Daniel Owen Conahan Jr., 72, was executed Thursday morning in Florida for the 1996 kidnapping and strangling of Richard Allen Montgomery, whose body was discovered in a wooded Charlotte County area. The case became known as the “Hog Trail Murders” after at least six bodies were found in the same swampy hunting tract over a three-year span, though Conahan was never charged in the other deaths.
The execution was Florida’s fifteenth of 2026, a pace that has put the state at the center of the national death penalty debate. More than half of all U.S. executions this year have happened here under Gov. Ron DeSantis. Conahan maintained his innocence until the end, calling the evidence against him circumstantial, and his final appeals were denied by both the Florida and U.S. Supreme Courts this week.
For Suncoast residents, the case has always felt close to home. Charlotte County is a short drive south, and the Hog Trail story has been featured on television, YouTube, and podcasts for years. While this execution closes one chapter, the families of the other victims found in that wooded area are still waiting for answers.
What do you think about Florida’s record pace of executions this year? Let us know in the comments.
