proven his innocence, UPI reported.
The Florida Supreme Court rejected Conahan’s appeals last week, including his request for additional DNA testing from the victim. The court ruled that DNA on Montgomery’s body from someone other than Conahan would not have been sufficient to exonerate him, UPI reported. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene before the execution proceeded.