A Florida death row inmate convicted in the 1996 killing of Richard Allen Montgomery is facing execution Thursday, nearly three decades after Montgomery’s body was discovered in a wooded area of Charlotte County. Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, has consistently denied committing the murder and is seeking a final legal intervention over DNA testing that he says could support his claim of innocence.
Murder in a Remote Florida Woodland
Montgomery was found dead in April 1996 in a remote, wooded section of southwest Florida. Authorities said he had been strangled and suffered severe injuries. Investigators believed Montgomery had been killed shortly before his body was discovered.
The case drew attention because it resembled other killings in the region during the 1990s. Several bodies had been discovered in wooded areas of Charlotte County, leading investigators and the media to refer to the cases collectively as the “Hog Trail Murders.” Authorities later concluded that the victims appeared to have been targeted in similar circumstances.
Investigators began focusing on Conahan after learning about an earlier encounter involving another man who said Conahan had offered money for nude photographs before tying him to a tree and attempting to strangle him. Police also uncovered records showing purchases made around the time Montgomery was killed.
Conahan Has Denied the Killing
Conahan was convicted in 1999 after giving up his right to a jury trial and allowing a judge to determine his case. He was found guilty of murder and kidnapping and sentenced to death.
Although investigators considered Conahan a suspect in other deaths associated with the broader Hog Trail investigation, he was never charged with those additional killings. Authorities later connected him to investigations involving other victims found in southwest Florida, but those cases did not result in additional convictions.
Conahan has maintained that the evidence used against him was largely circumstantial. His attorneys have also sought additional DNA testing of evidence collected from the crime scene and Montgomery’s body, arguing that the results could potentially undermine the conviction.
Final Appeals Before Scheduled Execution
Florida’s Supreme Court rejected Conahan’s latest appeals on Sept. 3, ruling that his claims did not meet the requirements for additional post-conviction relief and that further DNA testing was not reasonably likely to produce a different outcome. A final request for intervention has been taken to the U.S. Supreme Court.
If the execution proceeds, Conahan will be put to death by lethal injection and become Florida’s 15th execution of 2026. The case has continued to draw attention because of its connection to the unsolved killings that became known as the Hog Trail Murders and the questions surrounding other deaths investigated alongside Montgomery’s murder.
