Florida Plans Execution Amid Suspected Serial Killings

Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., known as the “Hog Trail Killer,” is scheduled to be executed by lethal injection in Florida on Sept. 10, 2026, for the 1996 kidnapping and murder of 21-year-old Richard Allen Montgomery. Prosecutors said Conahan lured Montgomery to a wooded area with an offer of money for nude bondage-style photographs, then sexually assaulted, tied and strangled him. Testimony from Stanley Burden, who said Conahan subjected him to a similar attack in 1994, helped establish a pattern in the case. Investigators have examined Conahan’s possible links to numerous other killings in Southwest Florida, including the Fort Myers Eight and bodies found in Sarasota County, but he was never charged in those cases. Conahan, who acknowledges having a bondage fetish, continues to deny killing anyone, while his attorneys argue that the conviction relied heavily on circumstantial evidence and seek additional DNA testing.